Sam Olson’s Digital Resume
Writer & educator in the Pacific Northwest, Sam holds an MFA in Poetry from Oregon State University, where he is currently on faculty. With family roots from Montana to Oregon, he calls the Columbia River Watershed home. Want to collaborate? Reach Sam at s.monroe.olson@gmail.com.
Publications
- Portland Review: “To J., Who Picked Us Up Hitchhiking” (2025)
- Bluestem: “Bear Follows” (Forthcoming, 2026)
- Watershed Review: “Basin” & “Tumtum” (2025)
- Denver Quarterly: “Three Times Over the Blue Mountains” & “Two Doors in Montana” (Forthcoming in print, 2025)
- The Soliloquist: “Practice” & “After School” (2025)
- Midway Journal: “Ranger” & “Unincorporated” (2025)
- Traverse/Write Place: “Dreams of a Portland Watershed” (2025)
- Flyway, Journal of Writing and Environment: “To Paint Salmon” & “Phone Notes” (Forthcoming, 2026)
- Boudin (McNeese Review): “In the Strawberry Mountains” (2025)
- The Swannanoa Review: “Lucidum” (2025)
- Red Rock Review: “First Fish” (2025)
- Trace Fossils Review: “Ruffed Grouse” (2024)
- HeartWood Literary Magazine: “Missoula Floods” (2024)
- River Heron Review: “Altar” (2024)
- Deep Wild Journal: “This Moment Named Fenn” (Print, 2023)
- Any River— Chapbook by Blue Creek Press (Print, 2022)
- Cutbank Literary Journal: “Cannonball” (Print, 2018)
- Camas: Nature of the West: “Chinook, MT, Valentine’s Day” & “Bull of the Woods” (Print, 2022)
Selected Experience
- Instructor of Record: Poetry and Composition | Oregon State University- 2023- Current
- Voices of the Wilderness Artist in Residence | US Forest Service, Sitka, AK— 2025
- Creative Writing and Arts Teacher | Free Verse Project- 2020 – 2023
- Writer in Residence | Missoula Writing Collaborative- 2022- 2023
- Summer Trails Program Coordinator | Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness- 2022
- Wilderness Ranger | Daughter of the Sun Backcountry Services- 2022
- Fall Trek Leader | University of Montana Wilderness and Civilization Program 2020, 2021
- Trail Crew Coordinator | Holden Village 2019
- Outdoor School Instructor | Multnomah Education Service District- 2015- 2016, 2019, 2021
- Resident Artist in Ecology, Social Justice, and Spirituality | Holden Village- 2019
- Mountain School Program Instructor | North Cascades Institute- 2018
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Selected Portfolio
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The Libby Letter Writing Contest
In honor of my grandfather, who was raised and buried in Libby, Montana, a rural community impacted by industrial asbestos poisoning, I teamed up with the Western News to launch the Libby Letter Writing Contest in September 2020. An experiment to source the town’s creative, pithy spirit, we asked this question: In uncertain times, what do you love about Libby?
Made possible with the financial support of the Matthew Hansen Endowment.
The Holden Village Podcast
Recorded as part of my 2019 Artist’s Residency in Ecology, Social Justice, and Spirituality, this episode of the “Holden Village Podcast” captures spoken-word paired with improvised guitar work by multi-instrumentalist Sam Genualdi.
Cannonball
An essay on the Dakota Access Pipeline demonstrations at the Standing Rock Reservation, this piece is a collage of experiences with protest and dreaming. Paired with the photography of William Adams, it was published in Cutbank 89 (2018).
Ink Prints
Five poems about the Olympic Peninsula, this series was written as part of my 2019 artist’s residency at Holden Village using a Royal Typewriter with handmade charcoal ink and presented beside the bisected segments of an ink-printed Chum salmon (found deceased at Bacon Creek, 2018).
Tributaries
In Where Rivers Change Direction, Mark Spragg describes his childhood friends as tributaries feeding one river. This is an on-going project to map my own community: I’ve asked recipients (co-workers, family, and friends) of my charcoal prints to send a photo of their fish and their current location. The goal: a map made communal by salmon.
Unless otherwise noted, all content by Sam Olson.
Our Feet On Earth 