Author named as 2022-2023 Emerging Black Writer-in-Residence at Chatham University
Cameron Barnett
The Chatham University MFA in Creative Writing (MFACW) Program announces that Pittsburgh writer and teacher, Cameron Barnett, will be the next Emerging Black Writer-in-Residence for the 2022-2023 academic year.
The Emerging Black Writer-in-Residence program aims to support and feature the art and teaching of emerging Black writers. Throughout this residency, the writer-in-residence will teach a semester-long multi-genre workshop to Chatham MFACW students. They will also deliver a public craft lecture, a public reading of their work, and enter into professional mentorship relationships with Chatham faculty.
Barnett’s work will be featured in the Boosie Bolden Chapbook Series, a limited-edition chapbook produced by The Fourth River with a press run of 100 copies in memory of Jeffrey “Boosie” Bolden, who served as an editor for The Fourth River during his time in the MFACW program.
For more information about either program, contact MFA Program Assistant, Joe Bisciotti, at j.bisciotti@chatham.edu.
Cameron Barnett is a poet and teacher in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A quasi-native of the city, he graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School and went on to receive his BA in English from Duquesne University in 2011, where he was the recipient of the O'Donnell Award for Excellence in Poetry. He holds both an MFA and an MAT from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was poetry editor for Hot Metal Bridge Literary Magazine, co-coordinator of Pitt’s Speakeasy Reading Series, and winner of the 2014 University of Pittsburgh/Academy of American Poets Graduate Poetry Award. He currently serves as an editor for Pittsburgh Poetry Journal and as a Board member for Write Pittsburgh. Cameron’s poetry explores the complexity of race and the body for a black man in today’s America. He is the recipient of a 2019 Investing in Professional Artists Grant Program, a partnership of The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments; he is also the 2019 Emerging Artist Awardee for the Carol R. Brown Creative Achievement Awards, co-sponsored by The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments. He is the author of The Drowning Boy's Guide to Water, winner of the Autumn House Press 2017 Rising Writer Contest, and finalist for the 49th NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry. He is an avid fan of the Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates, enjoys reading, writing, running, playing card games and board games, the outdoors, and keeping up with current events. Cameron teaches middle school English language arts and social studies at his alma mater, Falk Laboratory School. His second collection of poems, Murmur, will be published by Autumn House Press in spring 2024.
About Chatham’s MFA in Creative Writing Program:
Chatham’s MFA in Creative Writing program consists of both an on-the-ground full-residency program and a low-residency program with concentrations in travel writing, social engagement, teaching, publishing, or nature writing in addition to a primary genre focus (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or children’s writing). The program offers innovative field seminars that include travel to such places as Costa Rica, Ecuador, India, and Germany. Chatham MFA candidates have the opportunity to participate in the Words Without Walls program, which brings creative writing classes to jails, prisons, and drug treatment centers in Pittsburgh, and offers students meaningful ways to engage in the Pittsburgh community beyond campus. In 2007 Poets & Writers named the Chatham MFA in Creative Writing program one of “Nine Distinctive Programs” and The Atlantic Monthly named it one of five innovative/unique programs in the country in its “Best of the Best” graduate program listings. In 2009, The Writer named it one of ten programs that offer a specialty focus. In 2016, Publisher’s Weekly named the program one of five distinctive MFA programs in the nation. For more information, visit www.chatham.edu/mfa.