‘Black is Not a Monolith’—A Conversation with Caitlyn Hunter, MFACW
In the time since Caitlyn Hunter graduated from Chatham, she has amassed an impressive literary resume, working as an editorial intern at Creative Nonfiction, a Hot Metal Bridge post-baccalaureate fellow at the University of Pittsburgh, a professor of English at the Community College of Allegheny County, and now, earning her PhD in English at Duquesne University. When her dear friend and fellow MFACW alum, Jeffrey ‘Boosie’ Bolden was killed in a car accident this past June, she and several of her co-MFA alumni began a dialogue with the Chatham MFA department on how best to honor Boosie’s memory and ensure that Black MFA students at Chatham have a safe and fruitful learning environment. Thanks to these thoughtful conversations and the support of alumni, this Fall Chatham’s MFA in Creative Writing program announced the Emerging Black Writer-in-Residence program, a role Caitlyn will fill this Spring and fellow alum Cedric Rudolph will fill in Fall 2021.
This Spring, Caitlyn will lead a multi-genre workshop for Chatham MFACW students, deliver a public craft lecture, a public reading of her work, and enter into both mentor and mentoree relationships with the Chatham writing community. We caught up with Caitlyn to learn more about her goals for the multi-genre workshop, her aspirations as Chatham’s first emerging Black writer-in-residence, and her tips for finding sparks of creativity right now—
Caitlyn Hunter
What are the questions or themes that you find yourself returning to most frequently in your work?
Caitlyn Hunter: One of the questions that I constantly am reevaluating is what does it mean to be Black? Having a White name and brown skin has been a really weird place to navigate. My doctoral research centers on Blackness not being this monolith. In my creative writing, I've been trying to engage and unpack what that means, especially with all that’s happening with Black Lives Matter. I'm doing research and looking at the history of how the Black body is treated in America, and trying to grapple with that through my own experiences.
Do you think that informs your teaching?
CH: Oh, for sure. I'm the resident Black teacher teaching nothing but Black stuff. There's value in a lot of different voices that aren't necessarily privileged by White men. I will teach those texts too, but I always try to have them in conversation with a voice that is a minority, be it a woman or someone who may be Indigenous, Asian, or Black. For the most part, I've found that I'm typically the first Black teacher a lot of students have had. Talking about race is really uncomfortable for a lot of people and that's something I really want to call attention to. I try to use the classroom as an opportunity to have those uncomfortable conversations in a constructed format.
There's an assumption in academia that we can teach problematic words, phrases, or ideas if it's for the benefit of education; [this assumption fails to recognize] how that harms certain identities in the process. One of the things I really want to try to do while I'm at Chatham is carry a language that is protective of these identities, [while still allowing] spaces for representation to be discussed. One of the things I'm really looking forward to is having the space to be a support system for students who may not feel comfortable talking to faculty when these types of micro-aggressions arise.
Do you have a writing process or routine, and if so, can you describe what that looks like for you?
CH: I think we all have our own technique. I'm really big on visuals, so I'll try to map out what is going through my brain. I'm teaching in multiple places, I'm taking school in multiple places, and that's a lot of information that I have to engage with. One thing I've noticed, especially because I went to Chatham for my MFA, is really trying to carve out space for yourself and your creative process is of the utmost importance. [You have to] figure out when your synapses are firing. I carve out space in my mornings to do the brainstorming and mapping. Once I get that done I just write whatever is going on in my head. From there, once I have something solidly written, I have friends that are editors so I'll usually appeal to them. They'll look over my work and we'll have a more meta conversation about what my intention is with the piece. My mom is my number one editor of choice. She is in academia and has a law degree. She has that more formalized editing experience. I usually go to mom last after I've had a couple of revisions done.
What form do you write in predominantly?
CH: I mix it up a lot. My thesis was a memoir, but lately I've been working on this personal project of mine that is part personal essays, part folktales. I'm subverting nonfiction in this childlike fictional format. My mom is from Pittsburgh, and I'm three generations removed from slavery. Once our family was emancipated, we moved to Pittsburgh and set roots here. I’ve been learning about the stories of my family and how we got here, thinking about childhood stories like the Aesop fables or Br'er Rabbit and trying to repurpose them because they're essentially learning tools. I'm using that style to talk about how I've learned about my own identity through my family.
“For me, being a touchstone for students of color on Chatham’s campuses is what’s most important for me. If I can just do that in one multi-genre class, if I can be that one person that calls attention to when people make those kinds of [micro-aggressions], I feel like I’m making at least one small ripple in a larger pond of how we address inclusivity and diversity in the MFA and at Chatham.”
Do you have an overarching theme that you're trying to get students to think about in your upcoming course?
CH: Blackness is not a monolith. I will be teaching a lot of writers that I know personally as a way of trying to invite conversations about race in this meta format. I'm going to ask the writers I'll be teaching what prompts they wish they had had in creative writing workshops as a way of challenging students to think about identity differently. I always try to implore my students, especially those who are outside of BIPOC, to consider that students are never asked, what does it means to be white, and how does being white feel? I want to try to open this larger conversation about what does it mean to feel in relation to race and have this larger exploration around intersectionality and diversity.
What advice do you have to other creatives who are also enduring this period of social isolation that can be depressing and limiting on people's inspiration?
CH: That's a big question. I guess some little nuggets of advice that I could give are: Remember that you matter, because you matter. Take the time to carve out spaces for yourself. And when you do so, remember to be your most authentic self and be unapologetic in that. Over the summer when I was covering a lot of protests and writing about Black Lives Matter stuff, I was writing alone. I was witnessing all of these travesties alone, and trying to contextualize that without losing my mind. I had to create a whole yoga nook in my living room because it was just too much. In being by myself, I really had to be honest about who I was and who I was comfortable being in that moment. When I would take the time to write, I would just write honestly. At the end of the day, you're not alone. It's important to remember that you're not alone and writing can be a prompt for conversations that you wish you could have with the world but can't.
Special thanks to Caitlyn for this fascinating conversation. To learn more about Chatham’s MFA in Creative Writing program, click here.
