Emerging Black Writers-in-Residence Program

The Emerging Black Writers-in-Residence program aims to support and feature the art and teaching of young Black writers.

Throughout this residency, each 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. 

Donate to Emerging Black Writers-In-Residence

You may also send a check to:

Chatham University
Annual Giving
Woodland Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15232-2826


Current Writer-In-Residence

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.  
 
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, email MFA Program Assistant, Joe Bisciotti.

 

Cameron Barnett

creative-writing-emerging-black-writers-in-residence-cameron-barnett.jpg

Cameron Barnett is a poet and teacher in Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania. A quasi-native of the city, he graduated from Taylor Allderdice HighSchool 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. 


Past Writers-In-Residence

The inaugural writers in residence are both MFACW alumni: Caitlyn Hunter taught in the spring 2021 semester, while Cedric Rudolph taught in the fall 2021 semester. Both writers-in-residence were involved with the 2021 Summer Community of Writers residency. 

chunter.jpgCaitlyn Hunter is an MFA alumna in Creative Nonfiction from Chatham University. She has been an assistant editorial intern at Creative Nonfiction Magazine, a Hot Metal Bridge post-baccalaureate fellow at the University of Pittsburgh English Department, a professor of English at the Community College of Allegheny County for the past six years and is currently working on her doctorate of English at Duquesne University. She is currently a contributor to the Pittsburgh Current and gives public lectures on Black identity, Black cultural representation, and critical race theory both in Pittsburgh and internationally.

crudolph.jpgCedric Rudolph first moved to Pittsburgh in 2016 under a fellowship from Chatham University. For two years, he taught at Allegheny County Jail and the now-defunct SCI Pittsburgh. In 2018, he graduated from Chatham with an MFA in Poetry and in Pedagogy. He is currently in his third year of teaching fiction and poetry to middle and high school writers at the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts school (CAPA). In addition, he is one of the founding editors for Beautiful Cadaver, which publishes social justice-themed anthologies and stages theatrical performances. Beautiful Cadaver will be able to expand its local efforts thanks to a grant from the Three Rivers Community Foundation. In fulfillment of the grant, Cedric will teach writing to youth in 2020 and 2021. His poems are published in Christianity and Literature Journal, The Laurel Review, and the Santa Fe Literary Review. He has publications forthcoming in the Coal Hill Review and The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook.
 Photo credit: Samantha Edwards