Emerging Black Writers-in-Residence Program

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

Past Writers-In-Residence

Cameron Barnett is a poet and teacher in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 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 is the recipient of a 2019 Investing in Professional Artists Grant Program, a partnership of The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments. Cameron teaches middle school English language arts and social studies at his alma mater, Falk Laboratory School. His second collection of poems, Murmur, was published by Autumn House Press in 2024. 

Caitlyn 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.

Cedric 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