Cameron Barnett
is a poet and teacher in Pittsburgh, and the author of the poetry collection 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. Cameron received 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 an MFA 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 teaches middle school language arts and social studies at Falk Laboratory School in Oakland, a homecoming of sorts as Falk is also one of his alma maters. He currently serves as an editor for Pittsburgh Poetry Journal, and as a board member for The Bridge Series. His work has been nominated for a 2016 Pushcart Prize, the 82nd Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, and the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt Prize. Watch the discussion with Cameron here.