Cameron Barnett is a poet and teacher in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 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. His second collection of poems, Murmur, is forthcoming from Autumn House Press in 2024. A quasi-native of the city, Cameron graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School and 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 his MFA and MAT from the University of Pittsburgh; while there, he was poetry editor for Hot Metal Bridge Literary Magazine, co-coordinator of Pitt’s Speakeasy Reading Series. He currently serves as Board Chair for Write Pittsburgh and is the 2022-2023 Emerging Black Writer in Residence for Chatham University’s MFA program. Cameron’s poetry explores the complexity of race and the body for Black Americans today. He is the recipient of a 2019 Investing in Professional Artists Grant Program as well as the 2019 Emerging Artist Awardee for the Carol R. Brown Creative Achievement Awards, both co-sponsored by The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments. 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.