Chatham Creative Writing Program Launches Emerging Black Writers-in-Residence Program

The Chatham University MFA in Creative Writing (MFACW) Program launches an Emerging Black Writer-in-Residence program, with MFACW alumni Caitlyn Hunter and Cedric Rudolph as the writers in residence for the 2020-2021 academic year.

The Emerging Black Writer-in-Residence program aims to support and feature the art and teaching of young Black writers. Throughout this residency, the writer-in-residence will each 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.

This program launches in tandem with 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.

Caitlyn Hunter will be teaching in the spring 2021 semester, while Cedric Rudolph will be teaching in the fall 2021 semester. Both writers-in-residence will be involved with the 2021 Summer Community of Writers residency.

For more information about either program, contact MFA Program Assistant, Joe Bisciotti, at j.bisciotti@chatham.edu.

Caitlyn Hunter

Caitlyn Hunter is an MFA alum 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

Cedric Rudolph first moved to Pittsburgh in 2016 to pursue teaching incarcerated populations under a Words Without Walls 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

About Chatham’s MFA in Creative Writing Program:
Chatham’s MFA in Creative Writing program consists of both an on-the-ground full-residency program and a low-residency program with concentrations in travel writing, social engagement, teaching, publishing, or nature writing in addition to a primary genre focus (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or children’s writing).  The program offers innovative field seminars that include travel to such places as Costa Rica, Ecuador, India, and Germany. Chatham MFA candidates have the opportunity to participate in the Words Without Walls program, which brings creative writing classes to jails, prisons, and drug treatment centers in Pittsburgh, and offers students meaningful ways to engage in the Pittsburgh community beyond campus. In 2007 Poets & Writers named the Chatham MFA in Creative Writing program one of “Nine Distinctive Programs” and The Atlantic Monthly named it one of five innovative/unique programs in the country in its “Best of the Best” graduate program listings. In 2009, The Writer named it one of ten programs that offer a specialty focus. In 2016, Publisher’s Weekly named the program one of five distinctive MFA programs in the nation. For more information, visit www.chatham.edu/mfa.