Features
C ameron Barnett has been a middle school language arts teacher at Falk Laboratory School since 2017 . He ’ s also a Falk alum ( Class of 2003 ). His sister , Afton , is a Falk alum ( Class of 2005 ), and their mother , Charlene Foggie-Barnett , attended Falk through seventh grade .
In addition to teaching at Falk , Barnett is an acclaimed poet whose debut collection , “ The Drowning Boy ’ s Guide to Water ,” won the Autumn House Press 2017 Rising Writer Contest , selected by former U . S . poet laureate Ada Limón .
To mark the publication this past February of Barnett ’ s second poetry collection , “ Murmur ” ( also published by Autumn House Press , an esteemed local publisher of poetry , fiction , and nonfiction ), former Falk Communications Coordinator Adam Reger sat down to interview him about his writing process , how his teaching and writing inform one another , and what it ’ s like to teach at his alma mater .
Reger : How was writing the poems in “ Murmur ” different from writing the poems in your first book , “ The Drowning Boy ’ s Guide to Water ”?
Barnett : I was working on the bulk of “ The Drowning Boy ’ s Guide to Water ” as my thesis in the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Pittsburgh . So I was around community , peers , [ and ] professors and getting constant feedback and constantly having my mind in a predominantly poetry space . I started working on “ Murmur ” about a year after “ Drowning ” came out . By then , I ’ d been working at Falk for a few years , and it was just a different environment — having responsibilities , grading , teaching , working with kids and families . So finding the time and motivation to be in a poetry mindset was challenging . It was a little more of a solitary process for the second book but still exciting , still fun in the same way .
R : What is your writing process ? Do you get to write much during the school year ?
B : The best time for me is summer , definitely . I like to block off at least a week of time each summer and call it my “ poetry staycation .” I visit a few spots where I spend hours reading a book of poetry and then try to write at least one draft of something , just producing something , even if it ’ s bad . And then , throughout the year , I ’ d like to say I do [ some ] writing , but I might be lucky to get a couple pieces of things written or maybe I ’ ll revise some drafts . But I ’ ve kind of decided just to put all my eggs in the basket that is summer .
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But my process for writing lately , I ’ ve been describing it using the garden ornament called a deer scare ( shishiodoshi ). It ’ s this bamboo shoot that fills up with water from a fountain , and it takes some time before it tips and spills out all its water before starting the process over again . And for me I feel like that ’ s a good metaphor for how I write , where I try to soak up and absorb a lot of thoughts and really chew on some ideas for a while instead of just writing whatever I think or forcing myself to write . Occasionally I might have a burst of inspiration and sit down and write something in the moment . But , usually , I will set up a time to write , having really thought over something or taken notes in my phone on some language that I want to play with or a concept I want to explore more . And from there , I ’ ll write a couple drafts of a poem to get it to a place I like , which is sort of how I know when a poem is done . Do I like it ? Then I ’ m going to call it done and not fret over it anymore .
R : Tell us about the new book .
B : The main metaphor of “ Murmur ” is clearly the heart . It goes back to a true story where , when I was born , after a doctor ’ s visit as an infant , the doctor thought they heard a murmur . And my mom was very concerned . My dad , who ’ s a doctor , was skeptical , and a second visit confirmed that there was nothing there , but it planted seeds of doubt and concern that I use in this book as a metaphor to explore how I grew up and also how to overlay that on top of race and being a man , being a young man becoming an older man , and looking back through family history .
R : What in the new book are you excited about sharing ?
B : I ’ m excited to share what I see as the next step in how I try to write . Having written the first book around a lot of people and the second book mostly on my own , I feel like I ’ m taking more risks to push myself in the opposite directions of a lot of my habits . I ’ m a narrative poet , and a lot of my poems feel like stories or conversations . I ’ ve learned I have to actively push certain poetic gestures , so I ’ m excited to share my attempt at doing that — having different voices and speakers in this book . In “ The Drowning Boy ’ s Guide to Water ,” the overwhelming number of poems are me in there speaking about things . In “ Murmur ,” that ’ s still true , but you could say there are various personas that I ’ m speaking through , so a wider range of attitudes and emotions , and I ’ m excited to see how audiences respond to that .
R : How do you see the relationship between teaching and writing ?
B : I would just say that they feel like extensions of the same thing for me . I think the best teaching is based in having a relationship with your students , knowing them personally and caring about them , knowing what motivates them , or at least trying to work toward that .