Rediscovering the Deeper Ground Beneath Divisions: 1st Annual WD Chapbook Winner
Brian Cameron, winner of the 1st ever Writer’s Digest Poetry Awards for a Chapbook, shares the story behind his winning collection, Finding Tiamat: A Book for Broken Democracies.
For the first time ever, the Writer’s Digest Poetry Awards offered a category for a chapbook collection. In 2026, more than 130 collections were submitted, and I ultimately selected Brian Cameron’s Finding Tiamat: A Book for Broken Democracies for the First Place Prize of $1,000, publication in Writer’s Digest, and a 20–minute consultation with yours truly.
Cameron is a therapist with a private practice in Colorado Springs, who produces goth culture events, sponsors music gatherings around the city, and trains in the martial arts. His collection Finding Tiamat stood out to me for its narrative honesty and unresolved introspection. Be sure to scan the QR code to read the full collection yourself.
Here’s a quick Q&A:
What inspired Finding Tiamat?
Frustration—frustration with the cultural climate of the country and the level of polarization we are living through. I see a great deal of division and malice, and I became interested in understanding the psychological forces that have led us here.
The poem moves through a series of voices: a veteran I call Marcus—23 years old with two deployments, still living at the checkpoint where he had to decide whether a speeding car was a threat or brakes; Jamila, whose uncle built his store over 30 years only to find his windows smashed and a slur spray painted after an election; and the narrator—which is me—reaching for his phone the way his mother reached for her rosary, not in prayer but in hunger to watch someone fall. These are the kinds of human experiences I encounter as a clinician, and in this book, they function as a psychological examination of the nation.
The mythic structure comes from Tiamat, the ancient Mesopotamian goddess and primordial matriarch who existed before the rise of patriarchal mythology—a symbolic return to the root source, to presence and connection. Finding Tiamat represents rediscovering that deeper ground beneath our divisions.
Ultimately, the project is about dialogue. Democracy depends on our ability to remain in the room with one another, even when we disagree. If we stop speaking to each other, democracy dies.
How did you go about putting this collection together?
I listen. I watch. I observe. I tried to quiet my ego, my own lens, as much as possible. I stand in two worlds. I live in majority conservative circles as a veteran, but also as a poet. As a poet I move in worlds that are often majority liberal. I want to be a bridge. To help facilitate the kind of conversation where people can vehemently disagree and still be in conversation with one another.
Dialogue, however, should not be confused with moral passivity. Things that threaten human dignity and integrity must be called out, plainly and with great vigilance. “You get to theorize about empathy until it’s not being directed at you,” Jamila says plainly in the poem. She’s right. Her uncle’s windows are broken. You can still see the spray paint under the fresh paint. I don’t resolve that tension in the poem—because it can’t be resolved. It must be held.
Why did you choose to enter the Writer’s Digest Poetry Awards?
Writer’s Digest has been around for over a century. It has meant something to writers for generations—a place where the craft is taken seriously, where emerging voices get real hearing. That matters to me.
Submitting was a way of joining something. There’s a long line of writers who have trusted this magazine, and I wanted to be part of that. Not just publish—participate. To stand in that lineage and say, here is what I believe poetry can do. And when you know how many talented poets send their work—poets from all over the world—the recognition lands differently. It doesn’t feel like winning. It feels like being heard.
If you could pass on one piece of advice to other poets, what would it be?
Stop trying to use your poetry to project a self-image of who you think you’re supposed to be. Write from what is real and vital within you. When poetry comes from that place, it becomes a force for growth rather than an instrument of narcissism.
When you write, you should not be seeking attention, you should be seeking to attend to something. Poetry is the act of noticing what needs to be seen, held, and shared so that individuals and communities can grow.
A poet’s task is not to explain an experience, but to show it. The poem should not be commentary about life—the poem should be the experience itself. Trust images. Find the image that embodies what you want to communicate and trust your reader to enter that world with you. Use metaphor and simile the way a cook uses spice: enough to deepen the flavor, never so much that the dish disappears beneath the seasoning.
