Samantha Padgett

Education

MFA in Creative Writing, Publishing, and Editing May 2022
Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX

MA in English May 2022
Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX

BA in English December 2018
The University of North Texas, Denton, TX

Honors and Nominations

Pushcart nomination | Salt Hill Journal | Syracuse, NY | 2025
First Book Contest Finalist | Selected by Sam Van Cook | Button Poetry |Minneapolis, MN | 2025
Emma Howell Rising Poet Prize Finalist | Selected by Shann Ray | Willow Springs Books | Cheney, WA | 2025
Eggtooth Editions Chapbook Contest Finalist | Eggtooth Editions | Flagstaff, AZ | 2024
Saguaro Poetry Prize Honorable Mention | Kallisto Gaia Press | Austin, TX | 2023
Best American Essays Notable Mention | Selected by Alexander Chee | Best American Essays | 2022
Best of the Net nomination | Up the Staircase Quarterly | Minot, North Dakota | 2022
CutBank Chapbook Contest Honorable Mention | Cutbank Literary Magazine | Missoula, MT | 2022
Pushcart nomination | Laurel Review | Maryville, MO | 2022

Publications

Selected Poems

Fourteen Hills (Forthcoming): Daddy’s A Dolphin, And I’m Still Sad”
Salt Hill Journal (Forthcoming): “My Sister Blames Our Parents, Not Meth, for the Loss of Her Teeth”
Black Warrior Review (October 2025): “My Uncle Hits on Me at My Grandma’s Funeral”
Swamp Ape Review
(March 2025): "my childhood dog died alone: a haunting"
Puerto del Sol (November 2024): “fuck it’s 2009 again”        
Josephine Quarterly (November 2023): “Father Plays The Role Of Human”
The Pinch (October 2023): “I Dream My Dad Dies And No One Finds Him”
Red Ogre Review (October 2023): “Climate Change But Make It About Me”
Pacifica Literary Review (January 2023): “A Love Poem to Cockroaches” and “I Call and Tell My Mother I’m Cutting My Hair”
Laurel Review (November 2022): “My Therapist Asks If There’s Anything I’d Like to Discuss”
American Literary Review (December 2022): “My Mother Tells Me My Poems Should Rhyme”
North American Review (September 2022): “I’m told the speaker in my poems lacks growth”
Poet Lore (August 2022): “dead two days before body found”
South Dakota Review (August 2022): “Eucharist,” “Set in Stone,” and “Code Red”
Dialogist (August 2022): “My Therapist Asks If I’ve Tried Tinder”
Ghost City Review (July 2022): “My Father Tells Me When I Finally Grow Up, I’ll Become a Republican”
Driftwood Press (July 2022): “Home”
After the Pause (December 2021): “Taylor Swift Didn’t Prepare Me for This”
Rust + Moth (November 2021): “Suspended in Space”
Up the Staircase Quarterly (November 2021): “I’m asked if I’m getting an M.R.S. degree at my aunt’s funeral”    
New Ohio Review (June 2021): “Amends”

Selected Prose

New South (July 2023): “Despite My Best Intentions, I Don’t Kill Myself”
Cleaver Magazine (June 2023): “An essay in which the world ends, and I’m told everything is okay”
Moon City Review (August 2021): “Hauntology”

Teaching Experience

Idea High School, Kyle, TX: Fall 2022

  • Instructor on record of Pre-AP English II

Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX: Fall 2020 and Fall 2021

  • Instructor on record of English 1301: Composition I

Huntsville Intermediate School, Huntsville, TX: Spring 2020

  • Assistant to the BookUp Director

iSchool High, The Woodlands, TX: Spring 2019

  • Special Education Paraprofessional

Eye Level Learning Center, Roanoke, TX: Fall 2017 - Fall 2018

  • English Language Tutor (K-12)

Professional Experience

University of Texas, Austin, TX: August 2024 – Present

  • Communications Coordinator for UT for Me — Powered by Dell Scholars

University of Texas, Austin, TX: January 2023 – August 2024

  • Communications Coordinator for The University of Texas School of Law

Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX: August 2019 - July 2022

  • Communications Associate at the Professional and Academic Center for Excellence

Editorial Experience

Alice James Books, Poetry Manuscript Reader: Spring 2023 - Present
Defunkt Magazine, Chief Poetry Editor: Fall 2024
Defunkt Magazine, Assistant Poetry Editor: Spring 2024
Defunkt Magazine, Poetry Reader: Fall 2023
The Texas Review, Reader: Fall 2019 and Spring 2022
North Texas Review, Reader: Fall 2018 and Spring 2019

Selected Readings & Presentations

Cleaver Magazine's Issue 42 Contributors' Reading: July 2023
Graduate Reading Series, Huntsville, TX: April 2023
MFA Thesis Exhibition, Huntsville, TX: March 2022
Fishbowl Reading Series, Huntsville, TX: September 2021
Beacon Launch Readings, Huntsville, TX: February 2020
Wynne Home Readings, Huntsville, TX: May 2019

Interviews

Driftwood Press (July 2022)