About Samantha

Samantha Imperi is a poet and writer born and raised in Northeast Ohio. As of 2023, she is pursuing a Ph.D. at Ohio University studying Creative Writing with a focus on Poetry. She received her MFA in Creative Writing in 2023 from the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts Program at The University of Akron. She has editorial experience interning with the University of Akron Press and working on several literary journals, including holding the position of Editor-In-Chief at The Rubbertop Review. A two-time recipient of the Sam Ella Dukes Poetry Prize, Samantha also received the Keister Memorial Prize in Literature during her tenure at the University of Akron. Several of her poems have been published online and in print through literary magazines and journals. She recently completed her first full-length collection of poetry and is marketing it to publishers.

Samantha’s poetic work seeks to explore the relationship between the culture we live in and the social-sexual experiences we have as a result. As a female poet, much of what Samantha grapples with relates to the female reception of these cultural forces, frequently turning the lens inward to her own experience but also outward onto those around her. Her collection-in-progress, tentatively titled I Can’t Be Your Mother, grapples with the decision, as an able-bodied woman of age, to not have children. With this collection, Samantha aims to convey the complexity of this choice and the grief that accompanies it. She feels this work is a relevant and important element of the conversation that most of us will have in our lifetimes about whether or not we should have children and how we should raise them.