Originally from Central Pennsylvania, Samantha now resides in Ames, Iowa, where she is a third year graduate candidate in ISU’s Creative Writing and Environment MFA program. At ISU, she teaches undergraduate English communication courses, participates in AgArts (an organization dedicated to linking agriculture and the arts), and will be a student teacher for the Ames High School creative writing club starting in Fall 2015. Over the past year, she was a poetry editor for Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment. Her experiences working on her father’s dairy farm and exposure to Midwest agriculture are the main focus for her thesis, a poetry collection. Samantha wishes to encourage a complex discussion of the environmental impact and agricultural history of the Midwest through the arts, and hopes through her Ice Cube Press internship, her participation in the publishing industry, and interaction with regional authors will deepen her understanding of the region.