Samantha Leon is a writer and marketing strategist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her work spans commercial and literary spaces, appearing in Dwell, Table Magazine, The Colorado Review, The Iowa Review Online, Tupelo Quarterly, Rattle, poets.org, Small Orange Journal, and more.
Her work was published in a print anthology by O’Miami and her chapbook, Mapping Desire, was selected for publication as a finalist in the poetry.onl chapbook competition in 2023.
She was also selected for publication in Rattle’s poetry contest among 11,000 submissions. Her competitive awards include The Carroll Creative Writing Scholarship, won two years in a row at Duquesne University as well as the Excellence in Creative Writing Award, awarded upon graduation.
She earned a BA in English Composition from Duquesne University where she was a contributing opinions writer for The Duquesne Duke and the copy editor for the literary magazine, :Lexicon.
She went on to receive full tuition remission and two fellowships, editorial and teaching, from Florida International University where she earned her MFA in Creative Writing. There, she won the Christopher F. Kelly award sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. She was the Managing Editor of FIU’s literary magazine, Gulf Stream.
She has taught Writing & Rhetoric at the university level and community creative writing workshops.
Her commercial career has spanned nearly a decade as well. She is currently Head of Strategy and Communications for WLF Studio and a marketing consultant. Clients have been Microsoft, H&R Block, Hewlett-Packard, and more.
She has held positions at a Top 10 US B2B Marketing agency as well as a 3x AdAge Agency of the Year.