Kevin Sampsell

Who is Kevin Sampsell?

Kevin Sampsell is an American writer based in Oregon. He has been the publisher of Future Tense Books since 1990. His fiction has been published in literary journals such as Quick Fiction, LIT, Hobart, and Opium Magazine and on the websites McSweeney's, Nerve, Failbetter, Pindeldyboz, and Night Train. He is the editor of Portland Noir and The Insomniac Reader and the author of two story collections, Beautiful Blemish and Creamy Bullets.

While teaching an after-school writing class, Sampsell met 14-year-old Zoe Trope and published her journal entries as a 44-page chapbook called, Please Don't Kill The Freshman. Fast sales of the chapbook led to an expanded version published by HarperTempest in October 2003.

His memoir, A Common Pornography, was published by Harper Perennial in January 2010. The Portland Monthly's review characterizes it as the story of a boy growing up in a lower-class family from Kennewick, Washington and asserts "praise trails the writer and poet".

He lives in Portland, Oregon with his teenage son and wife, Frayn Masters, and works at Powell's Bookstore.