Queerbilly Academics
Poet, Songwriter, Educator, Editor, Photographer, & Community Organizer
Samantha Ratcliffe is committed to enhancing access to free and enriching community writing spaces and experiences. With almost six years of experience teaching English at both high school and undergraduate levels, she considers herself a lifelong learner who has a profound passion for all things poetry and small press publishing. Her mission is to promote accessible creative opportunities throughout the Commonwealth.
Ratcliffe's contributions have been recognized in various anthologies and journals:
2025 King Library Press Broadside contest winner
2025 Oak Ledge Residency winner, Hindman Settlement School
Poetry:
All Else Pales 2: A Song, Emerging / Poems About Our Earth: "Alive"
Discarded: A Rural Anthology: "It's Still Good"
Discarded: A Rural Anthology: "Love Me Not"
Discarded: A Rural Anthology: "Southern Hunger"
Discarded: A Rural Anthology: "Southern Thirst"
Pegasus: "Rot"
These Mosaics Anthology: "US, Dreaming"
Untelling, Issue 1: "Holler Timing"
Untelling, Issue 3: "Manual on How to Cry"
Untelling, Issue 3: "Shuck White New Year"
Yearling, Issue 3: "Problem Child"
Yearling, Issue 3: "We Wear"
Forthcoming Yearling, Issue 4: "Commonwealth"
Flash Fiction:
White Wall Review, Issue 41: "In Sight It Must Be Right"
White Wall Review, Issue 41: "Mary Jane Watson Requests One More Day"
Originally from Pikeville, Kentucky, Ratcliffe grew up in a musical family that shaped her early love for music. She learned to play instruments in bluegrass circles and frequently performed with her family's gospel band. By high school, she was publishing her own zines and making a name for herself as a folk punk musician. For nearly twenty years, Ratcliffe has been writing and performing her music across Kentucky.
She is currently finishing her first full length poetry collection, Common Wealth. This hybrid-genre work combines surrealist flash fiction and poetry, focusing on themes of invisibility, poverty, and the erosion of environmental agency during a time of political turmoil. This collection provides an intimate look into the voices of queer and trans individuals in Appalachia, posing essential questions about the meaning of commonality and the true nature of wealth. It underscores that genuine wealth lies within the heart of the progressive South, emphasizing our common goals cannot be reached without racial justice, equity, and reconnection to the land.
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To name something is to see it clearly. This unraveling of memory—mine and yours—is arduous and necessary. I’ve been a maid on Medicaid, a cook, and a tired teacher—but always, I’ve carried a hunger to name this common thread. For better or bitter, we must recognize ourselves in one another—in the coal-dusted lens of lineage.
Curriculum Vitae
2024- Present
University of Kentucky
Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing
Graduate Assistant
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Summer 2025 Developed curriculum for a 6-week asynchronous summer course, as a model for future summer programs.
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Fall 2024-Spring 2025 ENG 107 Creative Writing
Experience teaching recitation sections sections of 107 (55+ students), led full class lectures of 100+ students, managed grading and administrative duties.
2024-Present
University Press of Kentucky
Editorial & Marketing Intern
Summer 2025, Marketing Intern
Assisted publicist & marketing team with multiple projects including all aspects of cover copy development, author interviews, social media graphics, and brand development.
Spring 2025, Editorial Intern
Assist publisher and staff with multiple projects including but not limited to proof reading, editing, index development, editorial meetings, as well as core aspects of book production.
2022- Present
Broadstone Books
Senior Editor
Acquisitions, Marketing, & Event Management
Ratcliffe has assisted publisher Larry Moore as an understudy of all aspects of publishing operations, including manuscript selection, marketing and cover copy development, social media advertising, and event management, including a number of special events at Poets House, NYC.
2024-2025
Additional Editorial Exp.
New Limestone Review Spring 2025 Issue, Poetry Editor
Backwoods Literary Press Summer 2025, Guest Editor Testament: A Rural Anthology
2020-2024
Frankfort High School
Core English Teacher
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Creative Writing Elective (9th-12th)
Designed and taught a year-long, project-based curriculum in which students developed original creative projects using Kentucky state standards as their framework. Revived and facilitated the production of Inscripto, the school’s publication, while teaching foundational skills in digital and print media. -
11th-12th Literature, Language, & Rhetoric
Developed and taught comprehensive curricula for 11th and 12th grade English courses, emphasizing research and analytical writing, ACT grammar preparation, MLA formatting, and effective study strategies. Instruction also included public speaking and in-depth analysis of American literature. -
Profile of a Graduate Project, 11th grade
Led the development and implementation of a district-wide junior postsecondary readiness curriculum, including a community-supported academic defense showcase. The initiative contributed to a 98% graduation rate (2021–2025) and emphasized student-led career research, public speaking, and rhetorical analysis.
2008-2012
Eastern Kentucky University
Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Secondary Education
Minor in Women & Gender Studies
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The Alphabet Center, co-founder
Founded the first LGBTQIAA+ educational center at Eastern Kentucky University, originally housed in Martin Hall. The center served as an inclusive safe space, hosting Women & Gender Studies courses, student organization meetings, and offering a library of free resources for all students.
Community Outreach & Public Speaking
Hill Writers Reading Series & Writers' Collective
For the past two years, I have provided free writing opportunities through in-person workshops, curated writing prompts, and an online reading series dedicated to uplifting Appalachian voices. Our Facebook group has grown to over 300 members, and the series has engaged more than 150 participants nationwide.
I Declare, Kentucky Podcast, Available on Spotify
This podcast originated in a poetry workshop led by Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X Walker. Alongside my co-hosts, Kimi Hardesty and Atticus Combs, I explore contemporary issues through the lens of poetic form and craft.
Poets Speak, A Broadstone Media Podcast
This initiative from Broadstone Books is led by editor Alison Palmer. I’m honored to join her as co-host, where together we engage Broadstone authors in conversations about poetic craft and the creative process.
2025 Public Speaking Events
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Celebrating Pride At First Music & Poetry with Willie Carver & Sam Ratcliffe
First Presbyterian, Lexington KY
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2025 Poetry @ the Pub Queerapalooza Hosted by Jay McCoy
Mortimer Bibb's, Frankfort KY
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2025 UK EGSO Symposium
Ratcliffe presented her experimental poem "Harry" and sat on a Q&A
Panel 4: Authorship, Adaptation, and Abstraction in Poetic Mode"
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March 2025 Poetry @ the Pub Feature Artist
Mortimer Bibb's Public House, Frankfort KY
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2025 UK Appalachian Research Symposium & Arts Showcase
Presented Course Outline "Resistance in the Age of Surveillance: bell hooks, Ecological Intelligence and Resisting Oppression
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UK Graphite Workshop Leader & Featured Reader
December 2024
2024 Public Speaking Events
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November 2024 Discarded: Panel Discussion Moderated by Belle Townsend
Marksbury Branch Lexington Public Library
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November 2024 Kentucky Book Festival Host
Joseph Beth Bookstore, Lexington KY
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July 2024 Poetry @ The Table Feature
Kenwick Table, Lexington KY
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July 2024 Teen Howl 2.0 Feature
Third Street Stuff Coffee, Lexington KY
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June 2024 Poetry @ the Pub Queerapalooza Hosted by Jay McCoy
Mortimer Bibb's, Frankfort KY
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January 2024 Poetry @ the Pub Feature Artist
Mortimer Bibb's Public House, Frankfort KY