About Sam

Writer | Researcher | Critic | Teacher

Sam VH Reese

Short Story Writer | Sam’s stories have appeared in literary magazines in the US, UK, and Aotearoa New Zealand, winning prizes including a Katherine Mansfield award, the Wai-te-ata Press prize, and the Lazuli Literary Prize. His first collection, Come the Tide, was published with Platypus Press in 2019; his latest collection is on a distant ridgeline (2021).

Award-winning critic | A versatile and engaging critic, Sam has written widely on jazz, midcentury American fiction, the short story form, and Cold War politics. His first book, The Short Story in Midcentury America, won the 2018 Arthur Miller Prize; his second critical work, Blue Notes: Jazz, Literature, and Loneliness, made several best-of lists in 2019. Working closely with Sonny Rollins’ archives at the New York Public Library, he is editing a book-length collection of Sonny’s notebooks for NYRB.

Inspiring and innovative educator | Currently a senior lecturer in Creative Writing at York St John University, Sam formerly taught at the University of Sydney, where his inspirational teaching was recognised with an Excellence award. He works at the cutting edge of creative pedagogy, winning grants in 2016 and 2017 to research and develop new models of active blended learning. He is also deeply invested in ongoing learning and wider participation, hosting public talks and interviews, running open writing workshops through literary festivals, and speaking on jazz and literature for radio stations in the US and UK.

You can contact Sam at svhreese (at) gmail.com