Samantha Ladwig is an essayist and writing instructor. Her work has been published by The Cut, Literary Hub, Vulture, Bustle, Vice, HuffPost, Real Simple, Vox, The Ex-Puritan, CrimeReads, Brevity, and The Kitchn, among many others. She is a former book reviewer for BUST magazine, as well as a former bookshop owner. Over the years, her work has provided her opportunities to attend – and sometimes cover – Telluride Film Festival, AFI Fest, Seattle International Film Festival, and the Academy Awards, where she also worked as a film cataloger and archivist. Samantha holds a BA in History from Seattle University and an MA in Archives and Records Management from Western Washington University. She lives on a small island in the Salish Sea.