He is the editor of Portland Noir[4] and The Insomniac Reader and the author of two-story collections, Beautiful Blemish and Creamy Bullets as well as a memoir, "A Common Pornography" (HarperCollins) and a novel, "This Is Between Us" (Tin House Books).
In 2019, Sampsell appeared on Storytellers Telling Stories, reading his short fiction piece Mugger, accompanied by singer-songwriter, Joshua Rivera.
Representative authors include Elizabeth Ellen, Gary Lutz, Myriam Gurba, Mike Topp, Chelsea Hodson, Shane Allison, Jamie Iredell, Wendy C. Ortiz, Meredith Alling, Tatiana Ryckman, Sommer Browning, May-Lan Tan, and Troy James Weaver.
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 in 2001.
He also hosted a monthly collage night that is open to the public at the Independent Publishing Resource Center in Portland and contributes to Kolaj Magazine.