Sam Swope

{{short description|American writer}}

Sam Swope is an author and the 2006 Thurber House children's writer in residence.

Works by Swope include I Am a Pencil: A Teacher, His Kids, and Their World of Stories, a memoir recounting three years Swope spent teaching writing students at a Queens, New York, public school.{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2004/08/01/RVG2S7RP771.DTL|title=Putting young lives to paper/Children's author takes a detour to teach writing at an immigrant-heavy New York grade school|work=The San Francisco Chronicle|accessdate=2008-06-23|first=Chris|last=Bohjalian|date=2004-08-01}}

I Am a Pencil won a 2005 Christopher Award, a Books for a Better Life Award, The Bechtel Prize, and was "named one of the best books of 2004 by Publishers Weekly."{{cite web|url=http://www.samswope.org/bio.htm |title=Sam Swope bio|accessdate=2008-06-23}}{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3917986|title=Young Writers in Queens: 'I Am a Pencil': NPR|website=NPR |accessdate=2008-06-23}}

Swope has reviewed books for the New York Times.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/books/review/Swope.t.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/B/Barrie,%20James%20Matthew|title=Peter Pan Books|work=The New York Times|accessdate=2008-06-23|first=Sam|last=Swope|date=2006-12-03}}