 Sam Witt's first book, "Everlasting Quail", was selected by judge Carol Frost for the Katharine Bakeless Nason Poetry Prize given by the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference run by Middlebury College.His second book, "Sunflower Brother", was awarded the Open Competition from the Cleveland State University Poetry Center and was published in 2006 by Cleveland State University Press.Witt won the Dana Award for poetry in 2005.