Pamela Anderson wins 2026 Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize

Congratulations to Pamela Anderson, whose manuscript Grabbing the Beast by the Throat was selected by final judge Carol V. Davis to win the 2026 Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize (Emerging). Grabbing the Beast by the Throat will be published by MSU Press under the Wheelbarrow Books imprint with a release date in early 2027.

"In a gripping narrative," writes Davis, "this poet invents characters in the Czechoslovakian resistance to tell a powerful story in verse of the time period of WWII and after. The imagery is fresh and the poems powerful. Entering the world of these poems is to immerse oneself in the world of the former Czechoslovakia and the people (fictional or real), who struggled, fought and survived. This collection is absorbing, the language, vivid and vital. I couldn’t stop reading it and was compelled to reread poems, each reading they became even more powerful."

Pamela R. Anderson-Bartholet is the author of the chapbooks Just the Girls (Poetry Box), Widow Maker (Finishing Line Press), and The Galloping Garbage Truck (Kelsay Books). Her poems and reviews have appeared in a number of publications including Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Sheila-Na-Gig, Braided Way Magazine, Atticus Review, The Poeming Pigeon, and Poetry Breakfast. Her poem Pack It was honored by Ohio Professional Writers, and her Holocaust poem My Brother’s Coat was an AWP Intro Journals Project winner. She holds an MFA from the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts, which awarded her a Bisbee, Arizona Travel and Study Fellowship. She is a traveler, blues music lover, yoga practioner, hiker, and (now retired) public radio fundraiser. She has never seen Baywatch and has never owned a red bathing suit.

Finalists for the 2026 Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize are {{after all}} by Lisa Birman, Camerawoman by Michelle McMillan-Holifield, Eve at the Ballet by Deidre Cavazzi, Landscape with Unsettled Figures by Jennifer Bullis, The Mother of Sons by Onna Solomon, River Octopus by Paul Christiansen, Sharper Knives by Matt Poindexter, She's Come to Save It & Other Myths by Angela Sucich, and Trashmore by Jennifer Blackledge.

Grabbing the Beast by the Throat will be the 16th title published under the Wheelbarrow Books imprint. Wheelbarrow Books was established in 2016 by the RCAH Center for Poetry and MSU Press. The Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize is awarded annually. Submission periods for first books of poetry and those by previously published poets alternate every year. For more information, view the Guidelines.

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