Hear Ohio Wesleyan Professor Laurel Anderson read her Pushcart Prize-winning poem, "Ransom Note." (Video by Mark Schmitter '12)
DELAWARE, Ohio – ³Ô¹ÏÍø Professor Laurel Anderson has won a 2025 Pushcart Prize, widely considered one of publishing's most influential awards, for her poem "Ransom Note."
Anderson was nominated for the award by the editors of Ecotone magazine, which published her poem in its spring/summer 2024 edition. Hear Anderson read "," which opens with the dire declaration, "We have your planet."
"I was astonished when I got the news that 'Ransom Note' had been chosen for a Pushcart Prize!" said Anderson, Ph.D., a plant ecologist and OWU professor since 2001. "I am so grateful to Ecotone's editors for the nomination and the Pushcart Prize editors for selecting the poem. I am so excited that 'Ransom Note' will get a wider readership through the 'Pushcart Prize L' anthology."
The anthology annually shares the best works of fiction, poetry, essays, and memoirs from small independent literary presses. Each year, more than 200 contributing editors and co-editors help select about 60 prize recipients (and, subsequently, the anthology's authors) from over 8,000 nominations. "Pushcart Prize L," featuring Anderson's "Ransom Note," is scheduled to be released Dec. 2.
Anderson said she hopes her work inspires readers to pay close attention to the natural world.
"I hope my poems prompt readers to learn more about nonhuman lives and marvel at how different they are from our own, and to consider human relationships with our planet more thoughtfully, and with more awe, more reverence," she said. "That is the central message that I think emerges from 'Ransom Note.'"
Asked to describe her poetic voice and writing inspirations, Anderson said: "I think of poems as art pieces. … It's hard to describe your own poetry voice, but I might suggest lyrical, rhythmic, and imagistic. Most of my poems focus on something beautiful in the world, but there is often some dark, strange undercurrent to them as well."
As for her inspirations, Anderson said: "The great thing about poetry is that you can write a poem about literally anything. I think a lot about the natural world through a scientific lens, so scientific topics and terms often appear in my poems. News headlines have prompted some of my poems. Events in my family often appear. I often start a poem with a single image or even a word I find interesting and just build from there. I love it when I start writing about one idea and the poem takes an unexpected turn, and it turns out the poem is about something else entirely."
Anderson said she has loved writing poetry since early childhood, but she paused the creative endeavor as a young adult to focus on science and family.
"My dad helped me self-publish two chapbooks of poetry (inspired by nursery rhymes and Shel Silverstein) when I was ages 5 and 8," Anderson recalled. "I studied poetry seriously in college alongside my biology major and took a graduate-level poetry course while I was working on my Ph.D. in plant ecology. Then, I set poetry aside for a long while as I worked on my science career and raised my son.
"In 2017, I team-taught an interdisciplinary science-literature course here at OWU with our emeritus professor of English, Karen Poremski. That course reminded me of how much I enjoyed writing and reading poetry. I decided I wanted to work on building my skills as a poet and try publishing some of my work."
And Anderson has succeeded. In addition to the 2025 Pushcart Prize, she has earned accolades as a semifinalist and published poems in a wide range of literary journals. She also has completed her first full-length poetry manuscript, which has been recognized as a semifinalist and a finalist. She continues to work on securing a publisher for her manuscript.
"It can take a long time for a poetry collection to be picked up," Anderson said. "I have gotten some encouraging 'nods' with finalist and semifinalist decisions from book contests, but I am still waiting, as patiently as I can, for a press to say 'yes'!"
Along with her rising reputation as a poet, Anderson is an accomplished professor and researcher at Ohio Wesleyan. Her academic interests include temperate forest ecology, invasive plants, global environmental change, and developing collaborative ecological projects across small colleges.
Learn more about Anderson the poet at and more about Anderson the Ohio Wesleyan science professor at .
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