Red Wheelbarrow 2026
Celebrate with us the publication of the Red Wheelbarrow Literary Magazine's latest issue, with poetry, prose and art from writers and artists across the country and around the world.
Download Red Wheelbarrow 2026 (PDF)
This PDF is accessible: it is tagged for screen readers, with headings, bookmarks and descriptions of the artwork.
Optimal viewing instructions
- Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader
- Go to View > Page Display
- Select "Two Page View"
- Select "Show Cover Page in Two Page View"
2026 Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize winners
Poetry Center San José and Red Wheelbarrow Magazine announce the 2026 Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize winners, judged by California poet laureate Lee Herrick. The winning poems were selected from 1,800 submissions by over 600 writers.
- 1st Prize ($1,000): Judith H. Montgomery, Oregon City, OR, "At the Gaza City Library"
- 2nd Prize ($500): Jon Naskrent, St. Louis, MO, "Leaving St. Louis"
- 3rd Prize ($250): David Eileen, Troutville, VA, "(When Asked How I Stay) Hopeful in the Transexual Body"
These poems will be published in Red Wheelbarrow's winter 2027 national edition. Prize celebration: March 22nd, 2027.
Enter the Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize
The prize is co-sponsored by Poetry Center San José and Red Wheelbarrow. These are the guidelines from the 2025 prize.
- Submission deadline: July 31st, 2025, 11:59 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
- Final judge: Stephen Kuusisto
- Prizes: $1,000, $500 and $250, plus a letterpress broadside of the winning poem by Gary Young, Greenhouse Review Press (the winning poet receives 20+ copies)
- Winners and finalists are published in Red Wheelbarrow.
- Finalists are announced September 15th and winners October 1st.
How to submit
- Submit up to three original unpublished poems at Submittable.com
- One $15 submission fee covers all three poems; upload all poems in one file, please.
- Each poem must fit onto one 8.5 x 11 page.
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted.
- No author name on the text or in the file name.
Download 2025 Prize Flyer (PDF)
Past issues and prize results
2025 Poetry Prize
Judged by poet Stephen Kuusisto; selected from 2,000 submissions by over 700 writers. These poems are published in the 2026 national edition. Prize celebration: March 18th, 2026.
- 1st Prize ($1,000): Emily Pease, "Veer" (Williamsburg, VA)
- 2nd Prize ($500): Michele Parker Randall, "Mother Lode" (Sanford, FL)
- 3rd Prize ($250): Melissa McKinstry, "Once Opened" (San Diego, CA)
2024 issue and Poetry Prize
2024 issue
Download Red Wheelbarrow 2024 (PDF) Download 2024 Cover (PDF)
2024 Poetry Prize
The eighth annual prize was judged by Kim Addonizio, from 2,400 poems by over 800 writers. The first-prize poet receives 20+ copies of a letterpress broadside by Gary Young of Greenhouse Review Press.
- First Prize ($1,000): "Pink Anemone" by John Blair, San Marcos, TX
- Second Prize ($500): "Driving the Prison Bus is a Calling" by G.R. Kramer, Alexandria, VA
- Third Prize ($250): "Mother's Rural Kansas Childhood, 1910s" by Jane Bridges, Ann Arbor, MI
Finalists:
- "Do not mistake the waterfall for a harbor" by Mirande Bissell, Ellicott City, MD
- "In Which I Inhabit for a Moment a Whitesnake Video" by Morrow Dowdle, Durham, NC
- "Phantom Daughter" by Sara Femenella, Los Angeles, CA
- "Arachnophobia" by Elizabeth Joy Levinson, Chicago, IL
- "Everything is a Cool New Modern Wine Bar Now" by Amy Meckler, Forest Hills, NY
- "To the first poet I met here" by Olga Mexina, Tallahassee, FL
- "How Batteries Work" by Lisa Allen Ortiz, Santa Cruz, CA
- "spring comes to Juniata, Pennsylvania, 1945" by Thomas Patterson, Westport, MA
- "Cuban Sonnet" by Alfonso "Sito" Sasieta, Hyattsville, MD
- "The Other Grail" by Kira Trainor, Pomfret Center, CT
2023 issue and Poetry Prize
2023 issue
Featured contributors include Gary Young, Nimah Gobir, Frances Hatfield, Kristin Lindseth, Adela Najarro, Stephen Kuusisto and many others. The launch was a hybrid event with Poetry Center San Jose, Works/San Jose and the Well-RED Reading Series.
2023 Poetry Prize
Final judge Ellen Bass selected three winners and five finalists.
2022 issue and Poetry Prize
2022 issue
Download Red Wheelbarrow 2022 (PDF)
The issue launched December 13, 2022, at Works/San José Art and Performance Center and on Zoom, with Poetry Center San José and the Well-RED Reading Series.
December 13, 2022 launch event flyer
2022 Poetry Prize
Final judge: Juan Felipe Herrera.
Contact
Editor: Ken Weisner, weisnerken@fhda.edu (Ken Weisner faculty page)