ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

When Pamela R. Anderson learned that her new poetry chapbook—Just the Girls: A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies; A Drift of Honeybees—was accepted for publication by Portland, Oregon-based The Poetry Box Press, she enlisted the creative talents of her daughter and niece to design the cover. The result will be released on August 15.

This compilation of poems is written about and dedicated to women who impacted Anderson’s life, from observations about how her father, a WWII veteran, might have felt about her female Japanese exchange student to a tribute to her grandmother and more. Anderson, an avid yoga practitioner, also includes several poems that focus on yoga studios around the country, including “Call Jesus Into the Room,” a poem inspired by one of her favorite yoga teachers at Hot Yoga on Davidson.

Anderson said selecting art that was representative of the collection was an unexpected challenge. “The women featured in these poems are strong, capable, sometimes broken, and always resilient. They deserved a cover that was equally tough, but my publisher and I could not find images that really worked. When I saw the cover created by my niece, Meredith (Balogh) and daughter Rachel (Anderson), I immediately knew that they had captured the spirit of Just the Girls.”

Not only is this chapbook a female-driven publication (including its female publisher, Shawn Aveningo-Sanders), it also is a part of the Kent State University family with poet and artists all Kent State graduates:  Anderson graduated from Kent State in 1989 and 1994 and also is a 2012 graduate of the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts Program. Meredith Balogh graduated from Kent State in 2009 and Rachel Anderson graduated in 2019.

This mother-daughter-niece collaboration as well as information about the chapbook can be found on Anderson’s website: or at The Poetry Box.