Washington Writers' Publishing House
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WWPH WRITES 119... features poetry by Jules Travers and Arden Levine that invites us into dialogue (to paraphrase Sandra Beasley's blurb below on Levine's debut collection Spoke), and literary nonfiction by Julie Said Lehman, which dares us to imagine grief as a living and breathing woman in the bed next to us.
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New this week! Our 2026 PRIDE Poetry and Prose Contest opens with cash prizes and publication in WWPH WRITES this June. Judges are the award-winning WWPH writers Mae Moll and Suzanne Feldman. See below for more information, including this year's theme. FREE to submit!
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DC, Maryland, and Virginia writers submit your manuscripts of poetry, fiction (novel or short story collection), or literary nonfiction (essay, memoir, or hybrid). Deadline is June 30th. $1,500 in prizes. All publication costs. Editorial and promotional support. Most of all, an opportunity to be a pressmate at your Washington Writers' Publishing House. Details below.
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In May, we launch Capital Love, our 2026 pocket-sized anthology, featuring 55 writers on the power of love and connection in these divisive times. We will be undertaking a series of readings and events to celebrate (and if you are reading this, you might want to scroll to the bottom and be the first to know).
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Lastly, another insider's tip... in our next issue of WWPH WRITES, in honor of National Poetry Month, we celebrate the Poet Laureates of the DMV!
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Caroline Bock & Jona Colson
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Jules Travers is a writer, artist, and library assistant in Virginia. Find their work with Fish Publishing, Bowery Poetry, Rattapallax, On Being/ American Public Media, Rough Cut Press, Ecological Citizen, The Poetry Society of Virginia, and others. More at julestravers.journoportfolio and on Instagram @jules_wordspics.
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Arden Levine's poems, essays, and reviews have been featured by the Poetry Foundation, Poetry Society of America, and WNYC's Radiolab, and appeared in Harvard Review, AGNI, Barrow Street, Indiana Review, and elsewhere. A member of the National Book Critics Circle and a finalist for the 2024 National Poetry Series, Arden lives in New York City, where her daily work as a municipal public servant focuses on housing affordability, homelessness prevention, and equitable community development. Her debut poetry collection, Spoke, is forthcoming on April 28th from The Word Works, a publisher based in Washington DC (where Arden was born and raised). Pre-order from Word Works here.
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"Spoke creates a tender and forensic taxonomy, as surprising as it is capacious, locating moments of elegy in handwritten letters, in bicycles, in music, even in cake. The author’s hidden weapon is her wry precision: These aren’t just poems—they're access points to a complex personal chronicle and, more importantly, they are invitations to dialogue. Spoke offers beautiful revolutions of language and, within each turn, a revelation." – Sandra Beasley, author of Made to Explode (W.W. Norton)
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The Wilderness Beside Me
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Today, I woke up and grief was lying next to me in the bed. We locked eyes the moment I opened mine. She whispered, “I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."
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Grief looks exactly like me, except dressed in darker colors and always wet from walking in the rain. She walks through rainstorms, ranging from drizzle to monsoons, all day and all night. I walk beside her, but she gets drenched for me, so that what's left over for me is gentler, more endurable.
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Grief has become my friend. She is the only one I can be fully myself around. She is far wilder than I am; her eyes are like jungles, her hair is threaded with sea kelp, and she smells like earth, ocean, and blood. She has thrown off the veneer of civilization and is always either naked or fully cloaked, never in between.
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“You are an animal…” she tells me. “Your heart beats in tune with all life forms from the most primordial to the most receding evolved, and you know what it is to be ripped apart cell by cell until you are laid bare, in your most vulnerable state, too raw for the façade of identity. You are in your purest form, and yet others merely see the you to which they are accustomed. Only I see you as you are. Which is why you love me, even while you rage against me.”
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“Go away!!” I scream. “I don't want you anymore. I want something different. I want to be with other people without you hovering around all the time. I want Love, I want Joy. Not you. I'm done with you.“
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I wailed and kicked and beat my fists against her. When I had worn myself out, she was still there, looking at me kindly. Her eyes became windows into my past, and there was my beloved soulmate, Adam, and I hugging trees together. There we were singing along to his favorite rap music. There we were walking along the streets of New York City, holding hands, stopping at every vendor along the way to look at jewelry, scarves, books, and more books, so in love that the sky could have fallen on us and we wouldn't have noticed. There I was with my soul cat Feli, rubbing my face against her, holding her, smelling her, reveling in our perfect understanding. There I was with my best friend Kurt, sitting in the French café making lists of whom we'd want to be stuck with on a desert island, pouring out our hearts while turning it into a game. So much Love…so much Joy…so much Grief.
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“I'm sorry,” I whispered. “I should have seen. You're keeping them safe for me.”
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She held me as I cried, and soon I could no longer tell where one of us left off, and the other began.
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Julie Said Lehman grew up in Northern Virginia and has been writing since she was six years old. In her free time, she likes to camp, have philosophical discussions, and hang out with her cats. Her grief has helped her to live a fuller and more true life.
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WWPH SUBMISSIONS OPEN APRIL 1st
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2026 PRIDE Poetry & Prose Contest
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PRIDE 2026 POETRY & PROSE Contest Theme: Transmission: Do You Read Me? In the face of turbulent times, Washington Writers’ Publishing House invites trans, nonbinary, intersex, and other gender expansive writers to send us writing that represents them and their stories. This year for Pride, we wish to focus on highlighting and uplifting trans voices in our community. We believe …
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FIND US HERE...
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OUR NEXT ISSUE will celebrate NATIONAL POETRY MONTH with poetry from the DMV's Poet Laureates! Don't miss! Share this issue of WWPH WRITES with friends who might be interested in being part of the WWPH community.
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INSIDER'S BIG TIP. SAVE THE DATE! Sunday, June 28th, at the Writer's Center in Bethesda, we are kicking off our CAPITAL LOVE literary salons with a marathon CAPITAL LOVE LITFEST (More details and registration- free, but space is limited- coming soon!)!!
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Capital Love, featuring 55 writers and 56 works of poetry and prose on the power of love as an antidote to hate, is set to be published in May... and it will fit into your pocket!
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America's Future Samplings
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AMERICA'S FUTURE VIDEOS We are thrilled to share a sampling of poetry and prose from AMERICA’S FUTURE, the Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s most ambitious, boldest, and most thought-provoking anthology (now on sale in trade paperback/ebook). In this landmark 50th-anniversary anthology, we dared writers to imagine what’s next. Submissions poured in, and 164 writers and 179 works are represented in this 526-page collection just published on September …
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Thank you for helping make your Washington Writers' Publishing House a vital and vibrant place for the literary arts! With special gratitude to the MARYLAND STATE ARTS COUNCIL
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and the DC COMMISSION ON THE ARTS & HUMANITIES for their support.
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Prose editor, WWPH Writes
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Poetry editor, WWPH Writes
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Copyright © 2025 The Washington Writers' Publishing House, All rights reserved.
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