WWPH WRITES ISSUE 95
WWPH Writes 95… and at this tumultuous moment, we pivot work that boldly speaks to us: SHAVASANA: CORPSE POEM by Gina Sangster and COMPLICITY by Erika Raskin.
Plus, news on a special project, CAPITAL QUEER: A PRIDE Celebration, a chapbook-anthology with a publication date of May 27th! See below for our fabulous cover reveal and news of our first WWPH Literary Salon for 2026 (free and open to all!).
WWPH Writes is open for submissions (and now a paying market). Your Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s book-length manuscript contests open May 1 (details below). We are committed to publishing writers representing the bold diversity of the DMV.
Read on!
Caroline Bock & Jona Colson
co-presidents/editors
WWPH WRITES POETRY
Gina Sangster, a DC native, earned an MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts back in the dark ages of the 70s when this was actually an honor. Gina followed this feat by pivoting to clinical social work, completing an MSW at Catholic University in 1986. Gina practices the fine art of psychotherapy with individual adults and groups. She’s had poems published in District Lines, the Hill Rag, and Potomac Review, among others. She is currently working on a poetry collection.
©Gina Sangster 2025 s
WWPH WRITES FICTION
Complicity
Lissy is already dressed, her dolls arranged next to the bed in the space that is sometimes a boat, sometimes a park, and often a doctor’s office. The toys are all hues, different nationalities, from newborn to school-age, with sizes that don’t really make sense when placed next to each other. The two Barbies, who were inexpertly gifted to my daughter, live in the closet. Their boo-zooms, career ensembles, and matching footwear are of no interest to the kindergartner. “Hello, little girl!” I say.
“Hello, little mother,” she smiles.
“Whoa, why does Susan have all those Band-Aids on? What happened?”
“Nothing. She’s just pretending.”
“Doing the drama queen thing again?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe next time, though, she shouldn’t use the whole box. Okay? Just in case you or I need one?”
“Okay. But sometimes she won’t listen, though.”
“I understand. Cereal or French toast?”
“I had cereal yesterday.”
“So, French toast?”
“No, cereal.”
“Got it. Make sure you wear a sweater today. It’s absolutely freezing.”
“I am very tired of winter. It’s not cozy like before Christmas. Now, it’s just like dark all the time. It makes me feel alone.”
“Oh, honey! You’re not alone! I’m here.”
“Daddy’s not.”
“I know.”
“Brain cancer isn’t fair.”
“It’s not.”
“Can Mila come over this weekend? I didn’t know before, but she is very fun to play with in the dress-up corner.”
“Good idea. Let’s ask her mother at the bus stop. Chop-chop!”
“What’s that mean?”
“I have no idea.”
Twenty minutes later, we are approaching a multi-colored collection of parkas jumping around to keep warm.
“Mommy?”
“Offspring?”
“Yesterday in music, Mrs. Miller was ugly to Mila.”
“What do you mean?”
“When she asked to go to the water fountain because she had hippos.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s when you have hiccups in a different language. But then Mrs. Miller told her to speak in English. And she said illegals are vermins and drains.”
“Jesus, honey. That was very unkind. I’ll say something–”
again
“–to the principal.”
“That would be good. But maybe don’t say who told you. There’s Mila! Can we have a sleep-under instead of just a regular playdate?”
My head is swimming. “What’s a sleep-under?”
“It’s like a sleepover, but everybody sleeps in their own bed after pizza. Five is not old enough to be away from mothers at night. And then we would have breakfast together the next day. Louisa told about how to do it in sharing circle.”
A black van is idling at the bus stop, effectively blocking the pickup area. Its presence is confusing. “Mila’s mother isn’t here! How can we make arrangements then?”
“Maybe she’ll be here this afternoon at drop—”
“Mommy! Wait! What are they doing! Those men! Why is he picking her up like that? Mommy, stop him! Mila’s scared!”
My heart begins pounding. It’s a raid.
The child’s scream is the sound of abject terror. It’s bottomless. She’s trying to kick free of the jack-booted agent. Either embarrassed or hurt by the response he uses the inside of his elbow to get compliance.
The other kids start running. I’m the only adult present. A car passes honking. The passenger is sticking his head out. He’s hooting. Everything feels hyper-real and underwater. Lissy is hysterical.
“What are you doing? Stop it!” I command.
“Government business, lady. Mind your own.”
“Let go of her! She’s five, for Christ’s sake! She has a bloody nose—”
“Lady, you have three seconds to back off before I take you—and your kid—in, too. And trust me, you don’t want that.”
©Erika Raskin 2025
Charlottesville-based Erika Raskin writes what she worries about. The author of Allegiance (an all-too-real novel about American fascism), Best Intentions (a finalist in the Library of Virginia People’s Choice about medical malpractice in the system itself), and the YA novel Close. She is the fiction editor of Streetlight Magazine. Photo credit: Jen Fariello
WWPH NEWS
Join us on Monday, June 30th from 7-10 pm at Rhizome DC for our first WWPH Literary Salon of 2025. Our WWPH Literary Salon: PRIDE Edition will be a three-hour fete of creative writing workshops, readings, and free-wheeling discussion–free and open to all. An RSVP is required (space is limited to 50- so, sign up now). Co-editors Jona Colson and Caroline Bock will host the event, which will feature several writers from CAPITAL QUEER including DR. TONEE MAE MOLL. The new edition of her award-winning WWPH poetry collection, YOU CANNOT SAVE HERE, will also be published on May 27th!
RSVP here for our WWPH Literary Salon: PRIDE Edition, which is made possible by a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities.
Stop by our table at one of these upcoming events. Learn more about publishing with us…our book-length manuscript contests open on May 1, and we are eager to read your poetry, fiction (novel or short story collection), and poetry in translation.
INSIDER NEWS… if you are considering submitting your book-length manuscript to WWPH, check out our guidelines and FAQs (new for 2025!) here.
April is National Poetry Month… and we are ready! Find our Jean Feldman Award-winning poetry collections everywhere books are sold! Here is a link to our bookshop.org affiliate page:
WWPH WRITES is open for submissions! We now pay $25.00 for poetry (up to 3 poems) and prose (up to 1,000 words of fiction or creative nonfiction). Free to submit! More details at our Submittable page here.
SOLIDARITY, all! We’re grateful you are part of the Washington Writers’ Publishing House community!
Keep reading WWPH Writes for upcoming news on our anthologies…
CAPITAL QUEER: A PRIDE CELEBRATION and AMERICA’S FUTURE: poetry & prose in response to tomorrow.