WASHINGTON WRITERS’ PUBLISHING HOUSE EXPANDS PRESS SLATE IN 2027
- Winter 2027 slate to feature 4 books
- New Spring/Summer 2027 slate to feature an additional 4 books, including works by Tracy Rothschild Lynch, Edward Daschle, and Christina Daub
- Grace In Justice, volume 12 in the acclaimed Grace & Gravity series, in October 2027
October 26, 2026, Washington, DC – In 2027, for the first time in its 52-year history, the Washington Writers’ Publishing House (WWPH) will publish nine books in a single year. The press will publish a Winter 2027 and a Spring/Summer 2027 slate and will continue this schedule into the foreseeable future. The announcement of this major expansion was made by Caroline Bock and Jona Colson, co-presidents and editors at the Washington Writers’ Publishing House, based in Washington, DC.
In addition to the press’s full-length, award-winning books to be published in January, WWPH will publish three additional chapbooks or slim books (approximately 100 pages or less of prose) in June of 2027. Plus, in May 2027, Capital Translation, a pocket-sized anthology, will feature 40 works in translation from poets and fiction writers across the world undertaken by translators based in DC, Maryland, and Virginia, and in October 2027, Grace In Justice, volume 12 in the acclaimed Grace & Gravity series, will focus on women prose writers in the DC area.
“This major expansion for this cooperative, nonprofit literary press comes from the deep well of literary creativity we have found across DC, Maryland, and Virginia, and from the support of readers, booksellers, and public and private grant makers,” notes Bock.
“We are thrilled to be able to celebrate the larger literary community of DC, Maryland, and Virginia with this expansion and to bring all our books to readers nationwide,” adds Colson.
To launch this expanded press slate, WWPH chose books from the finalist list for its recent full-length manuscript prizes. However, in 2027, the press will open a contest for a poetry chapbook and two slim prose books in addition to its full-length manuscript contest. All WWPH contests are judged blind by previous winners, who are active members of WWPH’s cooperative or volunteer-run nonprofit press.
For its Spring/Summer 2027 slate, WWPH is honored to award Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s Editor Prizes to these works: Lean Back, Mama (memoir) by Tracy Rothschild Lynch, How to Leave Your Life Behind (short stories) by Edward Daschle, and Minus the Body (poetry) by Christina Daub. Each winner receives $500, editorial and promotional support, and all publication costs. These books will be published on June 1, 2027. The contest for the 2028 books opens for submissions July 1, 2027.
In addition, WWPH’s previously announced Winter 2027 slate includes 4 award-winning full-length books: Villains: stories by Samantha Neugebauer, Notifications On by Emily Holland, Dictionary of Air by Jason Gebhardt, and Zarpamos, by Guadalupe Ȧngela, translated by Yael Kiken. These award-winning manuscripts will be published on January 26, 2027, and each winner will receive $1,500, editorial and promotional support, including a launch reading at Politics & Prose (main store on Connecticut Avenue) on January 29th, and all publication costs. The next contest for full-length manuscript submissions in poetry, fiction, and works in translation opens April 1, 2027.
The mission of the Washington Writers’ Publishing House is to publish and celebrate the rich mosaic of literary arts in DC, Maryland, and Virginia, and to bring its books to readers nationwide. The Washington Writers’ Publishing House is grateful for recent grants from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, the Maryland State Council of the Arts, the Bloomberg Initiative, the Community for Literary Magazines and Presses, Dr. Jean Feldman, and dozens of individual donors who help make this work possible.
More information on the Washington Writers’ Publishing House can be found at www.washingtonwriters.org.
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More on WWPH’s Spring/Summer 2027 slate of authors:
Edward Daschle (he/him) is a queer writer who grew up in Seattle hiking and rock climbing. He attended Clarion Workshop and Disquiet Workshop and earned his MFA in creative writing from the University of Maryland, where he now teaches. His stories appear in Apex Magazine’s Robotic Ambitions anthology, After Dinner Conversation – Best of 2023 anthology, and Washington Writers’ Publishing House, among other venues. How to Leave Your Life Behind is his debut collection.
Christina Daub won the 2026 Enoch Pratt Poetry Prize and is the co-editor of Turning Poetry into Food: A Collection of Poetry X Hunger Poems. Her work has been nominated for both the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Co-founder and co-editor of the international poetry journal, The Plum Review, she also co-curated The Plum Reading Series and The Plum Writers Retreats. She has taught poetry at George Washington University, The Writer’s Center, and at several schools in the Maryland and Virginia poets-in-the-schools programs. She translates German and Spanish poetry and has served on PEN’s committee for Women in Translation. More at christinadaub.com. She lives in Maryland. A Kind of Hum is her debut chapbook collection.
Tracy Rothschild Lynch holds an MA from VCU and an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. Her writings appeared in Shenandoah, Cleaver, Pithead Chapel, HerStry, (mic)ro(mac), Brain,Child, Janus Literary, and others. Tracy’s work appeared in the anthology, Awakenings: Stories of Bodies & Consciousness, and her essay “When Organ Becomes Metaphor” was a second-place winner in Charlotte Lit’s Lit/South Awards. A previous Pushcart finalist, Tracy runs a small editorial consulting firm, teaches online and in person, and balances her remaining time among Herbie (the best cat), the improv stage, her brilliant young-adult daughters, and the beauty of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Lean Back, Mama is her debut collection.
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Media contact:
Caroline Bock
Co-president