WWPH SINCE 1975
Washington Writers’ Publishing House is the longest continuously operating nonprofit, cooperative, literary organization in the United States. Established in 1975 in our nation’s capital, we have published over 100 volumes of poetry, as well as, in more recent years, fiction, nonfiction, and works in translation.
Our mission is to publish a diverse range of literary writers from our region: Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia (commonly known as the ‘DMV’), and to bring their work to readers across the country.
The press sponsors annual competitions for writers living in DC, Maryland, and Virginia, and the winners of each category comprise our annual slate. In 2021, WWPH launched an online literary journal, WWPH WRITES, to expand our mission to further the creative work of writers in our region. In 2023, WWPH added creative nonfiction to our annual press slate. In 2024, WWPH launched its biennial works in translation series and began presenting WWPH Literary Salons to engage with new and established writers and foster the richness and diversity of the literary arts in our community. In 2025, we celebrated our 50th anniversary with a landmark anthology of poetry and prose, America’s Future: poetry & prose in response to tomorrow, with 164 writers and spanning 526 pages. In 2025, we also launched our series of ‘Capital’ anthologies, which bring together diverse perspectives on resonant themes. To date, we have published Capital Queer (2025), Capital Love (2026), and will publish Capital Translation in 2027.
WWPH has received recent grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Maryland State Arts Council, the Amazon Literary Partnership, and the Trawick Foundation. Many individuals have also assisted, encouraged, and supported our work through the years. As a 501c3 organization, all donations are tax-deductible. As a cooperative (all-volunteer) press, all monies raised go toward our authors and books, representing and celebrating the diversity of the literary arts in the DMV.
Our Authors and our Unique Cooperative Press
Nationally known poets and writers the press has published include Grace Cavalieri, David Ebenbach, E. Ethelbert Miller, Kim Roberts, Kathleen Wheaton, David Taylor, Caroline Bock, Jona Colson, and many more. We seek to represent and further the diverse perspectives and voices of writers in the DMV, both in our organization and in the manuscripts we select to publish. As a cooperative or all-volunteer press, our authors commit to at least two years of service to the press–and many devote more years to furthering WWPH and the literary arts in our community.
MORE details about submissions here on our FAQs page.
Thank you for being part of our WWPH community!