Adam Schwartz’s debut collection of stories, The Rest of the World, won the Washington Writers’ Publishing House 2020 prize for fiction. His non-fiction has appeared in Newsweek, Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Banner, and elsewhere. He has taught high school in Baltimore for twenty-seven years.

Caroline Bock is the author of Carry Her Home (winner of the Fiction Award from WWPH), as well as the young adult novels Before My Eyes, and LIE (St. Martin’s Press). The Other Beautiful People, her first novel for adults—a workplace love story— will be published in June of 2026 by Regal House Publishing. She […]

Chanlee Luu is a writer from Southern Virginia. She received her MFA in creative writing from Hollins University and her BS in chemical engineering from UVA. She won the 2024 Jean Feldman Poetry Award from the Washington Writers’ Publishing House, which published her debut collection, The Machine Autocorrects Code to I. One of her poems […]

David Ebenbach is the author of ten books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, winners of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, the Juniper Prize, and the WWPH Fiction Prize, among others. He lives with his family in Washington, DC. He can be found at davidebenbach.com.

David Taylor’s collection, Success: Stories, received the WWPH fiction prize. His fiction has appeared in Gargoyle, Jabberwock, Washington City Paper, and elsewhere, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He received his MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop and is writer- producer for “The People’s Recorder,” nominated for Best Indie podcast in the 2025 Ambies.

Bernardine (Dine) Watson is a nonfiction writer and poet who lives in Washington, DC. Dine’s book Transplant: A Memoir, won the 2023 Washington Writers’ Publishing House prize for nonfiction. Transplant was also chosen by National Public Radio as one of the 2023 “books we love” and featured in Poets and Writers Magazine as one of […]

Elizabeth Bruce’s Universally Adored & Other One Dollar Stories, was recently released by Vine Leaves Press. Her debut novel, And Silent Left the Place, won Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s Fiction Prize, with Foreword Magazine and Texas Institute of Letters’ distinctions. She’s been published in stories in the USA and thirteen countries.

Dorian Elizabeth Knapp is the author of three poetry collections: Causa Sui (forthcoming 2025), winner of the 8th Annual Three Mile Harbor Book Award; Requiem with an Amulet in Its Beak, winner of the 2019 Jean Feldman Poetry Prize; and The Spite House, winner of the 2010 De Novo Poetry Prize. She is the founding […]

Grace Cavalieri was Maryland’s tenth Poet Laureate. She’s the author of several books and produced plays. She’s the founder and producer of The Poet and the Poem, now from the Library of Congress, celebrating 48 years on air. Two hundred and fifty of her poetry podcasts went to the moon on Lunar Codex from NASA, […]

Holly Karapetkova is Poet Laureate Emerita of Arlington, Virginia, and recipient of a 2022 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship for her work with young poets. Her most recent book of poetry is Dear Empire (Gunpowder Press), winner of the 2025 William Meredith Prize and the Barry Spacks Poetry Prize.