Editor Interview: Washington Writers' Publishing House Fiction Prize

Poetry, Fiction and CNF

We admire literary small presses from university press to "major" independent small presses from Red Hen, Unnamed Press, Graywolf to our fellow presses in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area including SFWP, Alan Squire Publishing, and more!

We publish fiction and lean into the literary in all genres.

WWPH is a 48-year old cooperative press —all our members pay it forward by publishing with the press (winning one of our three contests in poetry, fiction, or creative non fiction and then volunteering for at least two years with the press, though many stay on longer!) We also are a regional press —publishing only writers from DC, Maryland and Virginia. Like many small presses, we are a literary press, though, we widely define that—we are looking for complex characters, a strong sense of place, and voices that are diverse and inclusive.

Of course, read our recent books. For a sense of WWPH, read our landmark 2025 anthology: AMERICA'S FUTURE: poetry & prose in response to tomorrow edited by Caroline Bock and Jona Colson.

The idea submission has
-within the first 10 pages, a strong sense of voice, literary style, character, and place
-we are open to all genres except young adult but lean hard into the literary.

Submitters must be:
-residents of DC, Maryland or Virginia
-be ready and willing to be part of a cooperative (volunteer) press
-work of collections often do not feature the strongest or most compelling work at the very top
Reminder: our readers/judges are past winners of the contest. They are literary writers. Read our recent past winners and understand the interests of our press.

After reading the literary works, we care about cover letters. In the final analysis, we seek compelling literary works; however, as a cooperative (volunteer) literary press, we are also seeking writers who want to be involved in our literary community, and/or who have demonstrated some involvement in a literary community. We are dedicated to a diverse, inclusive literary community (again, look at our recent winners!)
Previous publishing credits should be included, but are not required at all. If the work is a collection of poetry or short works (I.e. if the poems or short works have been previously published), please let us know when and where.

We read.
For fiction, each work averages two readers.
We encourage all our readers to read the first 50 pages extremely closely.
Readers are asked to review through to the end of every fiction finalist.
We care deeply about our manuscript selection and spend time with each work.

For fiction, we usually narrow the field to 5-10 top manuscripts and evaluate those select choices closely —reading through to the end, discussing and evaluating.
Then, we review cover letters for interest in the author on joining and being actively involved in the press for a minimum of two years. We ask all our authors to commit to at least two years of service to the press--this primarily means judging two years of contests.
Please note: we keep this a blind process throughout, with the exception of a senior editor knowing the author's identity.

Our 2026 manuscript contests runs APRIL 1 through JUNE 30th. Winners are selected and announced by October.
During the year, I also co-edit WWPH Writes, our bi-weekly literary journal, which is free to subscribe to and free to submit to for any DMV writer. Please consider subscribing and submitting to WWPH Writes.

All winners of our manuscript contest work with a fellow WWPH writer on edits and with the head of Fiction for WWPH.
Fiction and creative nonfiction manuscripts are also reviewed by a professional proofreader.
Authors approve all edits, including final edits. In addition, the author contributes ideas to our cover book designer and manuscript typesetter to envision the book.
This is a cooperative press--and the winning author must be prepared to work closely on their manuscript for several months prior to publication.

We nominate for any awards in which it is required for a publisher to nominate. However, all other awards must be handled by the author.

The Washington Writers' Publishing House is funded through a combination of book sales, grants, and donations to our nonprofit press.

We promote our published authors via local events, book sales, book festivals, our lit magazine WWPH WRITES, and social media.