News and Events

2010 Fiction and Poetry Winners Announced

WWPH is pleased to announce the winners of its 2010 fiction and poetry contests.

Right of Way, a short story collection by Andrew Wingfield, won the fiction prize and will be published on October 15, 2010. This collection takes place in Cleave Springs, a gentrifying neighborhood in the shadow of the nation’s capital. These insightful, humane, and beautifully crafted stories introduce us to the neighborhood’s dazzling variety of characters—long-time survivors and new arrivals, preservationists and visionaries, black people and white people—as they navigate the complexities of diversity and change, and strive to realize a comforting vision of home.

Words We Might One Day Say, a poetry collection by Holly Karapetkova, won the poetry prize and will also be published on October 15, 2010. The book ranges from prose poems to sonnets, using a variety of voices and experiences to portray love and loss, marriage and domesticity, parenting and motherhood. Many of the poems are inspired by folklore and myth, and many deal with the American author's encounters with her adopted Bulgarian culture. The first poem in the collection, “The Woman Who Wanted a Child,” introduces the book's themes by asking questions about the limits of motherhood, taking its cue from the mythological experience of metamorphosis.

For more information on WWPH's annual fiction and poetry contests, visit our Become an Author page.

David Taylor Nominated for Writer's Guild Award

"Soul of a People," the companion documentary to David Taylor's recent historical nonfiction book of the same title (Wiley, 2009), was nominated for a Writer's Guild Award. "Soul of a People" explores the Federal Writer's Project, a Depression-era WPA program that employed a "who's who" of contemporary American writers, from pulp crime fiction writer Jim Thompson to Zora Neal Hurston of Harlem Renaissance fame. As Taylor writes, their efforts "made up America's first self-portrait" and "revealed the eccentricity, humor, brutality, and ingenuity" of its people.

Winners of the Writer's Guild Awards were presented on February 20, 2010 at ceremonies in both Los Angeles and New York. Watch the official promo video for "Soul of a People" :

For more information on the film, the book, or the WWPH author who started it all, visit davidataylor.com.

WWPH Hosts First Annual Writers' Ball

On October 17, 2009, WWPH hosted its first annual Writers' Ball. Poets, journalists, novelists, playwrights, speechwriters, essayists, short story writers and friends of writers gathered at Danzon Art Gallery in Adams Morgan to support and celebrate WWPH, which has published and promoted local writers for over 35 years.

WWPH would like to thank everyone who helped make its fundraising event a huge success! Special thanks to our sponsors: Diageo, Eatonville Restaurant, Busboys and Poets, Whole Foods, Occasions Caterers, and the Four Seasons Hotel.

For photos from this year's Ball, visit our Writers' Ball page.

News and Reviews

David Taylor has an article in the Spring 2010 issue of The Writer's Carousel, The Writer's Center's members-only newsletter. Taylor will also teach workshops there this summer, as well as in the fall when he will be joined by Ramona D.

Elisavietta Ritchie has poems in the online journals The Broadkill Review and Innisfree, as well as poems for upcoming publication in several anthologies.

Elisavietta Ritchie gave a reading of her poetry at Montgomery College, Rockville, MD on October 29. The same day, a professor at University of California, Los Angeles, held a reading of Richie's "Awaiting Permission to Land" and "Raking the Snow" from an audio recording. Copies of the recording on CD are available for sale via WWPH.

Kim Roberts recently published four poems in the print journal Ocho's 23rd issue, guest edited by Grace Cavalieri. Roberts was also featured with one poem in a chapbook anthology titled The Lowly, Exalted, and Other Poems, published at the University of Southern Maine to accompany an exhibition at their Atrium Art Gallery entitled "Spineless Wonders: Invertebrates as Inspiration."

Kim Roberts also has poems in two new issues of online journals. Five poems from her "Imaginary Husband" Series appeared recently in No Tell Motel. Another poem, "Hearing Loss," appeared in Unsplendid. The poems can be accessed at notellmotel.org and unsplendid.com.

Barbara Lefcowitz has recently set up a website of selected poetry and prose. Her website can be accesssed at blefcowitzpoetry.com.

David Taylor's Success: Stories is a finalist for the 2009 Library of Virginia Literary Award in fiction. Awards are given to outstanding Virginia authors in the areas of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and are presented at the annual Virginia Literary Awards Celebration in Richmond, VA. For more information, visit lva.virginia.gov.

Elisavietta Ritchie's short story "Maybe It Was The Moths" appears in the new Gargoyle anthology, Gravity Dancers (Peabody Press, 2009). She also created and published Here, Even The Blue Crabs Compose, an anthology of 20+ poets in Anne Arundel and Calvert counties. Ritchie will run a poetry-in-the-schools program at Chesapeake Montessori in Annapolis this fall.

Brandel France de Bravo is editor of a forthcoming anthology called Mexican Poetry Today: 20/20 Voices (Shearsman, 2009). For more information on this title, visit shearsman.com.

David Taylor gave a talk at Fountain Books in Richmond, VA on July 5th about his new book, Soul of a People: The WPA's Writers' Project Uncovers Depression Era America (Wiley, 2009). The event was featured by CSPAN2's BookTV.