WWPH WRITES ISSUE 72
WWPH Writes 72… why is this issue different from all others? In this issue, food symbolizes so much more — our past, our futures, our prophecies. Lunchtime Lesson by Terry Cox-Joseph transports us back; Why is This Shopping Trip Different Than All Others or Freedom’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Buy from Beth Kanter is a small miracle in less than 200 words.
Find us at our table at the Gaithersburg Book Festival (May 18), and at Capital Pride (June 9). And submit to your Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s little lit magazine. See below for upcoming special issues and contests!
Lastly, HAPPY INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE DAY this Saturday, April 27th! We support our local independent bookstores because they are the best supporters of small presses like your Washington Writers’ Publishing House. More about an independent bookstore near you here. Read on!
Caroline Bock & Jona Colson
co-presidents, WWPH
WWPH WRITES POETRY
Terry Cox-Joseph is a writer and artist with a BFA in illustration from the Minneapolis Art of College and Design. She is a former reporter and is past president of the Poetry Society of Virginia and a member of the National League of American Pen Women. Her work has been published in The Blotter, The Poeming Pigeon, Artemis Journal, and Chiron Review.
©Terry Cox-Joseph, 2024
WWPH WRITES PROSE
Beth Kanter is a proud DC resident whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in a range of publications including McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Emerge Literary Journal, and Cease, Cows. Beth is a Pushcart Prize and Best Small Fiction nominee. When not writing, she leads creative nonfiction workshops and mentors other writers.
Why is This Shopping Trip Different Than All Others or Freedom’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Buy
I met Miriam the Prophetess not on the shores of a split sea but in the frozen food aisle of KosherMart three days before the first seder as we both reached for the last package of Kosher for Passover Tabatchnick Ochlei Kitniot Split Pea Soup. With a shopping list almost as long as the Colossi of Memnon in the Notes app of her phone and a steady percussion beat rising from her AirPods, her fingers reached the prize seconds before mine. I shook it off Swiftie style since it’s common knowledge that all’s fair in love and Pesach shopping. Miriam drew a heart in the frost covering the door to the freezer case. Here. She handed me the cold box. I was there. I don’t need it. The prophetess then sent her overflowing cart flying down the aisle, nearly taking down my friend Rachel K’s bubbe in the process. Vape pen in hand, Miriam danced her way past the self-checkout, through the automatic doors, and toward Rockville Pike where she stomped in the puddles that had accumulated from a sudden downpour. I don’t think we are at Sinai anymore.
©Beth Kanter 2024
WWPH NewS
On May 16, we will officially publish AGUAS/WATERS by Uruguayan poet Miguel Avero and translated by Jona Colson. This is the first in our new Washington Writers’ Publishing House Translation Series. In July, Miguel Avero will be traveling to Washington, DC for readings at Politics & Prose (July 12 at the main store); The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore (Happy Hour on Saturday, July 13), and at the Writer’s Center (on Sunday, July 14). Please join us! More information here. And a big shout out to Andrew S. Klein for designing the evocative cover!
WWPH BOOK NEWS… Bernardine ‘Dine’ Watson, author of TRANSPLANT: A MEMOIR, and Len Kruger, author of BAD QUESTIONS, will both be at the upcoming WASHINGTON WRITERS CONFERENCE on May 3 & 4th at the Bethesda North Marriott. Spots are going fast for this annual must-attend (with one-on-one meetings with literary agents) conference on publishing! Organized by the Washington Independent Review of Books. More information here.
BOOK CLUBS. We have some nifty new reader’s guides for TRANSPLANT: A MEMOIR by Bernardine ‘Dine’ Watson and BAD QUESTIONS by Len Kruger. Download them here!
SUBMIT to WWPH Writes. We are reading now for our FALL issues. We are eager for new voices! We are an inclusive, writer-driven community and want to see your poetry and prose (1,000 words or less). Free to submit. Send us your work via our Submittable link here. Insider news: we are planning our annual WWPH PRIDE contest with cash prizes and publication. This year, PRIDE will have a special call for allies of the LGBTQ+ community. Look for the WWPH PRIDE Poetry & Prose contest to open in May. And for those asking about our annual TINY POEMS special summer issues–yes, they are returning in August! Insider news: we will be seeking tiny odes! Keep reading WWPH Writes for details.
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Our 2023 Award-Winning Books continue to garner attention and acclaim. They are available everywhere books are! Support your local independent bookstore and your WWPH by ordering them from www.bookshop.org. And our classic ebooks are now on sale! 
