Celebrating 50 years of works that feel urgent and necessary in this cultural moment
An interview with WWPH co-presidents Caroline Bock and Jona Colson
by Gregory Luce
Did you know that the longest continually operating non-profit, cooperative literary organization in the U.S. exists right here in the DMV? Washington Writers’ Publishing House (WWPH) has been publishing poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction by local authors for 50 years. To celebrate this anniversary, WWPH has launched a massive, comprehensive, and timely anthology entitled America’s Future. (Washington Unbound editor Gregory Luce has a poem in the book.) To learn more about this collection and the history of WWPH, we managed to catch up with co-presidents Caroline Bock and Jona Colson. Despite their hectic schedule of mailing out books, hosting a 50th anniversary party, and promoting the many events connected with the book’s release, they were kind enough to take a break and answer our questions. You can peruse their many titles, and find links to order copies, on their website.
Congratulations on the publication of your most ambitious anthology to date, America’s Future! When and why did you get the idea and did you expect it to spark so much interest? How many submissions did you receive and how many made the final cut?
Jona: In 2022, we published This Is What America Looks Like, which featured 100 writers, and was, at that point WWPH’s first anthology in 25 years. The previous anthologies were The Poet Upstairs (1979) and Hungry As We Are (1995). Caroline suggested it was time for another anthology, and, at that time, we were not co-presidents.
Caroline: And after that effort, which coincided with the pandemic, we thought it would be another 25 years. But then, we realized in late 2023, we had our 50th anniversary coming up. We had a big response to This Is What America Looks Like: poetry and fiction from DC, Maryland, and Virginia, and we thought we could replicate it pretty easily.
Jona: We opened submissions before the 2024 election, and after the results, we knew that we needed to extend the submissions period even though we had what we thought was a complete anthology—we wanted to make sure people had time to reflect and write. The anthology was becoming a collection of protest and resilience, but also hope.
Caroline: Ultimately, we had over 500 submissions and ended up with 164 writers. 179 separate pieces, and 526 pages, a wildly ambitious collection for us of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, serious essays, graphic stories, a short play, and the first publication of Representative Jamie Raskin’s passionate speech, a highly literary work, “Remarks as Delivered at the Hands Off! Rally on the National Mall,” from April 2025.
Jona Colson, Caroline Bock, and WWPH authors celebrate 50 years of publishing.
You have many events planned in connection with the release of America’s Future. Can you tell us about them?
Caroline: We see America’s Future as more than an anthology but as a way to reach out to the community in DC, Maryland, and Virginia.
Jona: Plus, we were lucky enough to receive a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities to expand on an idea we tested in 2024—literary salons. We bring these free three-hour salons to the community with creative writing workshops, readings, and discussions about America’s Future. We plan to have one in every D.C. ward.
Caroline: Coming up, we will be at The Arts Club of DC on Thursday, October 9th from 6-9 pm and at the City-State Brewery for a special Writers and Brews session on Sunday, October 12 from 1-4 pm and many more places through December! These are all free, like Jona said, but we are finding they are very popular–people are seeking community. They want to write the future with us. So, please reserve your seat, if you are interested.
To step back a bit, please tell us about the history of WWPH. When and how did it get started?
Jona: The very short history: four poets, including Grace Cavalieri, who is still involved with the press, wanted to make Washington DC the poetry capital of the United States, so they launched WWPH with no money, no resources, but a lot of heart and creativity.
Caroline: We love Grace. She inspires us. We published a new edition of her original 1975 collection Why I Cannot Take A Lover in 2022. I was lucky enough to interview her for the foreword.
How has WWPH evolved over the years? How many books have you published in its fifty years?
Caroline: We’ve published over a 100 books in poetry, fiction, and in the last two years in creative nonfiction and translation. At the moment, we have 35 in-print titles. Many of the older titles are sadly out-of-print since they are from the pre-digital age; our limited resources are focused on new authors and their books. The early records are handwritten, so it’s a challenge to even know the exact count.
Jona: Some day, when we have time, we want to search through our archives and do a close count. I’d love to get together with the WWPW writers from the 80s, 90s, and aughts.
In the beginning, WWPH only published poetry. When was fiction added? What about nonfiction, and what was the conversation around expanding genres?
Jona: I believe fiction was added back in 2000 with Elisavietti Ritchie.
Caroline: I think that sounds right. Jona and I both received our awards in 2018—Jona for Said Through Glass, and me for my short story collection, Carry Her Home. At that time, Kathleen Wheaton was president and had been for seven years. I’ve always been the kind of person who has a lot of ideas—sometimes too many—and I loved working with Kathleen, who is a terrific editor, a beautiful writer, a very even-keeled person, and very open to taking chances on new ideas. I always seem to have one, especially when I’m passionate about an organization as I am with WWPH.
I write as well as read a good deal of creative nonfiction, and in 2022, I suggested we add creative nonfiction–particularly stories where the personal intersected with the political, this being DC, and Kathleen agreed. The result was Transplant: A Memoir by Bernardine (Dine) Watson, which was honored as one of ‘5 over 50’ debuts in 2023 by Poets & Writers magazine and a “Book We Love,” by NPR. In 2024, we decided to alternate creative nonfiction and translation because Jona is a translator and has a strong interest there, and Kathleen agreed to test the waters with Aguas by Migeul Avero, translated by Jona Colson, which very much worked for WWPH.
Jona: We did realize that, because we are a small, cooperative literary press, doing three or four books a year was all we could do well. So, in our next cycle of books, which will be published in early 2027, we will have poetry in translation along with fiction and poetry. Then, in our next cycle, which will open for submissions in May of 2026, we will have creative nonfiction (memoir or essays), fiction, and poetry.
Jona with poets Ethelbert Miller and Grace Cavalieri at the 50th Anniversary celebration
WWPH is somewhat unusual in being a cooperative press where published authors are required to give time to the activities of the press. Please explain how this works and what tasks your authors perform.
Caroline: We find works to publish via our contests. Each writer receives $1,500, publication and all costs attached to it (cover and interior design, editorial guidance, proofreader, etc), but in return, we ask each writer to dedicate two years of service to the press. Most writers will read manuscripts and judge two years of contests.
Jona: Some have stayed involved for decades—and that provides continuity—Kathleen Wheaton, Elizabeth Bruce, Sid Gold, and even Grace Cavalieri—have been involved with the press on some level for a long time.
Caroline: Somehow, it’s worked for fifty years because we believe in paying it forward. Sometimes we laugh that our WWPH Fellows are our highest paid “employees”—because of the generosity of Jean Feldman, who also sponsors our poetry prize, we now bring on college or graduate students for 12-week paid ($500 stipends) virtual internships to assist with editorial, marketing, promotion, social media, and events. We are opening up for applications for 2026 on November 1.
How does this cooperative model impact the press itself, from practical operations to the kind of books that are chosen, to vibe or philosophy?
Jona: It’s a very cooperative, roll up your sleeves, and get it done kind of place. Since this is not a full-time role for any of us, we don’t have a lot of meetings—
Caroline: Coming out of cable television (AMC, Bravo, IFC) in its go-go years in the late 1980s and 1990s, I am not a very academic or corporate person. I’m more “let’s put on a show” and see what happens. WWPH has given me the chance to see a lot of publishing ideas become reality—like editing and publishing America’s Future! I think it also means that I like literary work that takes chances in some way.
Having co-presidents, one for poetry and one for fiction, is also out of the ordinary. How did that come about?
Jona: We first met when our books won the WWPH poetry and fiction awards in 2018.
Caroline: And we enjoyed reading together. Kathleen had served as president for eight years, and was ready to pass the baton. So I went to Jona and proposed that we consider taking on the role together since I thought our skill sets were complementary—for example, I’m a morning person.
Jona: I’m not. But we’ve made it work.
Caroline: Yes. Beautifully.
You are both writers yourselves. How do you fit your own work in with the work for the press?
Jona: It’s definitely a balancing act, but I find the two roles feed each other. Reading and editing for the press keeps me connected to a wide range of voices and reminds me of the larger literary conversation, which energizes my own writing. At the same time, being an active writer helps me understand what our authors need, so there’s a natural reciprocity between the two. I teach ESL full-time at Montgomery College in Takoma Park/Silver Spring, Maryland, and my paid job keeps me in a constant conversation about language and its evolution.
Caroline: I’m grateful that at this point in my life, I can be a full-time writer as well as help guide WWPH. I spent twenty years working as a cable television marketing and public relations executive to get to this place. Now, with my youngest in college, I’m writing every morning. The result is I have my first novel for adults coming out next year—The Other Beautiful People, a workplace love story (Regal House Publishing, June 2026)—and I’m really excited about that.
What’s the future of WWPH? Any new projects on the horizon?
Jona: We plan to keep being out in the community and the world with America’s Future through next spring at least—it’s too important, too timely. We’re excited to be at AWP in Baltimore in March. We will have a booth for the first time so we can showcase all our recent titles. We are excited to offer our next translation in 2027, and we want to publish books that resonate with readers and meet them where they are—works that feel urgent and necessary in this cultural moment.
Caroline: Grace Cavalieri recently said to Jona, in front of me, that he should get worried every time I say, “Jona, I have an idea.” So, I don’t think I’m going to share any ideas now. But I am hoping we do a few new, innovative, or unexpected literary things in the near future. Right now, I’m most excited about America’s Future: poetry & prose in response to tomorrow. We need these 164 voices speaking up now.
Washington Unbound heartily congratulates WWPH on its anniversary and the release of their incredible anthology, and we wish them well for the next 50 years.
Buy your copy of America’s Future: poetry & prose in response to tomorrow from Bookshop or your favorite independent bookstore. Learn more about Washington Writers’ Publishing House on their website, including future events.
Upcoming events:
Sep. 26: Washington Writers’ Publishing House joins the Frederick Book Arts Center for a literary evening in Frederick, MD.
Sep. 27: Celebrate the launch of America’s Future at Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, MD.
Oct. 9: Attend a Washington Writers’ Publishing House literary salon at the Arts Club of Washington in Washington, D.C.
Oct 12: A WWPH Literary Salon, Writers & Brews Edition. Three hours of creative writing/readings on AMERICA'S FUTURE, brews & more at City-State Public House in Washington, D.C.
Jona Colson is a poet, educator, and translator. His poetry collection, Said Through Glass, won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from the Washington Writers’ Publishing House. He is also the translator of Aguas/Waters by Miguel Avero, and the co-editor of This Is What America Looks Like: Poetry and Fiction from D.C., Maryland, and Virginia (2021), Capital Queer (2025), and America’s Future (2025). His poems, translations, and interviews have appeared in Ploughshares, The Southern Review, LitHub, and elsewhere. He is co-president of Washington Writers’ Publishing House and edits the bi-weekly journal, WWPH Writes. He is a professor of ESL at Montgomery College and lives in Washington, D.C. www.jonacolson.com
Caroline Bock’s latest novel, The Other Beautiful People, a workplace love story about a movie-loving marketing executive, will be published on June 2, 2026, by Regal House Publishing. Her short story collection, Carry Her Home, won the Fiction Award from the Washington Writers' Publishing House. She is also the author of acclaimed young adult novels LIE and Before My Eyes from St. Martin’s Press. Notably, since 2022, she has been the co-president and prose editor at the Washington Writers’ Publishing House. In this role, she is the senior editor for prose, and she has been the co-editor on the following anthologies: This Is What America Looks Like (2022), Capital Queer (June, 2025), and America's Future, poetry and prose in response to tomorrow (September, 2025). She lives in Maryland.
Gregory Luce is the co-founder and poetry editor of Washington Unbound. He has published six chapbooks. He lives in Arlington and serves as Poetry Editor of The Mid-Atlantic Review and writes a monthly column for the online arts journal Scene4.