Chesapeake Country Poets and Novelists

Writers and poets of the greater Bay Weekly area, here is your chance to see your best work as a book.
    Storm Sandy pushed the venerable Washington Writers’ Publishing House annual deadline to December 1. Fiction writers and poets living within a 75-mile radius of the U.S. Capitol — in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia — thus gain an extra month to prepare manuscripts for entry in two annual book competitions.
    Some writer-neighbors are currently and desperately trying to complete whole novels during November, Write a Novel Month. Some may succeed in time to submit their novels to Washington Writers’ Publishing House. Perhaps you have one already finished and seeking publication?
    Novelists submit up to 350 pages of a novel or short-story collection for The Washington Writers’ Publishing House Fiction Prize.
    Poets are always writing and rewriting, so your work may be as ready as it will ever be — until you revise it again. Submit your 50- to 70-page collection (single or line-and-a-half spaced) for The Jean Feldman Poetry Prize
    Winning manuscripts will be published in fall of 2013. Winning writers will be awarded $1,000 plus 50 copies of their book, which can be ordered forever after.
    Washington Writers’ Publishing House is a non-profit cooperative press reflecting the cultural and racial diversity of the area.
    Publishing House members — all former winners — make time between day jobs, family and other responsibilities to help each other, and especially each new generation of winners. They also continue the work of the press, including fundraising, publicity, production and setting up launches and readings.
    Members judge your anonymous manuscripts in electronic or paper format. The title (running head) should be on every page, but the author’s name and contact information must not appear on the work. It should be mailed separately, along with a $25 check made out to Washington Writers’ Publishing House and bearing the manuscript title in the memo field.
    Email an electronic copy to [email protected]. Subject line of email submissions should read either: Poetry Contest_Last Name of Author_First Name of Author; or Fiction Contest_Last Name of Author_First Name of Author.)
    For the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize, mail check, self-addressed stamped envelope and any hard copies, with contact data to: WWPH, c/o B.F. de Bravo, 3541 S St. NW, Washington, DC 20007.
    For The Washington Writers’ Publishing House Fiction Prize, mail check, self-addressed stamped envelope, contact data and any paper copies to WWPH, c/o Elisavietta Ritchie, P.O. Box 298, Broomes Island, MD 20615.