The Word Works :: NewPages Guide to Book Publishers

The Word Works

PO Box 42164

Washington, DC 20015

Phone: (301) 581-9439

E-mail: editor@wordworksbooks.org

Simultaneous submissions: yes Email submissions: no Electronic submissions: yes (see website) Reading period: 1/15-3/1 postmark for the Washington Prize ($25 fee); 4/1 for the Hilary Tham Capital Collection (invitational); fiction contest forthcoming; open reading period in development. Response time: 4-5 months for The Washington Prize; 2 months for the Hilary Tham Capital Collection. Payment: Authors receive 100 copies+Washington Prize winners receive $1500 Contests: yes (see website) Year Founded: 1974 Distributors: Small Press Distribution; Ingram; Baker & Taylor Number of titles per year: 2-4 Number of titles in print: 70+

Publisher’s description: The Word Works seeks crafted poetry that reaches for its readers, with no limitations on poetic style, theme, or author history. Manuscripts are read blind, providing opportunities for early-career writers as well as the already-published. Enid Shomer, Fred Marchant, and Richard Lyons got their start with us, while Frannie Lindsay and John Surowiecki appeared in our lists mid-career.

The Word Works includes poets in the decisions about design and has increased its author support. We offer feedback to finalists and semi-finalists.

Recent Washington Prize Winners:

2010 Motion Studies by Brad Richard
“With superb intellect, Brad Richard draws a wondrous and discursive line between history and art, and along the way, brightens our bodies and hearts to the fullness of each other and our cultural inheritances.” –Major Jackson, author of The Hoops and Holding Company

2009 Mayweed by Frannie Lindsay
“Lindsay’s poems whisper to us of the finite and the mortal, and teach us in startling image after image of the ordinary but transient wonders in our days. This book brims with stern clarities, rich emotional textures, and the beauty that Wallace Stevens said death was, ultimately, the mother of.” –Fred Marchant, author of Tipping Point and Looking House.

2008 Ace by Richard Carr
“Ace offers us four vividly wrought characters bound together by the ineffable yet invincible ties of family. In this beautifully rendered sequence, the gifted Richard Carr proves himself not only a superb poet but a first-class storyteller, keeping us turning the pages with admiration and gratitude.” –Denise DuHamel, author of Ka-Ching! and Two and Two.