Celebrating the Launch of "AMERICA'S FUTURE"

Join us for readings and discussion that showcase the Washington Writers' Publishing House's new anthology, AMERICA’S FUTURE: poetry & prose in response to tomorrow.

About AMERICA’S FUTURE:

features 164 bold, thought-provoking writers, with strong representation from writers across the press’s footprint (DC, Maryland, and Virginia) – writers from Baltimore to Roanoke, and writers with connections to the DMV from as far as California and Washington state. The anthology arrives at an urgent moment in our nation’s history, when many are anxiously questioning: What are the possibilities for the future? Some pieces turn to our past, reckoning with the wounds we still carry in today’s scars before questioning the future. Others turn their gaze forward, imagining the ways hope and reinvention can carve new paths.

About the Panelists:

Tracy Dimond is a writer and artist based in Baltimore, MD. She is the author of the full-length poetry collection Emotion Industry (Barrelhouse 2024). A 2016 Baker Artist Award finalist, she is also the author of four chapbooks, including TO TRACY LIKE / TO LIKE / LIKE (akinoga press) and Sorry I Wrote So Many Sad Poems Today (Ink Press), winner of Baltimore City Paper’s Best Chapbook. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Smartish Pace, Lines + Stars, The Nervous Breakdown, Barrelhouse, Little Patuxent Review, and other places. She blogs about chronic illness, creativity, and movement at poetsthatsweat.com.

Zorina Exie Frey is an educator, content writer, and Pushcart Prize Winner. Her writings are featured in Shondaland, Glassworks Magazine, The Journal of Poetry for Therapy (Routledge Taylor & Francis, 2024), Introduction to Afrofuturism: A Mixtape in Black Literature & Arts (Routledge Taylor & Francis, 2024), and Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Matt Hohner’s poems have won numerous awards. His publications include Rattle: Poets Respond, The Baltimore Review, New Contrast, Live Canon, Passengers, Vox Populi, and Prairie Schooner. An editor with Loch Raven Review, Hohner’s second collection, At the Edge of a Thousand Years, won the Jacar Press Book Prize in 2023. (Author photo by Mel Edden.)

Steven Leyva was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and raised in Houston, Texas. His poems have appeared in Smartish Pace, Scalawag, Nashville Review, jubilat, The Hopkins Review, Prairie Schooner, and Best American Poetry 2020. He is a Cave Canem fellow and author of the chapbook Low Parish and The Understudy’s Handbook which won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from Washington Writers' Publishing House. His second book of poems, The Opposite of Cruelty, was published by Blair Publishing in Spring 2025. Steven holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore, where he is an associate professor and co-director of the Klein Family Center of Communications Design.

Annie Marhefka is a writer in Baltimore, Maryland, and Executive Director at Yellow Arrow Publishing, a nonprofit empowering women-identifying writers. Annie has a BA in creative writing from Washington College and an MBA, and is an MFA candidate at the University of Baltimore. Follow Annie on Instagram @anniemarhefka and at anniemarhefka.com.

Adam Schwartz’s debut collection of stories, The Rest of the World, won the Washington Writers’ Publishing House 2020 prize for fiction. His nonfiction has appeared in Newsweek, Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Banner, Sewanee Review, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Forward, and elsewhere. For 27 years, he has taught high school in Baltimore.

Cherrie Woods (aka Cherrie Amour) is an award-winning Baltimore-based poet known for her candid narrative style. She is the author of Free to Be Me: Poems on Love, Life and Relationships and creator of the Words, Wine & Wings Poetry and Open Mic Show. Her work has been featured in Paterson Literary Review, Understorey Magazine, Poet’s Ink, and more. Cherrie is currently working on her second poetry manuscript, Sit Comfortably Elsewhere.

About the Moderators:

Caroline Bock’s first novel for adults, 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. She is the co-president and prose editor at the Washington Writers’ Publishing House — and the co-editor of AMERICA’S FUTURE: poetry & prose in response to tomorrow.

Jona Colson is the author of Said Through Glass and the translator of Aguas/Waters by Miguel Avero. 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 biweekly journal WWPH Writes. He is also the co-editor of AMERICA’S FUTURE: poetry & prose in response to tomorrow. He is a professor of ESL at Montgomery College and lives in Washington, D.C. Learn more at www.jonacolson.com

About the Program:

• Doors will open to registered attendees at 2:00 pm.
• A local bookseller will be on-site and have books available for purchase.
• Free parking vouchers are available to program attendees who park at the Franklin Street Garage (15 W. Franklin Street). Ask Pratt event staff for your parking voucher prior to or after the program.
• There is no registration required for virtual attendance, simply visit the Enoch Pratt Free Library's Facebook or Youtube page.

Host or Publisher Enoch Pratt Free Library