[1] The organization consists of approximately 2,500 writers, editors, small press publishers and other artists who support each other in the creation and marketing of literary texts.

[2] The Writer's Center offers workshops, hosts readings and literary events, and maintains a community of writers, workshop leaders, publishers and audiences for contemporary writing at its Bethesda headquarters as well as in Leesburg, Virginia, Arlington, Virginia, and at other locations around the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

[3] The Writer's Center also publishes Poet Lore, the longest continuously running poetry journal in the United States.

[4][5][6] Materials from the center’s history, including issues of their quarterly magazine The Carousel, workshop brochures, and issues of Poet Lore, are maintained in the Special Collections Research Center of the Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library at the George Washington University.

Workshop participants share with one another their work-in-progress under the guidance of an experienced instructor who is also a published author.