The weekly batch of no-fee, paying competitions, contests, and calls for submissions—plus jobs for those of us who write (especially those of us who write fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction). These posts are intended to complement/supplement monthly issues of The Practicing Writer newsletter, where you’ll always find more listings.
From The Forge: To celebrate (almost) three years of publishing excellent prose, we are holding our first flash fiction competition. We strongly believe in removing barriers to submission so, as with everything we do, there will be no entry fee. The first-place winner will be awarded $500.00 (writers who reside outside the United States must be able to receive payment via Paypal) and publication. Submissions open October 5th with the free submission window closing on October 18, 2018, so hurry! The tip-jar option is open until November 1st, 2018.”
“Soft Skull Press is an independent publisher of books that engage art, culture, and current events in new and radical ways. During the month of October 2018, Soft Skull Press is accepting proposals for single-authored book-length works of nonfiction.”
Soft Skull’s sister publisher, Catapult, also has an October-specific call for column pitches for its website as well as for fiction pieces (“we welcome short stories, novel excerpts that stand on their own, and translated fiction”). Catapult notes in its guidelines that it pays for all pieces that it publishes.
Poetry journal Foundry is now also publishing craft-focused essays. “We are looking for 800-1,200 word essays that engage and interrogate contemporary poetics. Topics may include but are not limited to: lyric essays interweaving the poet’s own practice with his/her/their poetic influences; deep-dive analyses of other poets’ formal trajectories and artistic developments; explorations of a theme across a wide array of poetries; and sustained meditations on an element of craft. We encourage a playful, inquisitive approach to these subjects. Above all, we are seeking essays that examine poems as made things and illuminate their making, practitioner to practitioner. What that means is up to you.” Payment: “We pay $20 per essay via Venmo or Paypal shortly after publication.”
“Texas Review Press publishes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and scholarly works. We are currently open for new book project proposals….Topics we are interested in include 20th/21st Century American Poetry, Environmental Writing, Ecopoetics, Contemporary Poetics, Creative Writing Pedagogy, Southern Literature, Southern Issues, Texas/Louisiana Literature, Texas/Louisiana History, Folklore, Cajun-Creole Studies, African-American Literature, African-American Studies, Latinx Literature, Latinx Studies, & Texas/Mexico History.” Check specific guidelines for proposals in poetry, fiction & general interest nonfiction, and scholarly works.
Paid internship in New York: “Do you love books? French culture? Helping people? Are you organized? Available 5 days a week starting December 1st, 2018? Do you feel as comfortable working in French as you do in English? Albertine, New York’s only French bookstore, is looking for an intern. It might be you!”
“Poetry London is one of the UK’s most prestigious and best-selling poetry magazines. Founded in 1988, it is published three times a year. The magazine’s current circulation is approximately 1600. With the planned departure of Ahren Warner in 2019, we are seeking to appoint a freelance Poetry Editor to lead the editorial team, and to edit the poems for all issues of the magazine from Autumn 2019. The fee is £10,000 per annum.” (via Sian Meades)
“Atlas Obscura is hiring a junior editor to write, edit, and produce Atlas Obscura’s email newsletters in our offices in Brooklyn, New York.”
The National Foreign Language Center (NFLC) “will hire a full-time editor for a period ending June 30, 2019, with the possibility of an extension depending on excellent work performance and the NFLC’s staffing needs. The duties of the position can be performed remotely or while working in the NFLC offices in College Park, MD.”
In Rhode Island, the Department of English at Brown University “seeks to appoint a Director of the Nonfiction Writing Program at the rank of Senior Lecturer. The new Director will serve a three-year renewable term effective July 1, 2019. The Director of the Nonfiction Writing Program teaches four nonfiction writing courses per year at all levels and is eligible for a one-course release every other year. The Director is responsible for developing the curriculum; supervising the scheduling and staffing of all courses; building on and further enhancing the mission of the program; and promoting the program and its faculty members through partnerships across the University on various writing initiatives. The Nonfiction Writing Program constitutes a significant track within the English Department undergraduate concentration. By combining academic writing, creative nonfiction, and journalism within one innovative program, it seeks to train readers, writers, and critics across the range of nonfiction genres. The program offers introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses in academic writing, journalism, and other creative nonfiction forms (memoir, personal essay, historical narrative, travel writing, science and environmental writing, cultural criticism, and digital nonfiction).”
At Stanford University in California, “the Department of English and the Creative Writing Program are conducting a search for a tenure-track Assistant Professor or Associate Professor fiction writer. Candidates are expected to have a record of distinguished publication, including two completed books of fiction. Of these, both may be published, or one may be published and the second not yet published but under contract.”
The Louisiana State University Department of English “invites applications from fiction writers for the position of Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, to begin August 2019. Teaching will include a 2/2 load, consisting of graduate and undergraduate fiction workshops, and the direction of graduate theses.”
In Georgia, “the English Department of Mercer University invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position in Creative Writing to begin August 2019. This will involve teaching 21 credit hours per academic year in undergraduate courses teaching poetry or prose writing including: Writing Short Fiction, Writing the Long Story, Writing Narrative Poetry, Writing Lyric Poetry, Creative Approaches to Nonfiction, Playwriting, Reading For Writers, and extra-departmental general education courses. The ability to draw writers, critics, editors, and other literary figures to campus to participate in the colleges visiting writers series would be a plus.”
“State University of New York at Fredonia, Department of English, is searching for an Assistant Professor in multi-genre creative writing who will execute a vision for our creative writing program, defining and shaping the direction of this expanding program. Terminal degree (M.F.A. and/or doctorate) in creative writing by September 1, 2019 required.”
