Erika Dreifus

Each week in this space, Practicing Writing shares no-fee, paying markets for writers of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction: competitions, contests, and calls for submissions. These weekly posts complement monthly issues of The Practicing Writer newsletter, where you’ll always find more listings, none of them limiting eligibility to residents of a single municipality, state, or province. (But this blog does share those more localized opportunities, including jobs.)

As always, if you’d like to share a specific opportunity listed here, please credit the blog for the find. Thanks for respecting the time and effort that I put into researching, curating, and posting this information! I do notice, and I appreciate the courtesy.

• “Immigrant Report is committed to centering immigrant voices and celebrating their stories, art, and ideas. We are currently seeking essay submissions that align with our mission. We are especially interested in essays from immigrant writers exploring any theme and first generation writers exploring themes of heritage and identity. Pays: “We are able to offer $20 per published essay, with consideration for additional payment given for longer essays.”
• “Storm Cellar is a nationally distributed literary arts magazine rooted in the Midwest, appearing in print and ebook editions. This is a journal of safety and danger. We want your prose, poems, chimeras, and ideas penned on envelopes in buses and train cars. The magazine aims to publish amazing work by new and established writers and artists, present a range of styles and approaches, and be as un-boring as it can. If you write one thing to be read while waiting for the all-clear to sound, send it here.” NB: They offer a lot of information in their guidelines about their current interests and their “Midwest connection,” so do read closely. Note also that their submissions are fee-free “for the first few hundred submissions each month, after which paid submissions are always open. Subscribers may always submit for free by emailing the editors….” Payment: “We now send a $10 honorarium to all contributors, beginning with issue 8.1, by PayPal/Venmo or money order.” (Thanks to Flash Fiction Flash for reminding me about this one.)
• At Bucknell University, the Stadler Fellowships “offer poets who have recently completed an MFA or MA in poetry the opportunity to receive professional training in arts administration and literary editing. The fellowships are designed to balance the development of professional skills with private time to complete a first book of poems. The Stadler Fellows assist for twenty hours each week in the administration of the Stadler Center’s programs and the editing of West Branch, Bucknell’s nationally distinguished literary journal. They also serve as staff members in the Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets in June. The one-year fellowships provide a competitive stipend, health insurance, and housing.” Applications for 2020-21 fellowships are due October 1.
• Canadians (citizens or landed immigrants): “University of Alberta Press is accepting poetry manuscripts between September 1 and October 31 this year. At the end of the submission period, the Press will select up to three manuscripts for publication in 2021 in the Robert Kroetsch Series of Canadian creative writing.”
• In New York, the Asian Cultural Council is “seeking a part-time Communications intern to provide support to the Manager of Communications and to the Development team.” Pays: $15/hr (minimum 24 hrs/week).
• Also in New York: “Rizzoli Bookstore is looking for a dynamic, hardworking bookseller to join our team part-time. Applicants must have excellent customer service skills and a strong knowledge of arts and culture. A background in art, architecture, design, or fashion is a plus. The position involves a variety of tasks including customer assistance, shelving, merchandising, register management, and event set-up. Candidates should possess a confident phone manner, good communication skills, and be comfortable using PC and Mac. Bookstore or publishing experience preferred.”
• “Cascade Public Media is looking for a dedicated staff writer to join its Arts and Culture team and provide coverage about Seattle, Puget Sound and the Pacific Northwest. This person is not a critic but an experienced writer who is enterprising, curious and well-connected — someone who can provide thoughtful and thorough coverage of the arts and cultural scene of the region through short and long-term profiles, trend, explanatory and/or investigative stories. The ideal candidate embraces a broad definition of what falls under arts and culture coverage and is committed to exploring how arts/culture intersects with race and underrepresented communities. The candidate also holds a deep knowledge of the local arts scene in all its diversity and has a proven track record of beat coverage.”
• “PEN/Faulkner is hiring dynamic, experienced Teaching Artists to lead short-term writing workshops in DC public and charter schools for students in grades 8–11. Our writing workshops are centered around the personal essay and are tailored to meet the needs of our partner school districts. Workshops vary in length from two to four sessions ranging from 50 minutes to 120 minutes per session.” Pays: “This is a limited-basis contract position with no benefits. Pay is $60/hour in the classroom, plus $30/hour paid time for mandatory training. Available hours depend on school schedules. Most workshops occur between 8 am and 3 pm.”
• “Pending funding and approval, the University of Tennessee seeks an Assistant Professor in Poetry Writing, tenure track.”
• At the University of Montana, “The Department of English invites applications for two full-time tenure-track positions in its premier creative writing program. We expect to make the hires from a single diverse pool of applicants with distinguished early-career records in fiction-writing and evidence of successful teaching at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. The position includes teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels, supervising graduate students’ theses, advising/mentoring students, and publishing creative works.”
• Johns Hopkins University is “seeking to fill a position in fiction at the level of associate or full professor. Interested applicants should have at least two books of fiction published by a reputable house, and another under way.”
• “The Department of English at William & Mary seeks applications for a tenure track position at the Assistant Professor level in creative writing. We are interested in individuals with publications and teaching expertise in fiction, with secondary expertise in creative nonfiction or screenwriting. Appointment will begin August 10, 2020. We are especially interested in candidates who can teach courses that fulfill the proposed COLL (general education) requirement in justice and equity.”
• “The BFA Program in Creative Writing and the Division of Humanities at the University of Maine at Farmington invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Creative Writing, with an emphasis in Fiction, beginning fall, 2020.”
• “The Literature and Creative Writing Department of Hamilton College invites applications for a tenure track position in fiction writing at the rank of Assistant Professor, to begin on July 1, 2020. We are seeking someone who can teach an introduction to creative writing (mixed genre); an intermediate workshop in fiction; a senior seminar in creative writing; and one to two literature courses, including a course in narrative forms. A Ph.D. is preferred, although candidates with a MFA and advanced coursework in literature will be considered.”