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.

• Attention, North Carolinians: “The NC State Fiction Contest is accepting entries for its 2019 competition. Drawing more than 300 entrants last year, this free literary contest is open to North Carolina residents and is one of the largest free-to-enter writing contests in the South. This year’s guest judge is Stephanie Powell Watts, author of No One Is Coming to Save Us and We Are Taking Only What We Need.” Prizes: “Contestants may enter one story in each of the two contest categories: The James Hurst Prize for Fiction ($500): An unpublished short story of no more than 5,000 words. In addition to the winner, several honorable mention awards will be presented. The Shorter Fiction Prize ($250): An unpublished short story of no more than 1,200 words. One honorable mention award will be presented. In addition, the best NC State undergraduate entry will receive a $100 prize.” Deadline: October 15. NB: You must submit your entry via postal mail; deadline is a postmark deadline. Also be sure to check the eligibility info.
• Also with an October 15th deadline: a call from The Puritan’s “The Town Crier” blog: “Dungeons & Dragons is bigger than ever. From the web series Critical Role live-streaming their sessions to their loyal fanbase on Twitch to the show Stranger Things drawing inspiration from the original Monster Manual. It’s clear that the classic RPG is having a massive resurgence in pop culture. In November, Dana Ewachow will be editing the Town Crier around the theme of Dungeons & Dragons, its influence on personal creativity, art, and pop culture.” From the editor “I will be choosing a mixture of personal essays, critiques, and creative explorations.” Payment: “Chosen entries will receive a token payment of $25 CAD for their contributions.”
• Permission to post this received via email from Suraya Mohamed: “NPR is looking for stories for this year’s Hanukkah Lights special. Fiction is preferred; non-fiction submissions will be considered – 4,000 words or less. NPR will pay $500 for any story selected for broadcast. Please send questions or submissions to smohamed@npr.org and zjones@npr.org before October 31st.”
• Open for submissions: Teach. Write. Billed as “a writing teachers’ literary journal,” this publication is open to submissions from everyone, although the editor “prefers writing that is either written by composition teachers and writing students OR about teaching and learning. I believe that writing students (virtually everyone has been a writing student) need to have a voice in Teach. Write. However, I do request that in your required third-person bio you include your composition teacher experience, if you have any, or explain the impact writing instruction has had on you.” NB: “I am open to a variety of genres and subject matter. The piece does NOT have to be about teaching or learning to be accepted in Teach. Write.” Pays: “$15 for short stories, creative non-fiction, and essays; $10 for all other categories, upon or soon following, publication, payable via PayPal.” (HT @Duotrope)
• “Brooklyn Poets is offering fellowships to cover the full cost of double registration (boarding with a roommate) for its inaugural Hudson Valley Retreat for students in need. To be eligible, applicants must not hold a graduate degree in creative writing (MA/MFA/PhD) or be enrolled in a degree program with access to creative writing instruction, and must not have previously published (or had accepted for publication) a book of poems. All applicants are limited to one retreat fellowship lifetime (for either our Hamptons or Hudson Valley Retreat). Winners of Brooklyn Poets workshop fellowships are eligible to apply, provided they have not won a retreat fellowship before.” Deadline: October 13.
• “BOMB Magazine, the New York-based publisher of conversations between artists of all disciplines, seeks a Managing Editor. This editor will work closely with the Senior Editor, Editor in Chief, and Associate Editor on all aspects of the print quarterly magazine and coordinate with online editors, designers, development staff, marketing, and other departments. This is a full-time staff position with health insurance.”
• “Cave Canem Foundation, Inc. is the premier institution for supporting the many voices of Black poetry: the home of the nation’s largest collection of Black writers….Cave Canem seeks a Programs & Communications Manager who is passionate about poetry and the literary world, and excited to maintain and expand programming and communication strategies for the organization.” This job is located in Brooklyn, NY. 
• RJ Julia Booksellers (Connecticut) is looking for a part-time Festival Director.
• “The Department of Writing in the School of Humanities & Sciences at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, invites applications for a tenure-eligible position in nonfiction beginning on August 16, 2020. We offer one of the nation’s few comprehensive bachelor’s degrees in writing, including a concentration in nonfiction, and we seek a colleague to help us deliver and enrich our diverse curriculum.”
• “For appointment beginning as early as fall 2020, we seek a writer of creative nonfiction to teach two semesters at The George Washington University as the Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in -Washington.”
• “The English Department at Western Kentucky University seeks applicants for a tenure-eligible position in Fiction Writing; secondary interest in literary nonfiction and background in literary journal or book editing desirable.”
• “The Department of English at Northern Kentucky University (NKU) invites applications for a tenure-track position in Creative Writing-Fiction. While all types of fiction writing and genres will be considered, there is a preferred focus on African American, Latinx, LGBTQ+, and/or other underrepresented writing.”
• At Emerson College in Boston, “the Department of Writing, Literature and Publishing invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Fiction Writing.”
• In New Jersey, “the English Department at Rutgers University-Newark invites applications for two tenure-track faculty positions in Fiction Writing at the level of Assistant Professor.”
• “Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia, invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Creative Writing with a Ph.D. or MFA (ABD with a firm completion date also accepted) in Fiction and/or Poetry to begin August, 2020.”
• From Northwestern University (Illinois): “We are looking for an Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor of Instruction in poetry, prosody, and poetic form starting fall 2020. The successful candidate will be a published poet and exceptional pedagogue who will teach at all levels of the undergraduate curriculum and in the newly established Litowitz Creative Writing Graduate Program.”
• In Maine, Colby College invites “applications for a two-year position at the rank of Visiting Assistant Professor for the 2020-2022 academic years. We seek a passionate teacher and poet to join a thriving English major with concentrations in creative writing for both majors and minors.
• “Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina invites distinguished writers to apply for a non-renewable one-year professorship, the McGee Professor of Writing, for appointment for the academic year 2020-2021; genre open. Responsibilities: teach two courses per semester, serve on two English honors committees, and work closely with students and faculty. Qualifications: extensive high-quality publications, significant awards and/or fellowships; national reputation within the field; demonstrated teaching experience at the undergraduate level. Previous McGee professors have included Kazim Ali, Dorothy Allison, María Irene Fornés, Thomas Mallon, Sue Miller, Rona Munro, D.A. Powell, Victoria Redel, and Ali Selim. Furnished housing and salary of $110,000 provided, plus benefits.”
• Online adjunct faculty sought: “Southern New Hampshire University is currently seeking faculty to teach in our Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) program.” NB: “Established publication record required, particularly in: Popular Fiction, Romance, Young Adult, Sci-Fi, and/or Fantasy.”