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.

• News about Newfound’s Emerging Poet Chapbook Series: “From December 1-31 only, Newfound accepts unsolicited chapbook-length manuscripts from poets who have not yet published a full-length book. Our open submission period aims to advance the careers of emerging writers by printing their work in beautiful, hand-bound editions. Submissions are open to finalists, but not winners of Newfound prizes. One chapbook is selected annually by Newfound staff.” Payment: “Poet receives royalties contract (25% print/50% digital),” along with 25 copies. NB: “Elements of the work must in some way explore how place shapes identity, imagination, and understanding.”
• “Mount Island is the literary magazine for rural LGBTQ+ and POC voices. We publish a quarterly digital magazine, an annual print anthology, and special letterpress projects.” The digital magazine welcomes fee-free submissions. Payment: “For publication in the digital magazine, writers are paid a $20 honorarium, and visual artists are paid $50. All digital magazine contributors also receive a 1-year subscription.” NB: “To focus on our mission of supporting rural LGBTQ+ and POC voices, most of our submission categories are open only to folks who identify as LGBTQ+ and/or POC and who currently live in or hail from a rural area. We do welcome ‘allies”‘who do not identify as LGBTQ+/POC/rural to submit in certain categories, such as interviews, reviews, blog articles, etc. When such categories are open for ‘ally submissions’, they will be labeled clearly.” (HT @Duotrope)
• From the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) annual conference: “Are you a current student or adjunct professor or need assistance covering the cost of the conference? Sign up to participate in our work-exchange program at the 2020 AWP Conference & Bookfair at the Henry B. González Convention Center on March 4-7, 2020!”
• From the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa: “The Summer Institute is an immersive two-week creative writing and cultural exchange program held in Iowa City, Iowa, U.S., a UNESCO City of Literature, for participants age 18-22 from Pakistan, India, and the U.S. Students from all disciplines – the arts, humanities, sciences, and everything in between – are welcome to apply! This program is free for accepted applicants, and will focus on creative writing and the power of narrative. Attendees take part in master classes in the craft of writing, in collaborative workshops focused on their creative work, and in activities designed to forge new lines of understanding and shared purpose among its community of writers. The Summer Institute is an opportunity to see writing as a form of action – a personally-empowering skill that can be employed for social change.” Application deadline: February 1, 2020.
• ICYMI: The December issue of The Practicing Writer went out to subscribers late last week. As always, you’ll find a plethora of no-fee, paying opportunities listed therein (including, for example, a one-week submissions window that opens today for Electric Literature’s The Commuter).
• Also in the latest issue of The Practicing Writer—a shoutout to Trish Hopkinson’s website, this month’s Featured Resource, where you’ll find lists like this one, featuring 18 no-fee poetry contests with December deadlines. (Sure, you’ll have caught me mentioning a number of these already, but it never hurts to be reminded, and there are some on this list that I haven’t yet gotten around to telling you about.)
• In Boston, “Mass Poetry seeks a Program Assistant Intern for the Spring 2020 semester (January–May) to support the Education Director in their work. This role has a January start date and has the possibility to extend beyond the Spring 2020 semester.” NB: “The position requires approximately 10–12 hours per week. Pay is $350/month.”
• “Nowhere Bookshop (San Antonio, TX), a new independent bookstore opening early 2020, is searching for an Events and Marketing Manager. Nowhere Bookshop is dedicated to connecting readers to authors and as such is looking for a knowledgeable and energetic candidate to grow an events program from scratch.”
• In Minnesota, Bemidji State University is advertising for an Assistant Professor of English (looks to be a poetry hire).
• Similar situation (assistant professor position), but for a fictionist, at the University of Memphis.

P.S. You’ve still got time (until tomorrow at noon) to enter the giveaway described here and win a copy of my new book, Birthright: Poems.