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.

FWIW: I did not run across many jobs for this week’s post; I did, however, encounter a number of opportunities with specific connections to our current circumstances. And a quick reminder: I’ve continued to update this site’s new page of info on emergency grants and related info for writers. Check it out at bit.ly/EmergencyResourcesWriters, and please share as you find appropriate.

• Electric Literature‘s “Recommended Reading” feature will be open for submissions from April 15-22. (As noted in Halimah Marcus’s tweet, linked above: “We decided to move up our spring submission period to give our writers and editors something to look forward to, and work towards.”) They’re looking for fiction between 1,500 and 10,000 words, for which they pay $300.
• Based in Vancouver, B.C., “Pandemic Publications is a brand-spanking-new multidisciplinary arts platform. Our aim is to provide bursaries to artists during times of financial crisis (like right now), while showcasing original content by a diverse array of talented individuals. We publish works in the categories of poetry, prose, visual arts, and music, on our website and social media platforms. While we accept submissions from any artist, we actively encourage submissions by individuals from economically marginalized communities, both to amplify their voices and message, and to direct critical funding to where it is needed most.” Check the guidelines for details on what they’re most interested in receiving. Payment: “$120 for fiction and non-fiction; $50 per poem; $150 for photography and illustrations. Please note that all dollar amounts are in CAD, and are paid by Paypal upon publication.” (HT @Duotrope)
• Last week, The Freelancer updated its pitching guidelines to explain what they’re most interested in receiving right now: “Stories that help freelancers navigate the coronavirus crisis, professionally and personally. Favorable topics include: remote work, productivity, finding work, the economic fallout, emergency assistance, personal essays, financial management during downturns, and more.” Pays: “Pay for a typical 700-1,000-word story ranges from $300-$350, but could be more or less depending on length, sourcing requirements, and other factors.” (HT @WeisChoice)
• Also last week, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) listed a number of timely topics they’d be interested in featuring in The Writer’s Notebook. You’ll find them detailed in this email/newsletter. Payment (per posted guidelines): “We pay $18 per 100 words for accepted manuscripts categorized as Career Advice or as Online-Only Exclusives. Any other pieces written for The Writer’s Notebook are paid $100 per piece. Authors are paid upon publication.”
• “Inspired by the WPA arts initiatives of the 1930s, the Coffee House Writers Project (CHWP) will commission original, short, digital-only works from those in the literary community whose ability to support themselves has been affected by the COVID-19 crisis. As a nonprofit arts organization and a publisher with nearly half a century of experience, CHP wants to help galvanize the book-loving community and support those—the writers, booksellers, and freelancers—who have lost jobs and income but whose work is essential for us to do ours. We want to put money in these writers’ hands as quickly as possible, and we are committed to writing checks at the time of commission.” What they’re seeking: “essays (including op-ed-type pieces), poems (and poem cycles), stories, and hybrid works. For prose contributions, we’re looking for a length of between 500 and 700 words. For poetry, we’ll accept submissions of 3–5 pages in 12-point font. These are rough guidelines; all work will be assessed on merits other than length as well, of course. We welcome work generated by your current state of being, but we’d also be happy to see something you’ve been working on or thinking through for a while. We want to see the stuff you can’t stop writing, but that maybe feels uncomfortably new and weird.” Payment: “Currently we’re offering a flat rate of $500 for commissioned pieces.”