Markets and Jobs for Writers

Background of a keyboard, mug of coffee, and wallet on a tabletop; text label indicating "Markets and Jobs for Writers: No fees to submit work/apply. Paying gigs only."

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.

  • Quick reminder: I continue to update this site’s new page of info on Covid-19-focused emergency grants and related info for writers. Check it out at bit.ly/EmergencyResourcesWriters, and please share as you find appropriate.
  • Short Fiction is a high-quality online journal (previously also in print, since 2006), publishing some of the finest short stories from around the world.” NB: ” We publish one story per month as our Featured piece. We will also periodically seek to publish one story in a new section – ‘Introducing’ – which will be a showcase for excellent new writers; that is, writers for whom this is their first published piece. In both cases we are looking for the best, carefully crafted, deeply considered work.” Payment: “2p (£0.02) per word, to the nearest 100 words, with a minimum of £30 and maximum £100, paid via PayPal. (For those without a PayPal account, we can work out an alternative method of payment.)”
  • Britni Danielle is seeking pitches for Shondaland, including pitches for “author interviews for books dropping in May/June.” Be sure to read the entire thread, where you’ll also find some rate info: “$400+, depending on amount reporting.”. (HT @WeisChoice)
  • From Samantha Leal at Well + Good: “It’s almost mental health awareness month. Looking for surprising/weird/heartfelt/not-been-covered-a-ton story ideas and essays. Rates start at $150.”
  • Based in the UK? Between 18 and 35 years old? You may be interested in the New Voice in Poetry Prize, “a brand new competition for emerging spoken word poets and performers who are yet to publish a full collection of work. If you have significant potential, interesting ideas, a relevant message and skillful execution, we would love to hear from you. To enter, you will need to upload two recorded audio poems. Poems can be voice-only or voice accompanied by sound/music. The winner will have their work recorded and published alongside a collection of established poets from across the UK, as well as receiving a £250 prize.”
  • Don’t forget: Plenty of opportunities listed in our latest monthly newsletter remain open for submissions/pitches/entries. Everything included there is also fee-free and paying. And the May newsletter is in the works, so if you’re not already a subscriber, check out the archive and sign up to receive it!
  • Remote job: DC Greens seeks a Communications Assistant who “will be responsible for researching and externally communicating emergency relief resources, volunteer opportunities, and donation opportunities for DC residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Appears to pay $26/hr.
  • Girls Write Now “is seeking a new member for our multimedia team to support the development and integration of our digital projects, with a focus on building our 2020 Multimedia Website, which will feature our current mentees’ original digital writing pieces. The Website Developer/Designer will work in close collaboration with the Girls Write Now Staff Team, and the mentor and mentee community, to build a website that captures the diversity and importance of our mentees’ voices. For the foreseeable future, this will be a remote position, with the addition of in-person meetings once safe to do so. There is an opportunity for project continuation beyond June 2020, connecting the 2020 Multimedia Website to mentees’ writing portfolios and the Girls Write Now organizational website.” (Priority application deadline for this position is today, April 20; some additional jobs with Girls Write Now are listed on the website.)
  • The University of Central Oklahoma’s Department of English “invites applications for a One-Year, Full-Time Temporary Artist in Residence (2020–2021). We seek to appoint a creative writer (open specialization).”
  • “The Writing & Literature major in the College of Creative Studies (CCS) at the University of California Santa Barbara invites applications for part-time temporary lecturers to teach a combination of creative writing workshops in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry; literature; and/or literary publishing seminars.”
on a tabletop: a keyboard, a mug of coffee, and a wallet with cash, plus a text label announcing Markets and Jobs for Writers