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.

• “Poets & Writers’ Board of Directors established the Poets & Writers COVID-19 Relief Fund to provide emergency assistance to writers having difficulty meeting their basic needs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In April, we distributed 107 grants of $1,000 each to writers from twenty-six states. We are pleased to announce a second round of funding. The fund will provide grants of $1,000 each to thirty writers.” Eligibility requirements are detailed in the guidelines. Deadline: June 28. (Reminder: More COVID-19 relief resources are listed at bit.ly/EmergencyResourcesWriters.)
• Bright Wall/Dark Room, “an online magazine devoted to exploring the relationship between movies and the business of being alive,” is open for submissions. A current unthemed submission period (for the August issue) closes June 30. Pays: “We pay on a sliding scale based on the scope of a given piece, with a range of $100 – $300 per essay.”
• The Willowherb Review, which “aims to provide a digital platform to celebrate and bolster nature writing by emerging and established writers of colour,” is open for submissions until June 30 (23.59 CET). Pays: “€150 for prose, €50 for poetry. You’ll need to be able to issue an invoice and be paid via bank transfer or PayPal.” (h/t Cathy’s Comps & Calls)
• From The Syndrome Mag: “As a response to the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and countless others, and the continuous systematic violence perpetrated against the black community, we have launched the Black Voices Matter campaign for the month of June. As an ally and supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, we believe that now is the time to pause our regular content and instead utilize this online space for anti-racism efforts. Black women/non-binary individuals are invited to submit their work – we look forward to hearing from you.” Payment: “Black writers will receive $50 for each published article. Our regular fee of $20 per article has been increased during this time as a small gesture to black writers whose work will inevitably bring insight and education to our wide readership, though we acknowledge this payment is not nearly enough.” Deadline: “Deadline to submit for this specific campaign is currently June 30th.”
• For its blog, Ploughshares is “currently accepting pitches for critical essays, personal essays, blended longform essays, interviews, book reviews. Please review the guidelines here: https://pshr.us/2jvsDIN.”
• Fourteen Poems “is a London-based poetry journal, publishing the most exciting LGBT+ poets.” Pays: “£25 for each poem published.” (h/t @Duotrope)
• In Brooklyn, the Center for Fiction “is looking for part-time booksellers to join the team at the Center’s bookstore as we reopen after quarantine. This job will be approximately 20 hours a week, and duties will include: helping customers, organizing and shelving books, assisting the management with inventory tasks (receiving, returns, etc.), and, of course, selling books. Other basic bookstore duties will apply.”
• In New York, “Catapult is looking for a Marketing Coordinator to join our team. Primarily supporting the Associate Publisher and Marketing Director at Catapult, Counterpoint, and Soft Skull, the Coordinator will focus on email marketing, with additional responsibilities across title marketing and community outreach.”
• In Virginia, “the Communications Department at ARTSFAIRFAX is seeking a part-time communication assistant to the Director of Communication. This individual will work with the Director to oversee outreach and promotion efforts for a variety of email, online marketing, social media, data, and communications projects.” NB: “Remote possible.”
• In Massachusetts, the Merrimack College Department of English invites applications to teach Creative Writing as a full-time non-tenure track faculty member at the rank of lecturer beginning with the fall 2020 semester….The successful candidate will specialize in poetry and creative non-fiction and will teach first-year composition as well.”
• In Iowa, “Cornell College invites applications to teach two creative writing courses in Fall 2020: ENG 318, Advanced Fiction Writing (October 19-November 11) and ENG 215, Introduction to Creative Writing (November 16-December 16).”
• In Oregon, Portland State University’s Publishing Program “is looking for qualified instructors to teach a wide variety of courses at the undergraduate and graduate level.”
• In California, “the Department of Literatures and Languages at Mills College invites applications for a part-time Assistant Adjunct Professor in English specializing in Creative Writing, Fiction / Creative Nonfiction.”
• Also in California: a part-time position in Santa Monica: “Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences seeks a dynamic educator to join its innovative upper school Publications department beginning in the 2020-2021 school year to teach Creative Writing.”