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.

• Update from Yi Shun Lai of Reads & Eats (a new newsletter about food; scroll down the post for the guidelines): “I’m always looking for new contributors.” Criteria: Contributors must be “a marginalized writer,” “new to publishing (fewer than five publications),” “writing prose.” Pays: $100.
• From Catapult Assistant Editor Mallory Soto: “This is unwise given how much is in my inbox already, but October is…too close. Send me your spooky short fiction or Halloween-related pieces (got a personal essay involving fun-size candy nostalgia? Costumes? The beauty of Fall? I love it.)” Payment: “Rates average between $100-250.” (h/t @WeisChoice)
• Just a couple of days left (deadline: August 26) to send work to Funicular Magazine, which “publishes quality fiction and poetry that shocks, surprises, moves, and tickles us. Maybe all of those things in a single piece. We are a Canadian magazine and we want to publish Canadian voices, but don’t be shy if you aren’t Canadian. We love sharing international writers with our readers too.” Pays: $10/printed page (up to a maximum of $100) for fiction; $25/piece for flash fiction; $25/piece for poetry. Note: “We do not currently pay for pieces accepted for online publication only.”
• If you’d like to send a short story to Fireside, now is the time to do it. Submissions will be open from August 24-28. “Fireside pays USD 12.5 cents per word.” (h/t Erica Verrillo)
• Brief sub window coming soon from Barrelhouse: “Give us your unique, your unusual, your hard-to-place flash stories yearning to be read. We’re running an online flash fiction edition in the fall, and we want YOU (to submit)! We’ll open our Submittable queue for flash fiction for three days at the end of the month: August 28-30. To help you prepare, here’s what we’ll be looking for: You can submit one or two stories of up to 1,000 words each; but in order to spread opportunities as broadly as possible, we won’t be able to accept two stories from the same author. Pieces can be humorous or serious (or both!), and there’s no theme. We’ll read both traditional stories and experimental pieces. We’re open to “hermit crab” flash (stories told in non-traditional formats like lists, letters, forms, recipes, etc.), and will be able to accept stories in Word or PDF to preserve unusual formatting. That said, we’re also thrilled when extraordinary stories rise out of the good old tradition of words in a row on the page. We’re also open to new voices in flash fiction. Maybe you’re a poet going long, or a novelist going short for a change. Let’s hear your weirdness in all its funky glory! And as always, BIPOC/LGBTQ writers are encouraged to submit. Selected authors will receive $50 for their story.” Submission link included at the end of the call.
• “Entries are now being accepted for The Val Wood Prize for Creative Writing 2020: The Next Chapter The overall theme of this year’s competition has been chosen as feel-good and we want you to pack your entries with optimism, originality and creativity. The competition is open to anyone over 16 years of age. Entrants are free to write about whatever they wish as long as the theme is adhered to. Poetry will NOT be considered for the prize. Annually, the competition receives a staggering amount of entries from all over the world and we want to keep that up. However, this year we want to celebrate the best of local talent too, which is why we have split the competition so you can enter the category that best suits you, or both.” The International Open Prize “is open to anyone in the world. Your entry must be written in the form of an uplifting, feel-good short story with an overall word-count of 2000. The winner of the OPEN PRIZE will receive £100 and their entry will be published on the website www.valeriewood.co.uk and shared via various social media outlets. One runner up of the OPEN PRIZE will receive £50. One highly commended entry to the OPEN PRIZE will receive £25.” This year, an inaugural Yorkshire Prize is open to residents of Yorkshire only, enabling us to celebrate and reward.” For this competition, the theme is “The Yorkshire Coast,” and entries should be “written in the form of a short story with an overall word-count of 2000. The winner of the YORKSHIRE PRIZE will receive £100 and their entry will be published on the website www.valeriewood.co.uk and shared via various social media outlets. One runner up of the YORKSHIRE PRIZE will receive £50. One highly commended entry to the YORKSHIRE PRIZE will receive £25.” Deadline: “before 5pm on 31 August 2020” (presumably that’s 5pm Yorkshire time).
• Reminder: Plenty of the opportunities listed in our August newsletter remain open for your consideration.
• Donors Choose is advertising for a marketing copywriter (freelance/retainer; remote). Pay: “hourly, to be discussed in the hiring process.”
• The Mighty, which “publishes hundreds of relatable, helpful and enlightening first-person essays that shine light on the human side of health,” is looking for “a full-time associate editor to help nourish and grow [its] contributor network. This position is full-time with a competitive salary.”
• In Utah, “the Department of English at Brigham Young University announces a continuing faculty status (tenure) track, professorial position in Creative Writing–Fiction. While an MFA in Creative Writing or similar field is required, a PhD is preferred. Applicants must have a distinguished publication record. Degree must be completed by August 2021.”