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.

• Until September 10, Longleaf Review welcomes submissions on the theme of “harvest.” Payment: “We pay $20 per author in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. All authors in the current issue will also receive free priority registration for our next Weekend Workshop Intensive. We are unable to pay for reviews at this time.” (Thanks to Cathy’s Comps & Calls for leading me to this one.)
• “Hoosier Noir is seeking gritty, well written short stories. All stories must involve an Indiana crime or Hoosiers involved in a crime. All stories should be 2,000 to 5,000 words. We’re also accepting flash fiction with a max of 1,000 words.” No simultaneous submissions. Pays: “Each selected author will receive a payment of $15 ($10 for Flash fiction) & one contributor copy.” Deadline: September 13^th 2020 at midnight. NB: “Submissions for our 4:20 Noir (Special Issue) Open September 15^th 2020. This will not be limited to Indiana Crime Fiction. We are looking for your best marijuana related crime fiction. All regular submissions guidelines and payment details remain the same.”
• The Dirty Spoon Radio Hour and Journal welcomes contributors, “first time authors, established writers, chefs, servers, food industry workers, farmers, foodies, non-foodies, and everyone in between to pitch or submit your full-length writings.” They’re interested in nonfiction only, “essays, interviews and articles about people who work in our consumable culture.” Payment: “honorarium of $50 upon publication via Paypal or mailed check.”
• “Poets & Writers has announced new funding for writers who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color and reside in Detroit, Houston, or New Orleans (and the surrounding metro areas). Grants of $250 to $750 will support online literary events. The application deadline is September 30.”
• ICYMI: Over on my other blog (My Machberet), last Friday’s post featured multiple fee-free, paying opportunities from the world of Jewish writing. Instead of listing them all again, I’m going to suggest that you click over to the full post.
• “Mass Poetry, a nonprofit poetry organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, seeks a strong project manager with a passion for poetry to join us as the Festival Director for the Massachusetts Poetry Festival. This contract role will run from approximately October 2020 – June 2021 and require approximately 8 hours per week, with flexible and additional availability as the festival approaches.” Compensation: “This contract role will pay a stipend of $15,000. Funds will be paid via a partnership between Mass Poetry and Salem State University.”
• From The New York Times: “The OpEd team for the Opinion section of the New York Times is looking for a fact-checker to provide temporary support through the 2020 election cycle. This is a temporary assignment until approximately November 13, 2020.” (H/t MEOjobs)
• In Pennsylvania, West Chester University seeks “applicants for a tenure-track position of Assistant Professor of English (Creative Writing), beginning in August 2021.”
• In Connecticut, the Department of English at Wesleyan University seeks “a fiction writer for a tenure track Assistant, Associate, or Professor position to begin on July 1, 2021.”