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.

• “Southword Editions is publishing an anthology of 12 short fictions by Irish authors (domiciled in Ireland, or in possession of an Irish passport) reflecting the LGBTQI+ love experience….We have already commissioned work from John Boyne, June Caldwell, Naoise Dolan, Emma Donoghue, Mary Dorcey, Neil Hegarty and Colm Toibín. This is your chance to be included in an anthology with such distinguished names. We are seeking four Irish authors from the LGBTQI+ community.” Paul McVeigh is editing. Deadline: September 20. Payment: “Each chosen writer will receive 500 euros for their story upon publication.”
• “The Modern Love and Tiny Love Stories inboxes are OPEN again. We especially encourage BIPOC to submit, as well as those outside of the United States and people who identify as members of L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ communities.” (NB: Per a question posed to the announcement, only Modern Love pays [“currently $500”]. Thanks to Opportunities of the Week for leading me to this one.)
• From @NimrodJournal: “Tulsa Writers! We’re accepting flash fiction and poetry to publish in The Voice ( @TheTulsaVoice). For each piece that gets published, you’ll get $30.”
• “Calling all Black womxn writers! Tell your story for @carefreemag. A new weekly storyletter from Black women around the world telling their stories on life, love, adventure and everything in between. Check this thread for more information (including payment details: $100/essay).
• Thread from Julia Shiota with current editorial interests at New Territory, which focuses on the Lower Midwest. Pays: $25 for book reviews, $75 for “Here” section of 500-word essays.
• Reminder: We’re approaching the mid-month mark; MUCH of what I’ve shared in the September issue of The Practicing Writer 2.0 remains open for submissions/applications.
• “The Girls Write Now Fellowship Program offers full-time paid fellowships to 3-5 Fellows annually. Fellowships are customized, and typically last up to one year. The program is a competitive opportunity with a leading nonprofit to get on a solid track post-graduation with intensive, on-the-ground training from Girls Write Now. Fellows emerge from the program well positioned for promotion within Girls Write Now or to be competitive candidates in any career.” NB: “Fellows work remotely until staff can safely return to the Girls Write Now midtown Manhattan headquarters.” Compensation: “Girls Write Now Fellows are paid competitive salaries and benefit packages. Compensation will be commensurate with experience.” Deadline: “Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.”
• For 2021, Grub Street’s The Muse and the Marketplace conference is being reconfigured as a five-day virtual residency. “We offer partial, need-based scholarships–for general audiences, for writers doing great work in the literary community, and for writers from historically marginalized backgrounds. No previous publication or MFA required.” You may “apply for multiple scholarships by selecting all scholarships you’d like to be considered for in your application. Nearly all scholarships are awarded in quantities of $135, to cover 50% of the recipients’ Muse 2021 registration. Occasionally we offer larger amounts to individuals demonstrating particular need and writerly promise.” Deadline: November 18, 2020.
• “Slate is hiring a full-time culture writer. Ideal candidates will be insightful, funny, opinionated, game, and able to write in an array of modes, with a knack for mounting surprising, persuasive arguments and finding unexplored angles on familiar subjects. We’re looking for someone with excellent news sense and good judgment who writes sparkling copy. In any given week, our attentions may be captured by a controversial movie, a groundbreaking TV show, or a critical dust-up, and our culture writer should have a piqued interest in any and all of it. The position is on staff, with benefits, and can be based in Slate’s Brooklyn office, its D.C. office, or remote.”
• “The Boston Globe Opinion team is seeking a deputy editor for Ideas, a section that aims to provoke unconventional thinking and progress by publishing insightful reported articles, essays, and interviews about politics, culture, social change, education, science, and technology. Ideas gives readers new ways of thinking about the most important questions of our time and features people, places, ideas, and inventions that are pointing the way forward.” (HT MEOjobs)
• “Soho Press is looking for a highly detail-oriented individual to join our publicity and marketing team on a part-time/contractor basis to coordinate and organize author events and series. PLEASE NOTE: This is a remote position.”