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.

• From Roxane Gay: “I am starting a new project, part of which will include publishing an emerging writer twice a month, starting in January 2021. I define emerging writer as someone with fewer than three article/essay/short story publications and no published books or book contracts. Please submit your best nonfiction and nonfiction only. I am interested in literary essays and memoir. Please submit only one essay at a time. Essays should be between 1500 and 3000 words. All essays will be paid a flat fee of $2,000.”
• From Jered’s Pottery: “Calling on you, dear poets! Submission opportunity. We are excited to announce the official launch of Poetry at the Pottery. We will select one poem that we will have beautifully printed to include in all of our packaging throughout December and January. Submit up to three poems that are no more than 20 lines each, on the subject of VESSELS, FEASTS, or THE ELEMENTS: AIR, WIND, FIRE, WATER. Chosen poet will get $100 and copies of the printed poem. Deadline is December 15th, midnight PST. 
• From BOA Editions: “Blessing the Boats Selections spotlights poetry collections by women of color. As the 2021-2023 Blessing the Boats Selections Editor-at-Large, Aracelis Girmay will read submissions and select the final manuscript for publication. Blessing the Boats Selections is named after Lucille Clifton’s National Book Award-winning collection, Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, (BOA, 2000), in honor and celebration of her enduring legacy.” Submissions must be made by postal mail. The selected writer receives a $5,000 honorarium and book publication by BOA Editions, Ltd. in Fall 2022. Deadline: December 31, 2020. (Thanks to Entropy’s “Where to Submit” feature for pointing me to this one.)
• The Vermont Writers’ Prize welcomes “your essay, short story, play or poem. It must be on one central topic – Vermont! Whether it is about its people, its places, its history or its values — the choice is yours! Your entry must be unpublished and 1,500 words or less. The Writers’ Prize is open to all Vermont residents and students, but employees of Green Mountain Power and Vermont Magazine are not eligible. Please submit only one entry per year. There will be a winner for prose and a winner for poetry, and each will receive a cash prize of $1,250. The winning pieces will be published in Vermont Magazine.” Deadline: January 1, 2021.
• From the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts: “We are so happy to be planning a 2021 residency season. We’re shifting the whole season back by one month. Residencies will begin in early June and run through the end of October. Our residencies are open to all visual artists and writers in New York State including Indian Nations therein. New in 2021: accessible space! For the first time, we will be able to accommodate artists and writers with handicap accessible live/work space. This includes a private bedroom with an accessible roll-in shower, an adjoining accessible studio space (for an artist or writer), and an adjoining private living space with private bath for a personal care assistant. Please mark your calendars: the application deadline will be January 23, 2021.” Stipends are provided as part of the residency award: “a $200 stipend for artists/writers awarded the 6-night residency for parents” and “a $375 or $750 stipend (based on a 2- or 4-week session).”
• Reminder! We’re not even half-way through December. If you haven’t yet examined all of the opportunities listed in the December issue of The Practicing Writer 2.0 (which went out at the end of November), you can still take advantage of plenty that’s listed there.
• “Literary Hub is seeking a full-time assistant editor. This editor will have an integral role in the continued growth and development of the site, working closely with the managing editor, deputy editor, and editor in chief….This is a full-time, salaried position, with benefits, located in New York City, but remote candidates will be considered.” Application deadline: December 18.
• “The Criterion Collection is looking to hire a full-time assistant editor to work on its website, including the company’s online magazine, the Current. This is a remote position to start. The person in this role will support the web editor in shepherding articles through all stages of development, coordinating the daily maintenance of all editorial elements on the website, and facilitating communication across Criterion departments and with our ever-growing roster of contributors.”
• Bluffton University “invites applications for a full-time, ongoing faculty position in Creative Writing Fiction to begin Fall 2021.”
• “The University of Southern Mississippi is currently accepting applications for the position of Assistant Professor of Creative Writing.”
• “The Department of English at Loyola University New Orleans invites applications for a full-time, Visiting Assistant Professorship in Creative Writing, focusing on any area of creative writing, including playwriting, fiction, nonfiction, and/or poetry, beginning August 2021. Preference will be given to applicants who have experience in multiple genres. This is a one year, renewable position.”