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.

• ICYMI: The first issue of The Practicing Writer 2.0 for 2021 went out to subscribers on New Year’s Eve. It’s filled with 35 fee-free, paying opportunities for those of us who write fiction, poetry, and/or creative nonfiction.
• Something I didn’t include in the newsletter (because I wasn’t 100% certain that it would indeed re-open in January), but shared on Twitter on New Year’s Day: the Ballard Spahr Poetry Prize, for poets from MN, IA, ND, SD, WI, or MI. Prize includes $10,000 & book publication with Milkweed Editions. Deadline: February 15.
• “In 2021, Kresge Arts in Detroit will award 20 fellowships: ten in Literary Arts and ten in Visual Arts to artists of all career stages living and working in Detroit’s tri-county area (Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties). Kresge Artist Fellowships are $25,000 no strings attached awards, plus professional development support and the creation of a short film highlighting the artist’s work. Ten Gilda Awards, $5,000 prizes for emerging artists, will also be awarded.” Deadline: January 14.
• Canadian writers “of all genres who have one to four published and/or performed works to their credit” may wish to read up on the University of Calgary’s Canadian Writers in Residence program, which is receiving applications until January 15.
• From the Poetry Foundation: “Roll Call is a 4–5 episode miniseries of the VS podcast dedicated to the past, present, and future of Black poetry. It will be a submission-based, anthology-style show collecting audio-based, hour-long, content from Black poets, scholars, and creators from across the diaspora—that could be you! We are offering  a space to explore histories both hyper-local and transnational, to spotlight urgent and emergent conversations in contemporary poetry, and to trouble the Black literary imagination across boundaries of identity and time. No prior experience in podcasting, audio production, or editing necessary!” Compensation: “Individual contributors will be paid $1,000 per episode.” Deadline: January 17. (Thanks to @WeisChoice for leading me to this one.)
• “The Bethesda Urban Partnership & Bethesda Magazine have partnered to honor Essay and Short Story Writers. All Essay and Short Story Contest winners will be published on the Bethesda Urban Partnership and Bethesda Magazine websites and honored at a special event during Local Writer’s Showcase in April 2021.” For the Adult Essay Contest (there is also a High School Essay Contest), eligibility is limited to “residents of Washington, D.C. and the select counties of Maryland (Montgomery, Prince George’s, Howard and Frederick) and Virginia (Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William).” For the Adult Short Story Contest, eligibility is limited to “residents of Montgomery County, MD and Upper NW Washington, D.C. (20015 and 20016 ZIP codes).” Cash awards as detailed on the website. Deadline: January 18.
• “The College of Charleston’s Department of English invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Creative Writing (Open Genre) beginning August 16, 2021.”
• “The Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences at Rockhurst University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor with an expertise in fiction and hybrid literature, and professional or technical writing. We require a strong record of teaching creative writing as a pathway into academic communities from which marginalized students have historically been excluded. Experience developing and teaching lower-division creative writing courses relevant to students from underrepresented groups and a distinct focus on the infusion of race and cultural studies into introductory and general-education courses is also required.”