Markets & Jobs for Writers

Background of a keyboard, mug of coffee, and wallet on a tabletop; text label indicating "Markets and Jobs for Writers: No fees to submit work/apply. Paying gigs only."

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.

  • Flash Fiction Online is open for submissions of original work until January 21. “We are looking for complete 500- to 1000-word stories with crisp prose, well-developed characters, compelling plots, and satisfying resolutions. We want stories that engage our minds and emotions. We publish across many genres, including speculative (science fiction, fantasy, slipstream, and horror) and literary fiction.” Pays: “$80 per story for first electronic rights for original (previously unpublished) fiction, with 6 months exclusivity, as well as a non-exclusive one-time right to publish the stories in an anthology.” 
  • Booklist “is in search of submissions from public, school, or academic librarians and library professionals working with comics and graphic novels, in a variety of capacities, to either contribute original articles or be interviewed by a Booklist editor about your work in the field….We’re looking for articles to run approximately 1200-2000 words, and the starting rate for contributors who submit original articles is $150. Proposals will be due January 22nd, and we’ll make our final selections by February 12th; if selected, your article will be due March 22nd.”
  • Social Justice Anthologies, “publishing affiliate of Beautiful Cadaver Project Pittsburgh, seeks to discover and promote socially-engaged writing. Our team of editors considers the cultural, political, and economic forces at play in any given narrative. We hope to engage works that challenge our assumption and enhance our perspectives. If you have fiction or nonfiction that explore a topic relevant to the well-being of our society or environment, we want to read it. ​Our call for submissions will be open from December 15th until January 31st. Payment is $200 and ten free contributor copies, which will be available in print in the summer of 2021.” NB: They also seem to be receptive to reprints. (Discovered this thanks to Cathy’s Comps & Calls.) 
  • Idaho writers: Applications for your state arts commission’s Writer in Residence program close February 1. “The Writer in Residence gives at least four annual readings throughout the state with an emphasis on presenting in rural communities. Recipients are limited to two nonconsecutive terms and are no longer eligible for a Literature Fellowship.” Confers a $5,000 award; “allowable travel expenses are also reimbursed.”
  • My pal Tom Hopkins alerted me to this new opportunity shortly before I began seeing it listed in multiple venues: “Grist’s solutions lab, Fix, is excited to announce the launch of our first-ever, free-entry, climate-fiction short story contest — Imagine 2200: Climate fiction for future ancestors. We’re dipping a toe into the world of fiction, and we want you to join us….We’re calling for 3,000- to 5,000-word stories that envision the next 180 years of climate progress — roughly seven generations. The winning writer will be awarded $3,000, with the second- and third-place finalists receiving $2,000 and $1,000, respectively. An additional nine finalists will each receive a $300 honorarium. Winners and finalists will be published in a stunning (trust us), immersive digital collection on Fix’s website and will be celebrated in a public-facing virtual event. Our board of expert literary judges includes authors Adrienne Maree Brown, Morgan Jerkins, and Kiese Laymon.” Deadline: April 12, 2021.
  • We’re just past January’s midway mark. Yes, I’m already at work on the February issue of The Practicing Writer 2.0. And yes, right now you will still find fee-free, paying opportunities that remain open for your submissions/entries/applications in the January issue.
  • Nieman Reports, a Harvard University-based “website and quarterly print magazine that produces deeply reported feature stories as well as opinion columns offering insight into and analysis of the crucial issues facing journalism today,” is hiring a senior editor.
  • “The Department of English at Oklahoma State University seeks to hire a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Creative Writing-Fiction beginning in August 2021, contingent upon available funding. “
  • In Missouri, the English Department at Webster University “invites applications for a Visiting Assistant Professor of English, specializing in poetry writing, beginning Fall 2021. This is a 1-Year appointment.”
  • Another visiting position: “Applicants with their terminal degree in Creative Writing are invited to apply for a two-year position as Visiting Assistant Professor of English at The Ohio State University at Lima for the academic years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. Publications and teaching experience in two of the three genres required for Ohio State?s minor in Creative Writing – fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction – are preferred. The Visiting Assistant Professor will also teach introductory literature, culture, and/or composition courses. Experience in directing student-created publications is particularly desirable.”
  • “The Humanities and Arts Department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute is regularly seeking part-time adjunct faculty to teach Literature and Creative Writing courses. The Literature faculty teach introductory courses, intermediate thematic surveys, and advanced topic seminars and have particular interests in American (including African American and Chicana/o), English, and World literatures; poetry; and American and Global cinema. The Creative Writing Program offers introduction, intermediate, and advanced seminars in fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry.”
on a tabletop: a keyboard, a mug of coffee, and a wallet with cash, plus a text label announcing Markets and Jobs for Writers