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: Replete with 45 listings of competitions and calls (none of them charging fees to enter/submit; all of them paying for winning/published work), the March issue of The Practicing Writer 2.0 went out to subscribers yesterday.
• Poetry Potluck, a blog series about poetry and food hosted by the University of Arizon’a Poetry Center, is seeking pitches. Pays: $75 (for those who are not UA-affiliated). (H/T Opportunities for Writers)
• With a March 15 deadline, Quarter Castle Publishing seeks anthology submissions “for a short story collection to honour those who lived and died by the sea.” Open “to all residents of Atlantic Canada, and those who once lived here and still love and miss the sea. First-time authors and seasoned veterans are welcome to submit their short stories.” Pays: $40.
• Sundamaged, “the anti-travel travel mag,” is open for submissions (“personal essays, impersonal essays, CNF and fiction up to 5,000 words, and prose poetry of up to a page in length”) until March 21. “The piece must be related to our themes of travel, anti-travel or neo travel in some way.” Note: “Our goal is to subvert the narratives of travel that patronise local people and reinforce privilege.” Pays: $10 (via Paypal). (H/T @Duotrope)
• From Iowa’s Grinnell College: “The Department of English invites applications for a two-year Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in fiction writing beginning Fall 2021. Eligible candidates must have received their terminal degree (MFA or PhD) in 2018 or later. Research and teaching interests might include, but are not limited to: fiction writing, screenwriting, creative nonfiction, and contemporary literature. The annual teaching load for the Fellow is two courses per year (one per semester) with a full-time salary and benefits. Possible teaching areas include the Craft of Fiction (Eng 205) and other creative writing courses. The Fellow also will be expected to share their research with the Grinnell community and to be a contributing member of the English Department faculty and the Writers @ Grinnell program. The ideal candidate will have some teaching experience and publications in fiction.”
• “The Brooklyn Rail is looking for our next Film Editor. The ideal candidate is deeply interested in experimental and otherwise non-mainstream film productions, well organized, and a lover of language and critical discourse. We seek a person who is comfortable copy editing, proofreading, and communicating with peers in their field.” Note: “This is a freelance position, paid by biannual stipend. The previous team of 2 editors split the work and spent an average 5 hours a week on the section, weighted towards the middle of the month before going to print. The ideal candidate(s) will be able to commit to at least a 2–year term, with an option to extend. -Candidates based in the greater NYC area are preferred.”
• In Washington, the Literary Initiatives Office at the Library of Congress seeks a Program Specialist. (I’m not clear about the deadline for this one, tbh.) The position was still open when I last checked over the weekend.
• Missouri State University (Springfield)’s English department is advertising for an Assistant Professor. “The successful candidate will contribute to teaching and curricular development for graduate and undergraduate programs in English, particularly courses related to creative nonfiction, fiction, and graphic narrative, both in face-to-face and online modalities.”
• “The MFA in Writing Program at the University of San Francisco invites applications for a full-time, one-year term Visiting Professor of Fiction. The position will begin August 2021, contingent upon funding approval. We seek candidates whose work investigates our changing American identity by centering the lives of Black, immigrant, and/or indigenous people and their communities.”
• At Austin College [Texas], the Department of English “invites applications for the position of Visiting Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing beginning August 2021. This is a one-year position. Candidates with Ph.D. in hand and candidates planning to obtain the Ph.D. before August 2021 will be considered. We seek scholars with teaching interests in creative writing and either ethnic American literatures or nineteenth-century American literature or both.”
• In Connecticut, “the English Department at Trinity College seeks to hire an actively publishing fiction writer to fill a one-year Visiting Assistant Professorship in fiction writing, beginning Fall 2021. Applicants for this position should have demonstrated ability to teach introductory creative writing courses and advanced fiction workshops.”