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.

• At the moment/last check, Split Lip magazine remains open for no-fee general submissions of flash fiction, fiction, and memoir until the end of May (they’ll remain open to fee-free submissions in all genres beyond that date for work from Black writers and artists). Pays: “We pay (via PayPal) $50 per author for poems, memoirs, flash, fiction, and art, and $25 for interviews/reviews for our web issues. Payment for print is $5 per page, minimum of $20, plus 2 contributor copies.” Note: “Sometimes we have to shut free subs early due to a really-rad-but-also-overwhelming response.”
• “Each year, The Writer’s Center awards a $1,000 check to the author of an exceptional first novel published in the previous calendar year. Conceived and funded by former board member Neal P. Gillen, the McLaughlin-Esstman-Stearns Prize honors three dedicated writers and members of The Writer’s Center faculty—the late Ann McLaughlin, Barbara Esstman, and Lynn Stearns—each of whom unselfishly nourish and inspire students and fellow writers.” NB: “Due to Covid-19, the 2020 and 2021 First Novel Prize will be combined. Submissions are open until May 31st, 2021. If you submitted to the 2020 First Novel Prize, your book is still being considered. The winner of the 2020/2021 prize will be announced in Fall 2021.” Note: limited to “American authors publishing in English.”
• “Dream Pop Press is open for submissions of chapbook manuscripts in the genres of poetry, speculative diary, and hybrid work that confounds definition. We aim to publish 1-3 manuscripts in Spring 2022. Send us your best and strangest work between 20-50 pages in length. Feel free to read our online journal and previous print publications for an idea of what we like to publish, and queries are also welcome. We lean heavily toward more experimental, non-narrative work in general. Writers whose manuscripts are selected will receive $200 and 10 complimentary copies of their book to sell/give away. We also offer a discount to all Dream Pop authors on any books in our catalog.” Deadline: October 31.
• “The Shalom Hartman Institute of North America is excited to announce a call for applications for a new yearlong Seminar & Writers Workshop for Journalists, providing a non-partisan, ideologically pluralistic space for journalists to immerse themselves in the study of core Jewish ideas and commitments, and to develop their own ideas more deeply. This effort seeks to elevate journalists as thought leaders by providing them with deep study and an intellectual community. For the inaugural cohort launching in September 2021, we seek 8-10 journalists and writing professionals of diverse backgrounds and ideologies.” Compensation: “Seminar participants will receive a $5,000 stipend and all expenses paid for travel including the summer Jerusalem residency” component of the program. Application deadline: June 1.
• “The Girls Write Now Fellowship Program offers up to three full-time paid fellowships 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.” Currently, they are “particularly interested in Fellows who have graphic design, website and social media skills and interest.” Note: “This position is temporarily remote until the summer when we transition to in-person operations in our midtown Manhattan headquarters.” 
• At Long Island University (New York), Confrontation literary magazine is hiring a (part-time) poetry editor.
• At the University of California, Irvine, “the Department of English invites applications for the position of Academic Coordinator for Entry Level Creative Writing Courses. This position is a one-year, 25% time appointment during the 2021-2022 academic year beginning on September 20, 2021 and ending on June 10, 2022.”
• Also at UC, Irvine,  they’re taking applications “for part-time lecturer positions to teach undergraduate courses included in the English Department’s Creative Writing Minor. Courses may include 1) English 16 The Craft of Poetry 2) Writing 30 The Art of Writing: Poetry 3) Writing 31 The Art of Writing: Prose Fiction 4) Writing 90 Intermediate Poetry Writing, during the fall, winter and spring quarters of the 2021-2022 academic year.”
• In San Francisco, Youth Speaks, Inc., is hiring a Poet Mentor: “It is the Poet Mentor’s duty to model artistic excellence to youth participants by demonstrating what it means to develop their voice and craft as a young artist, educator, and organizer. The Poet Mentor holds as first priority the health and well-being of young people as their number one priority. The multifaceted nature of this position requires you to manage multiple priorities, be responsive under tight timelines, take initiative, and meet deadlines with little supervision. The Poet Mentor may be asked to support specific projects throughout the year on an as-needed basis in addition to their ongoing residencies, where they will facilitate workshops with partner schools and organizations. With frequent travel to our schools and community partners throughout the Bay Area, this role will require evening and occasional weekend work to participate in local community meetings, open mics and slams, and other Youth Speaks’ public events. Supervisor will inform Poet Mentor about our return to in person programming and/or any changes as we receive public health updates from the districts, state, federal government, and partners we work with.”  
• “The Department of English at Michigan State University invites applications to fill a two-year (9 month) full-time fixed-term Assistant Professor in Creative Writing beginning August 16, 2021. Teaching responsibilities include three courses per semester (3/3 teaching load), to fill areas of department need. The successful applicant must be able to teach a multi-genre Introduction to Creative Writing course, as well as single-genre workshops in fiction and nonfiction at the introductory and advanced levels.”
• “Bucknell University seeks to hire a one-year visiting assistant professor in English specializing in creative writing: fiction at a 3/3 load. Candidates must have the ability to teach fiction at beginning and advanced levels. The ability to teach introductory screenwriting is strongly desirable. This position will begin in August 2021.”