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.

  • The June issue of The Practicing Writer 2.0 has gone out to subscribers! This month’s edition features 30+ calls for submissions/competitions that do not charge application/reading fees, do pay for winning/published work, and do not limit applicants to residents of a single city/state/province. Be sure to check it out!
  • When you read the aforementioned newsletter, you’ll notice a couple of opportunities posted for residency fellowships at MASS MoCA. Not listed there: a couple more such opportunities welcoming applications from “Massachusetts creatives” and Puerto Rican artists (including writers; note that they’ve expanded eligibility for the latter: “We now welcome applications from Puerto Rican artists who EITHER currently live on the island OR who formerly lived on the island, but have had to leave since Hurricane Maria). Deadline: July 8.
  • In Arkansas, Hendrix College “invites applications for a Murphy Visiting Fellow in Literature and Language, to begin in August 2021 for a two-year term position.” They seek applications “from post-doctoral or post-MFA scholars whose teaching and writing focus on creative writing with a primary field of poetry and a secondary field of open specialty, creative nonfiction writing preferred. Experience teaching introductory literature and writing courses is also desirable. The Fellow will have the opportunity to teach an Oxford-style tutorial course in literature or creative writing; appropriate training in that pedagogy will be provided by the college.” Note that “the Murphy Visiting Fellow in English is expected to be in residence at Hendrix throughout two academic years. This is a blended teaching-programmatic position and is one of three Murphy Visiting Fellows, concurrently employed with staggered terms, in the departments of Theatre Arts and Dance, English, and Languages. As a faculty member, the Murphy Visiting Fellow in English will teach four courses in the first year (two in the fall semester and two in the spring) and four courses in the second year (two in the fall and two in the spring). As program staff, the Fellow will support the Murphy Scholars Program through organizational assistance, informal advising and mentoring of Scholars, and community-building, and in the second year will also serve as coordinator of the Creative Writing Program. The MFA or other appropriate terminal degree is required. The salary is $50,000 annually, plus benefits, plus $2,000 in moving expenses and $1,200 in professional development funds.” Application review begins June 10.
  • In Brooklyn, “Community Bookstore is looking for an event coordinator to help curate and host programming. The event coordinator will work with the events team to help identify, book, and host authors that fit within the store’s outlook and interests. The ideal candidate for this job will be self-motivated, detail-oriented, and able to balance multiple objectives. This position will start with virtual programming, and will then help us transition back to and manage live programming again in the future. This position may also include general bookselling duties.”
  • In Decatur, Georgia, “Little Shop of Stories is seeking a full time Events Coordinator and Bookseller.”
  • From the University of Chicago: “During the autumn, winter, and spring quarters of the 2021-2022 academic year, the Humanities Collegiate Division may have part-time teaching opportunities in the Creative Writing program in the genres of poetry, nonfiction, or fiction.”
  • “The Department of Literature within the Division of Arts and Humanities at UC San Diego is committed to academic excellence and diversity within the faculty, staff, and student body, and invites applications whose experience has prepared them to contribute to our commitment. Candidates are required to hold a Ph.D. or MFA in Creative Writing by the time of appointment, and to have demonstrated outstanding teaching experience in all three of the following genres/areas: Poetry Writing, Experimental Writing, and Creative Nonfiction Writing. Candidates must demonstrate excellent teaching qualifications in the above detailed areas, and experience managing diverse classrooms. Preferred candidates will have demonstrated a commitment to supporting diversity, equity and inclusion in an academic setting. Appointments will most likely be part-time, but may be full-time, from one quarter up to one year in duration.”
  • The Department of English, Creative Writing, at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, “is seeking candidates for a faculty wage lecturer position [prose] to teach 1 undergraduate course in the Fall, 2021, and 1 undergraduate course in the Spring, 2022, including workshops at the intermediate and/or advanced levels. Candidates must have an MFA degree and prior experience in teaching at the college or university level.”
  • The (as far as I am aware, low-residency) MFA program at OSU-Cascades in Bend, Oregon, “invites applications for one or more fixed-term, non-tenure-track full or part-time instructor positions to teach on a term by terms basis for the 2021-2022 academic year. Instructors may be needed to teach on campus and remote graduate courses in the following areas: Fiction Writing (Short & Long), Creative Non-Fiction, Poetry & Poetics.”
on a tabletop: a keyboard, a mug of coffee, and a wallet with cash, plus a text label announcing Markets and Jobs for Writers