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.

• First things first: If you haven’t caught it yet, the September issue of our newsletter went out to subscribers last week. (Check here for a quick update about one of the listings.)
• “Teachers: @lithub wants to hear your stories. We’re looking for micro-essays (500-700 words) about how you and your students are doing as classrooms re-open this fall. Rate is $150 per piece; submit pitches or essays to info@lithub.com by 9/14!” (Tweeted by Corinne Segal.)
• Middleground, a UK-based “free online magazine focused on publishing the stories and experiences of mixed race writers and artists,” is open for submissions until October 1. Pays: “a small fee.”
• “Georgia Writers Association’s John Lewis Writing Awards are inspired by the late civil rights icon and his more than three decades of service as Georgia’s 5th District representative. The John Lewis Writing Awards will be awarded annually in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. The purpose of the John Lewis Writing Awards is to elevate, encourage, and inspire the voices of Black writers in Georgia.” Confers an award of $500, a scholarship to the next annual Red Clay Writers Conference, and an invitation to present a writing project in a future GWA virtual program.” Deadline: September 15. (Hat tip: Funds for Writers.)
• The Creators of Justice Literary Award is a “new literary award, celebrating poetry, short stories (up to 2500 words) and essays which use the written word to celebrate justice.  Applicants may offer one submission in each category. This ideal may be imagined in any manner in which the writer sees fit, however, it must be based in our signature values of beauty, sincerity, vulnerability and engagement. We do not publish work or engage with artists whose work is based in anger, or stems from an ‘us v. them’ mentality. We feel strongly that all human conflict is representative of human spiritual immaturity — and no group of people, ethnicity or religion are immune from human spiritual immaturity.” Confers three monetary prizes ($150/$100/$50) in each category: Poetry, Short Story and Essay.” (Hat tip: Cathy’s Comps and Calls.)
• “Thirty West Publishing is preparing for 2022 and we want to read your work. We are accepting full-length collections, chapbooks, creative non-fiction, novellas, & novels at this time. We will be open for submissions up until November 21st, 2021 unless we find enough manuscripts to cover our year, so don’t delay!” Via Twitter, they’ve indicated that they “pay royalties quarterly, increasing as more units are sold. Plus a handful of author copies and a significant discount on any copies after.”
• “Astra Magazine is a forthcoming international literary magazine of fiction, narrative non-fiction, art, and poetry. Astra’s mission is to publish the best contemporary writing from around the world, celebrate translators, and to uplift writers across borders. The magazine will launch in early 2022 as a print quarterly and a website. Astra Magazine seeks a collaborative, detail-oriented Managing Editor to oversee production for a new literary quarterly. The successful candidate will have experience in literary magazine or book publishing, a passion for literature, and a demonstrated desire to efficiently manage workflow and schedules. This is an opportunity to join a new literary journal from its very first issue and help shape its structure. Please Note: this is a full-time role that will begin as a flexible remote position with 1–2 days per week in office. The successful candidate will need to reside within commuting distance of NYC. Salary commensurate with experience.” (Found this one via an Academy of American Poets newsletter.)
• At the University of Georgia, they’re seeking an Associate Prose Editor for The Georgia Review. (Found this one via CLMP.)
• “The MFA in Creative Writing program in the Department of English at University of Minnesota seeks to hire a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Creative Writing – Fiction beginning in August 2022.”
• In Michigan, “Kalamazoo College invites poets to apply for a tenure-track position in creative writing to begin September 2022. Curricular contributions will include a multi-genre introduction to creative writing (poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction) and intermediate and advanced workshops in poetry, with flexibility for shaping introductory through advanced courses around the candidate’s areas of specialization, including courses that would serve the College’s Shared Passages (first year, sophomore, and senior) Seminar program. In keeping with our students’ strong interests in issues of power and identity, structural inequality and social justice, we’re especially interested in candidates whose work respects/engages in the intersection of poetics and politics.”
• At Western Washington University, “the Department of English invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position beginning September 16, 2022. This is a position in creative writing, focused on teaching and creative activity in creative nonfiction.”
• “The English Department at SUNY New Paltz invites applications for 3 tenure-track positions with specializations in one of the following areas: literature before 1800, creative writing with a focus upon poetry, Latinx literature of the United States, Rhetoric and Composition with an emphasis on public writing and cultural rhetorics.”