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.

  • ICYMI: The October newsletter has gone out to subscribers (and if you’re not yet a subscriber, you can access it online). Don’t neglect the 40+ opportunities listed there—even if I’ve managed to locate still others to share here today!
  • From @SpencerQuong: “Friends and strangers! I edit the news section of @poetswritersinc and would love to hear tips and pitches about both hyperlocal and national stories of interest to writers. Write to squong at pw dot org! We pay $350 for news pieces (usually 700-900 words).”
  • Wasafiri, “featuring a diverse range of voices from across the UK and beyond,” is “receiving submissions of fiction, life writing, and poetry” until October 31 (5pm GMT). Pay rates are detailed on the site.
  •  Shenandoah is open for submissions for the Graybeal-Gowen Prize for Virginia Poets until October 15. “Poets living in or born in Virginia, as well as those with long-term residency in the past, are eligible. Submit as many as three poems, each no longer than fifty lines, along with brief biographical note, which should confirm the basis for eligibility as a Virginian. One poem will be selected to receive the $1000 prize and will be published in Shenandoah. All submissions will be considered for publication. No Washington and Lee staff, faculty, or their families are eligible. The Graybeal-Gowen Prize was established to honor the memory of WLU graduate and lover of poetry, Howerton Gowen.”
  • Also closing October 15: the annual NC State Fiction Contest, “a free literary competition open to all North Carolina residents,” for which this year’s guest judge is Gabriel Bump. Confers $500 for The James Hurst Prize for Fiction, awarded for unpublished short story of no more than 5,000 words, and $250 for The Shorter Fiction Prize, awarded for an unpublished short story of no more than 1,200 words. Be sure to check the eligibility criteria.
  • In San Francisco, Aunt Lute Books seeks “someone to fill a part-time position as an assistant to our Marketing Director; someone who has a strong interest in marketing, has experience with, and is interested to learn to operate in a non-profit arts environment. Our office is open Tues, Wed, and Thurs, from 10am-5pm. This position is currently remote with potential to move to in-person as safety permits.” Compensation: “$18-$21/hour.”
  • In Chicago, the Poetry Foundation is hiring an Editor: “The Editor will work collaboratively with the Foundation President, Board of Trustees, and staff, as well as stakeholders, poets, and educators, to ensure Poetry magazine is meeting the needs of the audiences and artists it serves.”
  • At The New York Times, the Culture department “is looking for a senior staff editor who is interested in some combination of the expansive topics covered in our section — TV, dance, movies, opera, theater, pop music and art.” (Via MEOjobs)
  • George Washington University seeks a fiction writer to teach two semesters, beginning in the fall of 2022, as the Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Washington. “The successful candidate will teach a small community workshop in fiction, each semester for members of the metropolitan Washington area.  No tuition is charged for these workshops, which are not open to University students.  The successful candidate will also teach two classes, one each semester, for students at the George Washington University.” 
  • In Pennsylvania, DeSales University seeks an English Assistant Professor and Director of the Graduate MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing.
  • California State University, Los Angeles, is hiring an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing.
  • Colorado State University is advertising a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in English (creative nonfiction).
  • Also in Colorado, Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics “invites applications for a full-time core candidate Assistant or Associate Professor of Creative Writing and Poetics, specializing in creative nonfiction.”
  • “The English Department at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track Assistant Professor in Fiction Writing, beginning Fall semester 2022. “
on a tabletop: a keyboard, a mug of coffee, and a wallet with cash, plus a text label announcing Markets and Jobs for Writers