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.

• A Twitter thread from Leah Johnson that begins: “Hey writers—it’s already time for me to start planning my 2022 publication calendar, so I’m opening up my inbox for @CatapultStory pitches! What you need to know is I love sharp (sometimes funny) personal essays + short stories about the things that move you.” Payment: “our rates start at 200 but can vary”; check the thread for the email address.
• Canadians, this one’s for you: FreeFall, “Canada’s magazine of exquisite writing,” remains open for submissions until October 31. Pays: “$10/page prose up to $100 and $25 per poem plus a copy of the issue the work is published in.”
• Barrelhouse “is seeking submissions for a special online issue around the theme ‘something’s missing.’ We’ll gladly read your fiction, poetry, essays, and comics that tackle the theme in creative, interesting ways.” Deadline: November 1. Payment: $50.
• Also with a November 1 deadline (but limited to San Francisco-area residents): “In response to rapid gentrification and displacement of QTBIPOC+ literary artists in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in celebration of these communities’ revolutionary history, Foglifter Press, RADAR Productions, and Still Here San Francisco joined forces to create a chapbook prize for local emerging queer and trans black writers, indigenous writers, and writers of color. Each year, one chapbook author is awarded publication, a $1,000 prize, and promotion, as well as a spot on RADAR’s Sister Spit tour.”
• Scotland’s Moniack Mhor Writers’ Centre “is inviting established international writers and Scottish peers to apply for the 2022 Connect and Collaborate International Residency.” Month-long opportunity includes “stipend of £1000, travel and food costs, and accommodation.” Additionally, the program offers “three successful international/Scottish candidates the opportunity to travel to Lagos, Nigeria, in October to participate in LIPFEST, the Lagos International Poetry Festival.” Lots of details/info on the website. Deadline: October 31. (Thanks to Sian Meades-Williams for the info on this.)
• Can you believe that we’ve arrived at October’s last week? You know what that means: Make sure you haven’t missed anything that was listed in our October newsletter, and if you’re not yet a newsletter subscriber, sign up to get first access to the November edition.
• “The Wall Street Journal’s Book Reviews section is seeking beginning journalists—juniors, seniors or recent graduates with reporting and writing backgrounds at their school newspapers or elsewhere—for 10-week paid summer internships in our New York City office. The internships are an opportunity to get hands-on experience working alongside some of the best opinion writers and editors in the world.”
• The New York-based Academy of American Poets is hiring a Senior Content Editor, “a full-time position that reports to the Senior Director of Digital Engagement & Content. The Senior Content Editor is responsible for producing, copy editing, and maintaining content for the Academy of American Poets, primarily on the award-winning website Poets.org, with particular emphasis on the Poem-a-Day guest editor program and American Poets magazine.”
• At the University of Montana, “the Department of English invites applications for two full-time tenure-track positions [Assistant/Associate Professor of English] in its premier creative writing program. We expect to make the hires from a single diverse pool of applicants with distinguished early-career records in poetry-writing and evidence of successful teaching at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. The position includes teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels, supervising graduate students’ theses, advising/mentoring students, and publishing creative works
• In Virginia, “the Department of English in the School of Humanities at the University of Lynchburg invites applications for a tenure-track, full-time position at the rank of Assistant Professor of English in Creative Writing with specializations in Fiction and Poetry. Appointment will begin August 2022.”
• Two teaching posts are open at Idaho’s Boise State University: Assistant Professor with a Specialization in Poetry Writing and Assistant Professor with a Specialization in Fiction Writing.
• In Michigan, “the Department of English at Hope College invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor in Creative Writing—Fiction to begin Academic Year ‘22 – ‘23.”