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.

• From The Orwell Prizes: “Paid opportunity for students and early-career researchers to review books that contribute to our understanding of Orwell’s life and works.” (Pay details: “We pay £50 per published book review.”)
• “CBC Montreal and the Quebec Writers’ Federation are now taking submissions for the opportunity to be a featured columnist for CBC. We are looking for a broad range of perspectives from new, up-and-coming voices so will be selecting five writers. This opportunity is open to all residents of Quebec. Applicants do not have to be published writers. To apply, writers should submit a 600-word nonfiction personal essay (in English) based on the theme of “Awakening.” Essays must be previously unpublished.” Selected writers will receive dedicated time with a CBC editor to fine-tune their story for publication on cbc.ca/montreal; $250 payment when their story is published (early 2022); and annual membership to QWF or equivalent value ($40) toward a QWF workshop. Deadline: December 22.
• The Hudson Review has extended the deadline for its Short Fiction Contest (mentioned in this space a few weeks ago) to December 31.
• Berkley, part of Penguin Random House, publishes commercial fiction. With an Open Submissions window for unagented authors, they’re “looking for full-length adult novels in the following genres: romance, women’s fiction, mystery, suspense and thrillers, horror, science fiction, and fantasy.” This window will close on January 9, 2022. (H/T: AuthorsPublish.com.)
• We’re nearly at the mid-month point—if you haven’t yet perused the December issue of The Practicing Writer 2.0, rest assured that many of the opportunities listed there remain open!
• In New York, “the Book Review at the New York Times is looking for a full-time fact-checker.”
• In Chicago, American Libraries magazine, “the flagship membership publication of the American Library Association,” seeks an Associate Editor “to join the editorial and production team that produces the magazine, Call Number podcast, American Libraries website, American Libraries Direct e-newsletter, and other media products.”
• In Texas, the English Department at Southern Methodist University “is happy to announce the inaugural Hughes Fellowships in Creative Writing for the 2022–2023 academic year. SMU will award two fellowships, one in poetry and one in prose (fiction or creative nonfiction). Each fellowship will provide two years of support. Fellows will be expected to make significant progress on a major project, to teach one course in creative writing per semester, and to engage in the intellectual and creative life of the department and the larger Dallas literary community. This engagement will include one major presentation per year: a public reading of the fellow’s own work in the first year and, in the second year, a conversation with an established writer about their creative practice. Fellows should also be available to mentor undergraduates on an informal basis. Annual compensation is $50,000 with full benefits. During the academic year, each Hughes Fellow will be expected to live in the Dallas area and hold no other professional or academic obligations. Only writers who have completed within the past five years—or are scheduled to complete by August 2022—an MFA or PhD in creative writing are eligible. A publishing record in nationally relevant periodicals is desirable but not required. As the Hughes Fellowships are meant to support emerging writers, applicants with second books in print or under contract will not be considered.” Deadline: February 9.
• “The University of Illinois Springfield and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences invites applications for tenure-track Assistant Professor, of English in creative writing (poetry) beginning August 16, 2022 as part of its inaugural cluster hire of three faculty in the English and Sociology departments. Preferred additional areas of expertise this creative writing (poetry) position in the English and Modern Languages Department include the following areas of literary and/or cultural studies: Indigenous, Latinx, African American, African Caribbean, Afro-Latinx, or Afro-Asian Studies, Queer, and Disability Studies. A Ph.D. in English or a related field is required. Expertise may be demonstrated through teaching experience, publication, or additional credentials, such as an MFA. The teaching load is 3-3.”