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.

(Whoosh! There are a LOT of opportunities to share today. I expected that there would be a number of location-limited listings to share with you, but I admit that I didn’t anticipate quite so many other items to cross my radar as soon as February began. As I drafted this post, I almost started to feel as though I was compiling another newsletter issue! If you haven’t caught the “official” February issue yet, make sure that you check that out, too!)

• From Adoptee Reclaimed Poetry Contest: “Adoptees of all backgrounds and experience of writing are encouraged to submit for this amateur poetry competition.” Cash prizes: $50 for first prize; $30 for runner up, and $15 for honorary mention. Deadline: February 10 (or when they reach 200 submissions).
• Live within 150 miles of the Chicago Loop? Between 18 and 30 years old? “Currently enrolled in, or have completed, a degree program, conservatory, or other professional artist development program (not necessarily specific to the program of which you are applying)”? Check out the Luminarts Cultural Foundation’s Creative Writing Fellowships, which confer awards including $10,000 cash awards (prose and poetry). Deadline: February 11.
• For NYC writers: “Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC will award a publishing grant to authors of fiction/creative non-fiction, poetry and playwriting.” Grant amounts top out at $10,000. Deadline: February 14 (9 am Eastern time). (Thanks to Galleyway for alerting me to this one.)
• The Bethany Arts Community Fellowship is designed to offer financial support and a creative home to promising young and emerging artists who reflect the diversity of our community and artistic vision, as they transition into a professional career and creative practice. BAC will offer significant institutional and monetary support that will allow a pair of fellows to devote uninhibited energy toward developing their creative practice, establishing professional relationships both inside and out of BAC, and learning how to sustain a professional network as they build their careers.” Benefit package includes accommodation and partial meals for up to six months and a monthly stipend of $900. NB: “Preference will be given to culturally diverse artists from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented groups. Recipients generally should be current or past Westchester [New York] residents, have a strong tie to Westchester, or an interest in serving the Westchester community, with demonstrated financial need.” Deadline: February 15, with fellowships (evidently two) to begin in April.
• “In recognition of Black History Month, The Maine Review is offering free submissions” in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, until February 15 (or until they reach their Submittable cap). “All writers are invited to make use of this free submission window.” Payment: “Fiction and Nonfiction writers will receive a $25 honorarium per published flash (1,000 words or fewer) and a $50 honorarium for work 1,001 words or more. Poets will receive a $25 honorarium per published poem.” 
• Canada-based Qwerty is receiving submissions of “fractured fairytales, folk retellings, mythical drawings for Issue No. 45, “Folklore & Fairytales,” until February 15. Pays: “a small honorarium (CDN $10)” and two copies.
• Open for submissions of “poems, short stories, flash fiction, CNF, or essays” for the remainder of February (or until they hit their Submittable cap): Flypaper. Note that they “love” receiving submissions “from writers with some relation to Ohio, though this is in no way a requirement to submit.” Pays: “$10/piece, we wish it could be more and as we continue to grow, we are confident the amount we’re able to pay writers will grow as well.” (Learned about this one via @Duotrope.)
• Resource alert: I’ve just learned about the brand-new, super-promising Chill Subs website. Listings are growing; features (such as filtering for fee-free and paying opportunities) are practical and appreciated!
• Open for submissions: the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize. “A $20,000 advance and publication by Graywolf Press will be awarded to the most promising and innovative literary nonfiction project by a writer not yet established in the genre. The winning author will also receive a $2,000 stipend intended to support the completion of their project. Deadline: February 28.
• Also open for submissions until February 28 (or when they have received 100 submissions): the Buffalo Books Fiction Prize. “We are open only to novels — from 40,000 to 80,000 words — that are set in or explore the Midwest, the Great Plains, and/or the alleged flyover portions of the West.” Prize: “an honorarium of $500 and publication under a standard royalty contract.” NB: “Former and current students at Kansas State University are not eligible for the Buffalo Books Fiction Prize.”
• Here’s Substack with another February 28 deadline: “Attention, food writers: Applications are now open for our Food Writers Intensive. We’re offering this program to surface, celebrate, and accelerate 10 fellows who are pushing the boundaries of food writing on Substack. Selected fellows will participate in a three-month program focused on accelerating their publications, building business acumen, sharing ideas and tips specific to food writing, and learning from top writers. Fellows will distill knowledge and lessons learned into a guide to food on Substack that will be published after the program wraps.” Program also confers $10,000. Be sure to check the eligibility criteria—for starters, applicants must already be writing about food on the Substack platform.
• New prize: “The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction is an annual $25,000 cash prize given to a writer for a single work of imaginative fiction. This award is intended to recognize those writers Ursula spoke of in her 2014 National Book Awards speech—realists of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now. The first prize will be awarded on October 21, 2022. October 21st was Ursula K. Le Guin’s birthday.” For this first cycle, eligible books must be published “between May 1, 2021, and April 30, 2022.” Note: “The Prize also gives weight to those writers whose access to resources, due to race, gender, age, class or other factors, may be limited; who are working outside of institutional frameworks such as MFA programs; who live outside of cultural centers such as New York; and who have not yet been widely recognized for their work.” Deadline: April 30.
• Interesting (and very detailed) call for essays from the founder of a morning newsletter titled Understandably. Flat fees begin at $50; there is also a “base plus bonus” payment model.
• A thread from Britany Robinson: “Call for pitches! I’m looking for essays and voice-y how-to’s on freelance writing, to be published in my newsletter, One More Question. Rates start at $150.”
• In Seattle, Hugo House “is looking for an Education Assistant & Community Support Specialist to help in planning, coordinating, and ensuring the success of our creative writing programming for adults. The Education Assistant & Community Support Specialist will also help run Hugo House’s front desk, providing outstanding community support both in-person and virtually. The role will be a mixture of weekdays, evenings, and weekends for a total of 20 hours a week. This is an in-person position with some remote shift opportunities.” Pays: $18/hr.
• Library Journal is looking for two associate editors. “The day-to-day essence of this role is working independently on a high-volume monthly cadence of selecting, assigning, and editing short reviews, along with a focus on recruiting and mentoring a dedicated team of talented reviewers….We have two positions open—one focused on nonfiction and one on media and genre fiction—and we invite applications from those with a range of experience and transferrable skills. The position bridges several fields. We need a strong and experienced editor; we can help you get up to speed on aspects of the broader context that are new to you. The Associate Editor, LJ Reviews will report to the Reviews Editor and will work closely with the entire editorial team. This position can be fully remote for those not in the NYC metropolitan area. If you’re local, it will begin as fully remote, and return to the NYC office on a hybrid schedule once it reopens. We are requesting that all new employees be fully vaccinated for COVID-19, or to have a religious or medical accommodation.”
• South Carolina’s Wofford College “invites applications for the Cobb Chair of Humanities, an endowed position in the Department of English. Candidates will be established writers who have a background in creative writing, with an emphasis in fiction. Subfields may include, but are not limited to, the following studies: Latinx, Native American and Indigenous, African American, Asian American, world literature, LGBTQ+, disability theory and creative nonfiction.”
• In West Virginia, the Department of English at Marshall University “invites applications for a tenure-eligible Assistant Professor of English with a specialization in creative writing – poetry, beginning August 2022. We are interested in a candidate who can contribute to our creative writing major and who could contribute to one or more secondary areas in digital humanities, multimedia composition, disability studies, gender and sexuality studies, film studies, professional writing, and/or grant writing and editing.”
• “The Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University Chicago (LUC) invites applications for a full-time tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant Professor, for academic year 2022-23, with a specialty in fiction writing.”
• From Eastern New Mexico University: “The college of Liberal Arts and Sciences is seeking a qualified candidate to teach as a full-time tenure track Assistant Professor of English with a specialty in Creative Writing, with the ability to teach multiple genres, particularly poetry. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. The preferred start date is August 2022.”
• In Ohio, Heidelberg University is advertising for an Assistant Professor of English, “specialization in creative writing and rhetoric and composition.”
• “The Department of English at the University of Vermont (UVM) invites applications for a non-tenure track, full-time lecturer position with a specialization in nonfiction prose writing to teach creative writing and composition courses at the introductory and intermediate levels.”
• “The Helen Zell Writers’ Program in the Department of English at the University of Michigan invites applications for a visiting appointment in fiction. This is a non-tenure track position with a university-year appointment.  The appointment term is three years.”
• “New College of Florida invites applications for a Fiction Writer-in-Residence beginning August 2022, with potential for reappointment for 2023-2024 (August-December and February-May). The designated Honors College of the State University System, New College of Florida is a small, selective, residential liberal arts institution located in a lively arts community on Sarasota Bay. The successful candidate will have: at least one published novel, novella, collection of short stories or publications equivalent to a published book, and significant publication in other venues; two years’ experience teaching creative writing, which may include instruction as a graduate student; and a strong commitment to playing an active role in our college community.” 
• “Eastern Oregon University’s Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing is expanding and seeks to create a pool of qualified writers who can teach in the MFA Program. Teaching may include in-person instruction during the summer residency at Wallowa Lake and in La Grande, Oregon, as well as online instruction throughout the academic year.  Online adjuncts are responsible for providing a high quality online educational experience in consultation with the program faculty and through supporting the program’s learning outcomes. Expertise in teaching workshops and craft seminars in Fiction expected.”