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 Ed Simon, incoming EiC at Belt magazine: “Journalists, essayists, photographers, poets, fiction writers, critics, and artists! I’m looking for pitches @belt_magazine!” Check guidelines for details and pay rates; note that Belt is “is a digital publication by and for the Rust Belt and greater Midwest.”
• Noted in an Electric Literature newsletter I received this week: “The Commuter will be open for submissions in ALL CATEGORIES from August 22 – 28. We want to see your best short prose, poetry and graphic narratives! All submissions will be accepted through our Submittable page.” Payment: “If your work is selected, we can offer a total payment of $100.”
• From The Anansi Archive: “Every quarter we like to recognise the best writing. In addition to cash prizes, we will showcase the work on our website. We also hope to invite the best for publication in our periodical anthologies. We do not set a theme or restrict the preferred genre.” The next deadline is August 31 for poetry, flash fiction, and short fiction. Cash prizes as detailed on the site. (Hat tip: Freelance Writing Jobs.)
• Attention, those in the Boston area: “Combined Jewish Philanthropies is pleased to announce our FY23 Arts and Culture Community Impact Grant Fund (the “Fund”). The Fund was developed to support artists, enrich our community through culture, and explore the depth of Jewish experience and memory. Through the application process, we hope to maximize our awareness and response to artists and the Greater Boston arts and culture community.” (Now I really wish that I still lived in Cambridge!) Letters of intent are due by August 31. One $25,000 grant is available for “a collaborative project led by at least three artists. This collaboration team should include Jewish artists and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) artists and employ multiple artistic mediums. Projects should address a current societal or cultural theme or issue relevant to both the Jewish and non-Jewish communities.” Ten $7,500 grants “will be awarded to projects by either individual artists or collaborative groups of artists. Artists of all artistic disciplines are encouraged to apply.”
• We’re now halfway through the month—be sure that you’ve checked out all of the opportunities listed in our August newsletter (and remember, Substack subscribers are the very first ones to receive access to each month’s edition).
• The Poetry Foundation is hiring a Communications Manager. “This role is based in Chicago, Illinois, at the Poetry Foundation building; due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the staff is working in a hybrid environment.” Salary: $95,000.
• In Seattle, Hugo House “is looking for an Events Assistant to help facilitate high quality literary and arts events, including readings, panels, craft talks, and interviews featuring renowned writers, emerging and emerged writers, and talented new writers. The role will be a mixture of weekdays, evenings, and weekends for a total of 20-25 hours a week. This is primarily an in-person position, though there may be some flexibility for remote work depending on event needs.” Compensation: $22/hour.
• At the University of California, Riverside, the (low-residency) MFA program is advertising for a Visiting Assistant Professor of Fiction. “Salary range: $11,600 per quarter. Positions are contingent upon funding.”
• The University of British Columbia School of Creative Writing “invites applications for a full-time tenure-track position in Poetry at the rank of Assistant Professor to begin July 1, 2023.”
• At the University of Massachusetts-Boston, “the English Department seeks an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing-Poetry beginning September 1, 2023.”