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.

• Coming soon: the September issue of The Practicing Writer 2.0. It will be going out midweek—if you’re not already subscribing, please sign up so you get to read it first!
• For the month of August 2022, Event has been “welcoming submissions of Canadian fiction (only). We are capping this at 150 submissions (after which the link will disappear).” At last check, the link was still working. The magazine pays “$35/page for prose, up to a maximum of $500,” plus two copies.
• HerStry appears to be open for fee-free general submissions for the remainder of August. As noted on Twitter, they’re interested in personal essays “by female-identifying writers who can write with honesty about their lives.” Pays: $10.
• “This year, the Oxford American’s annual Southern Music Issue & CD will be devoted to country music,” and they’re taking pitches until August 31. Compensation “will depend on the length and complexity of the story; all writers will be paid. Generally, fees will range from $250 for short dispatches to around $1,000 for feature-length essays.”
• Also closing August 31: the Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize. Confers a prize of $2,000 for a poetry collection published in the previous year by a resident of upstate New York. “The winner will also give a reading and teach a master class at Utica University.”
• From Kikwetu, “a journal of East African literature”: “In our continued quest to showcase new and established writers from East Africa and beyond, we are thrilled to launch our first writing contest as a special 8th issue to recognize exemplary work from a writer of African origin.” They’re looking for flash fiction (up to 1200 words), “from African writers on or off the continent. You may submit as many as two stories. The call-out is open-themed and we encourage you to send your best work.” The winner receives $150 (via M-Pesa or PayPal) plus publication; shortlisted stories will be published. (Hat tip: AuthorsPublish.) Deadline: August 31.
• Contrary‘s autumn-issue deadline is September 1. They publish poetry, fiction, and “lyrical commentary/creative non-fiction,” and they pay $20 (via Paypal).
• Another September 1 deadline: Michelle Cyca is “working with @romper on a special editorial package & am looking for pitches from US/Canada-based Indigenous writers on birth, parenting and caregiving. Minimum rate is $600 USD.” (As always, read the entire thread!)
• The Canadian Women Artists’ Award “is a $5,000 cash grant open to Canadian women artists ages 25-40 in New York State.” One of this year’s three awards will go a literary artist. Deadline: September 13.
• Britain’s Poetry Society is hiring “an experienced and imaginative Editor for our influential quarterly magazine The Poetry Review, one of the most widely read publications for new poetry in the world.” Salary: “£34,000 PA pro rata (£17,000 based on 2.5 days per week).” Location is “flexible. A desk is available at the central London office, and some in-person meetings in the office will be required.”
• In New York, “creative writers with significant publications and teaching experience are invited to apply for the position of Viebranz Visiting Professor of Creative Writing for the academic year 2023-2024. Publications and teaching experience in two genres are preferable.”
• “The English Department at the University of Utah invites applications for a position in Creative Writing (Prose) at the rank of Advanced Associate or Full Professor to begin Fall 2023. Expertise in complementary fields (e.g., digital and hybrid forms, book arts, narrative theory) as well as in the areas of race, ethnicity, gender, and/or sexuality are particularly welcome.”
• In New York, “the English department at Wagner College seeks a full-time, tenure track professor to teach creative writing and American literature to start in the fall of 2023….Candidates should be able to teach writing in a range of genres, e.g., poetry, fiction, drama, and/or creative non-fiction, including long-form journalism. Candidates with expertise in multiethnic literature whose work engages with local communities are preferred.”
• In California, “the Department of English at Santa Clara University invites applications for a tenure-track position in Poetry Writing, to begin fall 2023 as part of a cluster hire in Race, Inequality, and Social Justice in the College of Arts and Sciences. We are particularly interested in poets whose work emphasizes racial and social justice, with additional interests in environmental justice and LGBTQ+ studies, and in candidates committed to undergraduate writing and publishing.”
• In Pennsylvania, “Ursinus College invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor appointment in the English & Creative Writing Department with a specialty in poetry writing.”
• In Ohio, “Denison University seeks an active poet and experienced teacher for a full-time tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of English.”
• In Rhode Island, “the Department of Literary Arts at Brown University invites applications for a tenure-track, Assistant Professor position, with an emphasis in fiction, beginning July 1st, 2023.”
• In California, “the Department of English in the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University seeks candidates for a tenure line faculty position at the Assistant Professor level beginning the Fall semester of 2023. The successful candidate should have experience teaching fiction writing workshops and literature courses at the college level and a significant record of fiction publication in nationally recognized venues.”
• In Georgia, “Agnes Scott College Department of English invites applications for a tenure-track position at the level of assistant professor. The successful candidate will teach courses in creative writing with a specialization in creative nonfiction, serve as the Director of the college’s well-supported Center for Writing and Speaking, oversee the department’s First-Year English Program, and publish regularly in relevant genres. Desirable additional interests include fiction, editing and publishing, screenwriting and cross- or multi-genre work, among others.”
• For Fall 2022, Eastern Michigan University “may need instructors for Creative Writing 201, a general education course that introduces students to diverse genres in creative writing. Instructors are expected to introduce students to fiction and poetry as well as one other creative writing genre in the areas of performance writing, new media, or creative nonfiction.”
• And for Spring 2023, Tufts University in Massachusetts is advertising two positions: part-time lecturer(s) in fiction and journalism and part-time lecturer in poetry.