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.

• Reminder: The September issue of our popular newsletter went out to subscribers last week, and it is packed with dozens more fee-free and paying opportunities.
• But since I don’t catch everything in time for the monthly newsletter, I use these posts to share later finds. To wit: Bennington Review re-opened for submissions on September 1. They seek “innovative, intelligent, and moving fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, film writing, and cross-genre work.” Pays: “$120 for prose of six typeset pages and under, $250 for prose of over six typeset pages, and $25 per poem, in addition to two copies of the issue in which the piece is published and a copy of the subsequent issue.”
• At BOA Editions, the American Poets Continuum Series is open (for paper submissions only) the remainder of September. The series “celebrates new collections of poetry by distinguished mid-career poets. Poets who have previously published a full-length book of poetry with a traditional publisher are eligible to submit to the American Poets Continuum Series via solicitation or during an open reading period.”
• Also, in order to maximize the value of the monthly newsletters, I don’t include there any opportunities that are restricted to writers in a single city/state/province. But I do post those opportunities I post here in the weekly posts. For example: The John Lewis Writing Grants. These awards confer $500 to present a workshop or reading at a selected Georgia venue plus a scholarship to the Red Clay Writers Conference” and “are awarded in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. “The purpose of the grants is to elevate, encourage, and inspire the voices of Black writers in Georgia.” Note that “applicants must be 18 years of age and emerging writers who are Black or African-American residents of Georgia for at least one year, or full-time students at a Georgia college or university at the time of application and on the date of the award, and have published no more than one traditionally published book.” Deadline: October 1.
• “If you’re a writer or an aspiring writer looking for where to go next, The Writer’s Center Compass Fellowship is a great place to start! Our renewed fellowship program will introduce a new writer each year to our writing family, to help guide them along the next steps on their path, with $1000 in credits toward any TWC workshops within a two-year period, a $300 cash stipend, and opportunities to be published in The Writer’s Center Magazine and featured in TWC events.” Note that “applicants must be local in the DMV area and be able to travel to Bethesda.” Applications opened on September 1 and will close November 1.
• For its upcoming conference in Pittsburgh, Barrelhouse seeks in-person as well as online workshop proposals. Pays: $50. Deadline: September 10.
• From Johns Hopkins University (Maryland): “We are conducting an open-rank search to fill a tenured or tenure track position in poetry….We are particularly interested in candidates with a demonstrated ability to develop and teach courses in African American poetry or poetry of the African diaspora. Secondary expertise in LGBTQ Literature or Women’s and Gender studies is also desirable.”
• The English department at North Carolina State University “is seeking applicants for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Creative Writing (Fiction).”
• Pennsylvania’s Chatham University “seeks a nine-month full-time tenure track with a specialty in fiction writing to teach a variety of courses in the Full and Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs. The expected start date for this position is August, 2023. The will also serve as Graduate Writing Coordinator, offering a variety of support to the MFA director, primarily as facilitator of the Emerging Black Writer-in-Residence program.”
• Writers of creative nonfiction “are invited to apply for the tenure-track position of Assistant Professor of English in the College of Arts and Humanities at California State University, Fresno. The appointment begins in August 2023.”
• In Maryland, “the Department of English and Communication Arts at Hood College seeks a full-time Assistant Professor of English (Creative Writing, Generalist) to join us beginning August 2023.”
• In Ohio, “the Liberal Arts Department at the Cleveland Institute of Art invites applications for two full-time ­­faculty positions in Creative Writing at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor to begin in Fall 2023.”