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.

• We’re just past January’s midway mark—there’s still plenty of time to pursue many of the opportunities listed in our January newsletter.
• “The Gutter Review is once again opened up for pitching to fill the first quarter of our upcoming year. We are a paying site that focuses on long-form essays about lesser-known, forgotten, controversial, or critically unsung visual media with a focus on comic books, but also on film and visual-led pop culture oddities. Check out a few pages of the site to see what it is we do! We love personal perspective, we love the stuff you forgot in that long box in your basement, and we love people who hit ideas with their whole head. Our rates are the same as ever at $150 for a single essay to be paid via PayPal (or paper check via mail if necessary by request) upon approval of a final draft. Rates may increase to $200/essay to account for length if commissioned specifically by the editor. Please read our newly updated style guide to see what we’re looking for in detail and how to pitch us!” (Hat tip: Kaitlyn Arford.)
• TC Jewfolk posted a call for submissions and pitches on Twitter last week. Pays: $50-$100.
• You have until 9pm tonight (Eastern time) to send fiction to Catapult. “Our short stories usually run between 2,500–4,000 words (excluding flash). Please note that we publish fiction far less frequently (once per week) than we do nonfiction. We pay $200 for all short stories that we publish.”
• KUA, “a six-issued publication project investigating themes of universal human conditions through the lens of transnational experiences,” is open for submissions for its second issue until January 30. This issue (part of a “Displacement” series) “will examine the relationship between migrants and the environment.” Check the very detailed guidelines for additional information/requirements. Pays: “The work selected will receive £ 40 – 100 and one copy of KUA 02.”
• “Miracle Monocle is pleased to announce the second installment of its newest award series: The Miracle Monocle Award for Young Black Writers. The winner of the prize will receive a $200 prize, publication in the journal, and a letterpress broadside of the winning piece. We welcome work in the following genres: poetry, flash (creative nonfiction and fiction), and experimental and hybrid literature. Only pieces that are publishable in broadside format (approximately 300 words or less) will be considered for this prize. Writers must be 25 years old or younger and identify as Black.” Deadline: January 31.
• February 1 is the deadline to enter the Wednesday Club of St. Louis Original Poetry Contest, which is open to “adults over 18; living within a 50-mile radius of St. Louis” (there are also youth awards in a separate contest program). Entries must be sent by postal mail. Cash prizes: $500, $300, $150. Judge: Kari Gunter-Seymour.
• Also closing February 1: applications for the Alice Conger Patterson Scholarship. This award ($500-$1,000) is intended to “encourage South Carolina individuals to pursue continuing education or to develop a creative endeavor in order to enhance a career in the arts or to change career direction.”
• Also closing February 1: nominations for Colorado Poet Laureate (self-nominations are welcome). “The Colorado Poet Laureate must be a legal, full-time Colorado resident for at least three years prior to the nomination deadline. The Poet Laureate must also remain a resident of Colorado during the term of office and must pass a standard background check.” Also: “The Poet Laureate will serve a four-year term beginning in July 2023. The Poet Laureate position was created to promote an appreciation of poetry in Colorado, to honor outstanding Colorado poets, and to serve as an active advocate for poetry, literacy, and literature by participating in readings and other events at schools, libraries, literary festivals, and the State Capitol. The Poet Laureate will also provide the Governor with an annual account of the impact and success of the Colorado Poet Laureate program. Colorado Humanities & Center for the Book and Colorado Creative Industries will annually supply the Poet Laureate with $5,000 honoraria and up to $5,000 public presentation travel expenses.”
• “Haikuists are looking for a few Dallas creatives to join our crew. It’s a fun, well-paid ($100/hr) side gig where you write personalized haiku poetry on the spot for guests at private events! It’s simple: you’ll have a conversation with people, and you’ll compose them their very own haiku to take home.”
• At Hunter College of The City University of New York, “the MFA Program in Creative Writing invites applicants for a Distinguished Lecturer position to serve as director of this renowned program. We seek a fiction writer of national/international stature, someone with an outstanding publishing record and major recognition by the literary community. Leadership experience in a writing MFA would be an asset. You will both direct our three genre MFA program???fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry???and teach in the graduate program. Teaching duties include fiction workshops/craft courses, supervising fiction graduate theses, and conducting admissions.”
• “The Department of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Creative Writing-Fiction.”
• In Pennsylvania, “the Department of English at Franklin & Marshall College invites applications for a Visiting Assistant Professor or Visiting Instructor, depending on qualifications, for a position to begin August 2023. The appointment is for nine months, August-May. We seek a creative writer specializing in poetry. Significant creative publications, a terminal degree in creative writing in hand or near completion, and a demonstrable commitment to undergraduate teaching are required.”
• In Ohio, the Creative Writing Program at Oberlin College “invites applications for a full-time non-continuing faculty position in the College of Arts and Sciences in the field of Fiction. Appointment to this position will be for a term of one year, beginning in the Fall semester of 2023, and will carry the rank of Visiting Assistant Professor.”
• Also in Ohio: “The English Department of Bowling Green State University seeks a fiction writer to serve as the College of Arts & Sciences Distinguished Visiting Writer.” This is a position for the spring semester 2024.