Markets and Jobs for Writers

Background of a keyboard, mug of coffee, and wallet on a tabletop; text label indicating "Markets and Jobs for Writers: No fees to submit work/apply. Paying gigs only."

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.

  • Variant Lit is open for submissions of fiction and nonfiction until tomorrow (January 31). Pays: $10.
  • Coming very soon: the February issue of The Practicing Writer 2.0. Don’t forget to give the January issue one last look (multiple opportunities listed there are still open).
  • “Writers from the state of Iowa are invited to apply for the 2023 Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award. One fiction writer and one poet will be selected. Winners receive an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City to meet with top literary professionals, including editors, agents, publishers, and prominent writers. This year’s judges are Alejandro Varela for fiction and Megan Fernandes for poetry. Entries must be submitted by February 10, 2023.” NB: Check eligibility criteria (as always!).
  • “Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC will award a publishing grant to authors of fiction /creative non-fiction, poetry and playwriting.” Grant amount: “up to $10,000.” Applicants must be NYC residents, as detailed in the guidelines. Deadline: February 13 (or when they reach their cap).  
  • The Moving Words competition competition is open to “poets who live within the D.C. Metro transit area (the Northern Virginia counties Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun, and the cities Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church; the District of Columbia; and the Maryland counties Montgomery and Prince George’s).” The program seeks “poems of 10 lines or less that will be displayed inside [Arlington Transit] buses between March and September 2023. This year’s competition will be judged by Arlington Poet Laureate Holly Karapetkova. Seven poems will be selected to be printed on colorful placards and displayed prominently on area buses, enlivening the ride for thousands of commuters. Each winner will also receive a $250 honorarium. Winning poems will be posted on ArlingtonArts.org and will be archived on the Arlington County CommuterPage.com website.” Deadline: February 15.
  • Applications for the Luminarts Creative Writing Fellowships of $10,000 per artist (“awarded in the categories of poetry and prose, both fiction and nonfiction”) close February 17. Applicants must live “within 150 miles of the Chicago Loop”; must be between 18-30 years of age; and must “be currently enrolled in, or have completed, a degree program, conservatory, or other professional artist development program (not necessarily specific to the program for which you are applying).”
  • The Boston Globe is advertising for a Books Editor. “You must live in or near the Boston area and be able to attend local book events and regular in-office meetings.”
  • In New York, “The Department of English at Skidmore College invites applications for a one-year Visiting Assistant Professor of English in Fiction Writing. We seek individuals with expertise in the teaching of fiction writing in a workshop environment at introductory and advanced levels. Applicants must demonstrate excellence both in teaching and in fiction writing, as well as a strong commitment to undergraduate education at a liberal arts college. One published book of fiction required at time of application. The teaching load is 2/2.”
on a tabletop: a keyboard, a mug of coffee, and a wallet with cash, plus a text label announcing Markets and Jobs for Writers