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.

• ICYMI: The July newsletter went out to subscribers last Friday. It features 75+ fee-free and paying opportunities that are now or will soon be open for submissions/entries/applications. Don’t miss it!
• Over this past weekend, Shenandoah announced on Twitter: “We are now accepting submissions for creative nonfiction with @thedwmckinney as our nonfiction editor. We’ll be closing at 400 submissions so get them in quick!” (They were still open when I scheduled this post for publication; there’s no guarantee that that will still be the case when you read it; please don’t write to tell me that I have erred in posting this information.) According to their website, they pay “$80 per 1000 words of prose up to $400.” (Thanks to @TommyDeanWriter for helping me catch this one.)
• “Until July 15, 2023, The Good Trade will be accepting original reader essays for a summer series on themes of joy, bliss, lightheartedness, and wonder. We’re most excited to read stories anchored in transformative experiences that then expand into reflection and invitation for readers to ponder.” I don’t see any reading fee attached; payment is “$300 for original essays.” (Hat tip: Submission Sunday.)
• For a Working Class Writers Nature Prize, Gaia (an imprint of the Octopus Publishing Group), Class Nature and The Working Class Writers Festival “are on the hunt for a new voice in nature writing. The winning writer will receive one year’s free membership to Campaign for National Parks, £300 paid commission to write a National Parks-inspired piece for printed Viewpoint Magazine, a free Arvon course of their choice (inc online), 3 one-hour mentoring sessions with a Gaia commissioner and a book bundle from Octopus Publishing Group. The six shortlisted writers will also receive an Octopus book bundle.” Eligibility: “The author must be a UK resident who is not currently represented by an agent. The author must self-identify as working class and not have been published professionally in full-length book form. The work submitted must not have been previously published digitally or in book form. Your work must be 100% original and 1,000 words or less. Fiction, non-fiction and poetry will all be accepted.” Deadline: July 14. 
• Also closing July 14: applications for The Associates of the Boston Public Library Writer-in-Residence program, which provides “an emerging children’s writer with the financial support, editorial assistance, and office space needed to complete one literary work for children or young adults.”
• Newly-launched Cincinnati-focused CincyJewfolk.com welcomes freelance contributions: “Jewish? Jew-ish? We want you to write for us! Topics range from personal Jewish experiences, reviews of Jewish media, your search for the NJP (Nice Jewish Person) and much more.” Pay rates begin at $50.
• Publishers Weekly has re-upped calls for freelance book reviewers, one of them listing a pay rate of $25 per review, and the other, for BookLife Reviews, “PW’s home for paid reviews of independent authors,” listing a range of $25-$75.
• Post-MFA opportunity: In Tennessee, “the Department of English and Creative Writing at The University of the South invites applications for a Poet-in-Residence position for 2023-24.  Our goal is to support the work of a poet at the beginning of their career, including preparing them for the academic job market. The poet will also help Sewanee students see the process of writing and revising a significant poetic project. This position will start on August 1, 2023, and conclude on May 30, 2024. This is a full-time salaried position with health insurance benefits and includes housing (furnished). The residence has a stipend of $42,000 (if the candidate locates their own housing, the stipend will be $52,000).” NB: “We are seeking poets who have either recently completed an M.F.A. or Ph.D. in Creative Writing or are ABD in Creative Writing, with a focus on poetry.”  
• In New York, “Sarah Lawrence College invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track position in Nonfiction Writing expected to begin in Fall 2024. The successful candidate will be multi-disciplinary in creative nonfiction and have a track record of writing in several areas (with an emphasis on the creative, e.g., memoir, personal essay, lyric/narrative essay, literary journalism, etc.).”
• In Massachusetts, “the Amherst College Department of English invites applications from creative writers for the position of writer-in-residence, to begin July 1, 2024. Candidates should demonstrate experience in both teaching and writing poetry; they may also work in multiple genres or in a hybrid mode….The initial appointment is for three years, with the possibility of renewal for three additional years.”
• In Pittsburgh, “the Department of Literature, Culture, and Society at Point Park University seeks a part-time instructor beginning in Fall 2023 to teach our core “The Art of Poetry” course and a poetry workshop of both beginner and advanced creative writing students.”