Erika Dreifus

“My heart is in the East,” the medieval poet Yehuda Halevi famously wrote. I’m hardly the only Jewish writer in the Diaspora who is currently consumed by what’s unfolding in Israel. I simply can’t post today’s list of markets and jobs “as usual” without acknowledging that much, even if I don’t feel equipped to say much more in this particular space right now.

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.

• “The Adirondack Center for Writing (ACW) is pleased to announce that we are now open for submissions to our Postcard Poems broadside series. Writers based in New York state are eligible to submit. We will select four poems to print as 5″ x 7″ broadsides, complete with custom art and available for sale through ACW. Selected writers will receive $100 and 5 copies of their broadside. All broadside proceeds will go towards supporting ACW programs.” Deadline: October 11. 
• In the wake of last week’s news concerning Gettysburg Review, an announcement from Ninth Letter: “Ninth Letter stands in solidarity with the editors and staff of The Gettysburg Review. The shortsighted decision by Gettysburg College to close a literary institution is unacceptable, and we encourage all literary citizens to write or call the college in support of The Gettysburg Review and it’s thirty-five year contribution to the national literary landscape. We are proud to offer a free submission to Ninth Letter’s print edition to anyone who writes or calls in support. This offer is valid until Friday, October 13, 2023.” Ninth Letter‘s pay rates: “$25 per poem and $100 for prose upon publication and two complementary copies of the issue in which the work appears.” (Hat tip: @TerryLKennedy.)
• Call for pitches! Per this thread (yes, on Twitter), Hey Alma‘s Deputy Managing Editor Vanessa Friedman is “looking for halloween content…think spooky season & judaism.” (Examples provided in the thread.) Pays $100. Pitch deadline: EOD 10/13, to vanessa [at] heyalma [dot] com. (Hat tip: The Writer’s Job newsletter; cross-posted on My Machberet.)
• The Pig’s Back, open until October 15, “seeks submissions of previously unpublished fiction and non-fiction. We accept work from anywhere in the world but currently can only accept English language pieces. We do not accept poetry.” Pays: “All contributors will receive a flat fee of ‎‎€300. They will also receive two copies of the issue in which their work features.”
• As noted on Twitter, TriQuarterly is keeping a fee-free submissions window open until October 15. Payment, per their guidelines: unspecified “honoraria.” (Also note within the guidelines that they’re currently open for fiction, creative nonfiction, video essays, craft essays, and interviews.)
• Riddlebird is open for submissions of literary fiction and personal essays until October 26. “Authors are compensated $100.”
• Kenyon Review is planning a “Forough Farrokhzad Folio,” which will be guest-edited by Kenyon Review Fellow Cindy Juyoung Ok. “Poet, translator, and filmmaker Forough (or Forugh) Farrokhzad, often referred to as Forough, is a household Iranian name. Her inimitable work, known and loved intimately all over the world, has brought about many translations and transmutations. In celebration of her ninetieth birthday in December 2024, this winter issue folio will newly gather translations by multiple translators of her original Farsi poems (whose rights are in the public domain), alongside writing across genres about, for, and after Forough: essays, stories, poems, and hybrid writing engaging with her through various modes. The folio seeks to complicate rather than complete, to share unusual permutations and under-acknowledged histories. From criticism to personal history, imagined interactions to visual bursts, the prompt is as open as the poet’s distinctive force.” Deadline: October 31. Payment: “We pay $0.08 per published word of prose (minimum $80, maximum $450) and $0.16 per published word of poetry (minimum $40, maximum $200).”
• As The Suburban Review celebrates its tenth birthday, its team shares the following: “To commemorate this tender age, the persistence it’s taken to get here, and our intent to continue long into the future, we’ve chosen a determinedly decadal theme for issue #32: TENACITY! We want stories that hold us tightly and don’t let go (tenere, ‘to hold’); poems that make of a fleeting moment something firm, steadfast, resilient; essays with the rigor required to follow a thought however far it may lead. And don’t forget tenacity’s etymological cousin, ‘tend’ (tendere, ‘to stretch’)—we want comics that swerve off in strange ways, photos that stretch style and form, and artworks whose attention to a single image is so close and tenacious as to become a kind of prayer. Or just, like, send us things featuring the number ten.” Deadline: “Submissions are open until 11:59 p.m. (AEDT) Wednesday 1 November 2023.” Pay rates for this Australia-based journal are detailed on the website.
• Write or Die magazine is now open for fiction submissions. “Writers will receive $200 for published fiction pieces as well as a special interview feature with our fiction editor, Tamar. Published pieces will be accompanied by original artwork, and writers will receive a media kit to display their work across social media.” (In response to a query on Twitter concerning deadline, the magazine indicated [October 2]: “We will announce when we plan to close subs but consider them open for the next month!”)
• The Poetry Society of America is advertising for a part-time Development Associate who “will work with the Executive Director and other staff to research grant prospects, write grant proposals and reports for private foundations and government agencies, maintain the grants calendar, and provide logistical support for donor cultivation events. As time allows, the Development Associate will also collaborate with other staff on programmatic activities, including readings and seminars, poetry contests, and public space projects, as well as general office tasks. This is a 20-hour-a-week position and the schedule can be flexible. Some work may be done remotely, but candidates must be able to commit to working in the PSA office (119 Smith Street, Brooklyn) two days a week for three to four hours.” Salary: “$30,000 (Annual).” Apply by October 23.
• The New York Review of Books is hiring a full-time Online Editor. No deadline indicated. “Compensation range: $65,000–$75,000.” (Hat tip: Roxane Gay.)
• “The English Department at Colorado College invites applications for a full-time tenure-track Assistant Professor with expertise in Creative Writing (Poetry) to begin in the fall of 2024. Applicants should be prepared to teach Introduction to Creative Writing (a multi-genre class), Beginning Poetry Workshop, Intermediate and Advanced Poetry Workshops, and Senior capstone courses for students writing creative theses. Preference will be given to candidates with the ability to teach courses in Creative Nonfiction, which might include various forms of hybrid writing, such as digital storytelling, image-text, graphic forms, and book arts.” Deadline: November 1.
• “The University of Virginia’s Department of English/Program in Creative Writing-one of the nation’s highest-ranked programs – invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Poetry, expected to begin Fall semester 2024. We are looking for candidates who can teach undergraduate and graduate workshops and seminars in poetry and poetics, with demonstrable experience in a subgenre such as creative nonfiction, literary translation, graphic narrative, writing for performance, etc, a plus.” Deadline: “This position will remain open until filled and review of applications will begin on November 6th, 2023.”
• “The English Department at Le Moyne College, located in Syracuse, NY, invites applications for the full-time, tenure-track position of Assistant Professor of Creative Writing. We seek a specialist in fiction or poetry, with the ability to teach a second Creative Writing genre.” Deadline: “Review of applications will begin on November 10, 2023, and priority will be given to applications submitted prior to that date.”
• “For appointment beginning in the fall of 2024, we seek a writer of creative nonfiction to teach two semesters at the George Washington University as the Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Washington. This nine-month position is funded by an endowment from the Jenny McKean Moore Fund for Writers. The late Jenny McKean Moore, who had been a playwriting student at the George Washington University, left in trust a fund to encourage creative writing, and the trustees of the Fund helped design the program. The position is intended to serve as a fellowship for the visiting writers, since it involves only a moderate teaching load. The program’s location at a university in the center of Washington should offer additional attractions for the writer. The fellow should reside in the Washington area while the University is in session, late August through early May. The writer need not have conventional academic credentials.” Apply by November 13.
• In Michigan, “the Department of English at Hope College invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor in Creative Writing-Fiction to begin in the Academic Year of ’24 -’25….Preference will be given to creative writers whose creative, research, and teaching interests supplement and expand our departmental program, especially with secondary interests in any of the following; creative nonfiction, graphic narrative, playwriting, professional writing, screenwriting, and diverse American and/or global literatures.” Deadline: “Review of applications will begin on December 1st, 2023 and continue until the position is filled. Completed applications received by this date will receive full consideration.”