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.

• Received via email newsletter: To mark the 30th anniversary of The X-Files, Contingent magazine is now accepting pitches “for short essays (500–800 words) that explore The X-Files through a historical lens. We’re interested in pieces on cryptids, government secrets, technology, futurism, and other ways the show reflects the political and cultural concerns of the 1990s, from the post-Cold War world order to the environmental movement to the Satanic panic. Explore how the show depicted and recast history, meditate on how it influenced your views on the pursuit of truth, or put the evolution of Scully’s wardrobe in historical context. You can even explain to us the historical nature of the whammy. To pitch, please use the form at the bottom of our Pitch Us page, selecting ‘TRUSTNO1’ from the dropdown menu. With your pitch, please provide a short bio, and let us know whether you’re a Scully, a Mulder, or a Skinner. Pitches are due by Friday, November 17. You’ll hear back from us by Monday, November 20. Drafts will be due by Wednesday, November 29. Please note the quick turnaround time for this series. Each author will be paid $150. As always, Contingent will prioritize pitches from people who have completed postgraduate work in history (or a history-adjacent field) but are working outside of tenure-track employment.”
• ignitionpress, “an award-winning poetry pamphlet press with an international outlook which publishes original, arresting poetry from emerging poets,” has opened its “first-ever submissions window” for “pamphlets by emerging poets.” NB: “We welcome submissions from emerging poets aged 18 and over anywhere in the world. We consider an emerging poet to be a writer who has had some poems published online or in magazines, but who has not yet published a chapbook, pamphlet, or book-length collection. We expect that you will have – or be working towards – a pamphlet-length manuscript of around 18-20 poems. Our pamphlets are normally 36 pages in total.” Deadline: November 26. (Hat tip: Katie Hale.)
• From McSweeney’s: “To celebrate our twenty-fifth anniversary of online existence, we’re happy to announce the return of our Column Contest.” Deadline: November 30. (Hat tip: Kaitlyn Arford.)
• At On the Premises, the current Mini-Contest asks writers to “tell, show, or evoke a complete story between 25 and 50 words long which is also EXACTLY four sentences long. Not three, not five–four!” Deadline: December 1.
• Reminder: We’re approaching the mid-month mark, but plenty of fee-free-and-paying opportunities listed in the November newsletter remain open for submissions.
• The Forward is hiring an Israel-based correspondent.
• “Purchase College (SUNY) seeks applicants for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Creative Writing in fiction with possibly a secondary interest in graphic narratives, creative nonfiction, literary journal publication, literary translation, digital arts, and/or hybrid forms. Appointment will commence in September 2024. The successful candidate will teach introductory and advanced creative writing workshops and craft-based classes in a vibrant and selective Creative Writing undergraduate program which accepts incoming Freshmen on the basis of a portfolio.”
• “The English Department at Queens College of the City University of New York, in support of the campus mission, strategic plans and values, seeks to fill one Assistant Professor Vacancy in Creative Writing with an emphasis on Fiction, to begin in Fall 2024. The Department invites applications especially from candidates with secondary expertise in any of the following areas: Ethnic, Diasporic and Global Anglophone literatures, Trans Studies, Eco-criticism and Environmental Studies, Disability Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Experimental forms of fiction, Archival work, and/or Translation.”
• In Connecticut, “the English Department at Fairfield University invites applications for a full-time tenure-track faculty position in Creative Writing (fiction) at the rank of Assistant Professor to begin in September 2024, pending final budget approval. The English Department is home to a vibrant community of writers and scholars supporting the English major (with concentrations in five areas, including creative writing) as well as a Low-Residency Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. The successful candidate will join both the undergraduate and graduate programs, teaching in the primary genre of fiction writing as well as in any secondary genres of interest. Candidates with one published book from a nationally recognized press and a history of teaching excellence are welcome to apply, with emphasis and attention given to writers addressing the concerns of BIPOC communities or those from underrepresented populations.”
• In New York, the Department of English at the University at Buffalo “seeks a distinguished poet-scholar committed to the research and practice of innovative modernist and contemporary poetry to assume the James H. McNulty Professorship of English, to start fall 2024. The McNulty Professorship serves as a senior faculty anchor of the Poetics Program in the Department of English: candidates have an opportunity to shape the vision and goals of the program and should be prepared to serve in a leadership role.”