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.

Important note! I hope this post will be enough to tide you over for TWO weeks, because I’ll be on a brief blogging hiatus all next week. Please expect the next “Markets and Jobs” post to appear January 29.

• Reminder: Today (Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States) also brings us to mid-January. If you haven’t yet checked out the opportunities listed in the January newsletter, or in recent Markets & Jobs posts, now’s a good time to do so! Many of the calls and competitions featured there remain open!
• Held in Greece, the Oxbelly Retreat is “an annual gathering of international storytellers, dedicated to the exchange of ideas, deepening of craft and broadening of artistic horizons through intercultural dialogue. In 2024, the Oxbelly Retreat includes programs for writers working in film, television and literature to workshop their writing with both advisors and peers and to engage in dialogue across mediums through the interdisciplinary evening sessions.” NB: There is no cost to apply “and all expenses for fellows are covered.” Application deadline: January 19.
• Brink is open “for submissions engaging the theme of Boundaries” until January 31. “We accept a variety of creative work from Nonfiction to Fiction, from Poetry to Translation. But our hearts beat strongest for hybrid work.” Compensation ranges between $25 and $100.
• For its MN BIPOC Emerging Writer Award, Blue Earth Review “is looking for ambitious and exuberant works of flash fiction, essay, memoir, and short poetry that offer insight, complicate existing conversations, and that enrich our understanding of what it means to be human in an increasingly complex world.” NB: “Eligible participants must self-identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or a Person of Color and have a history of producing artistic work. Participants must not have published their first book. Participants must have resided in the state of Minnesota for at least six (6) months prior to submission and have rented, owned, maintained, or occupied an abode in Minnesota during that time (see 183-Day Rule). Furthermore, participants must be United States residents or valid US taxpayers.” Award confers $1,000 and publication. Deadline: January 31.
• From the Highlights Foundation: “Our 2024 Scholarship Period Opens on January 17. Apply for an in-person program, in-community program, online workshop, Whole Novel Workshop, or personal retreat scholarship.” Information session scheduled for January 27. Application deadline: January 31.
• At The Christian Century, submissions of first-person narratives “(under 1,000 words),” on the theme of “help,” are welcome until February 1. “A selection of submissions will be published in the print or web magazine. Authors of the selected essays will receive $100 and a free one-year subscription to the magazine.”
• “The Writing Program in the Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh invites applications for a Writer in Residence in Fiction to begin the fall semester of 2024 for a one-year appointment that can be renewed for a second year by mutual agreement.” NB: “In order to receive full consideration, applications must be received by February 16, 2024.”
• In Maine, Colby College’s Jennifer Jahrling Forese Residency, “a semester-long opportunity for a writer to work on a new project while contributing to Colby’s thriving literary community,” is seeking “a Narrative Nonfiction writer for Spring 2025. We encourage writers working in various Narrative Nonfiction forms—longform journalism, essays, digital storytelling, autotheory, etc.—to apply. Duties include teaching one class designed by the resident(s) in consultation with Program faculty; giving one public presentation of work-in-progress and one public lecture or workshop to a general audience; scheduling office hours; working with selected students one-on-one; and interacting with the broader Waterville community. In addition to a generous honorarium, Colby provides the writer-in-residence with housing in downtown Waterville and a stipend for expenses.” Deadline: March 30.