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.

• “Do you like to be the first to discover something new? Is your first sip of coffee your favorite? Do you remember your first trip to the library? Join My Galvanized Friend for a brand new first, our first ever issue of an LGBTQIIA+ literary magazine collecting our community’s ‘firsts’. We accept short form fiction and nonfiction, essays, poetry, and visual art for consideration.” Pays: “Selected pieces will be paid an honorarium $25 per fiction/nonfiction/essay and $10 per poem. Payments will be exclusively digital.” Deadline: February 15. (Hat tip: @TerryLKennedy.)
• As I mentioned on Twitter last week, I’ve discovered via Cincinnati Review‘s latest newsletter that they’ve issued a call for pitches for “an essay/craft/review feature on the theme of jealousy, to be released on our website in conjunction with our spring issue. We’d love to see pitches for that feature that are: reviews of books of poetry, fiction, or nonfiction that address jealousy; craft essays by those who have written about jealousy in their own creative work; essays about the literary world and jealousy. IMPORTANT: We are NOT looking for poems, stories, and literary nonfiction (other than the types of essays mentioned above) about jealousy. Send a pitch of 200 words or less and your bio (with previous writing experience) to jealousy(at)cincinnatireview(dot)com. We’ll pay for these pieces, but we’ll only be able to select a few, to make sure the feature is well rounded and complex. We’ll consider pitches through Tuesday, February 20th.”
• At the University of New Brunswick, they’re hiring a Production & Marketing Coordinator to coordinate “the production of each issue of the three Faculty of Arts journals, including typesetting and layout, and acts as a liaison with the printers. This position creates marketing materials as directed and will coordinate promotional events, as well as performing other administrative tasks as required, for The Fiddlehead, Studies in Canadian Literature, and Acadiensis.” Apply by February 22.
• At Texas Review Press, the TRP Southern Poetry Breakthrough Series “highlights a first full-length collection by emerging authors from each state in the southern U.S.” Currently open for submissions from “any poet born in Kentucky, currently residing in Kentucky, or who has lived in Kentucky for five consecutive years at any point, who has not yet published a full-length collection of poetry.” Prize: “Winner will receive a standard royalty contract, and 10 copies of the published book.” Deadline: March 1.
• At the Shoals Marine Laboratory (Appledore Island, New Hampshire), the Shoals Artist-in-Residence Program “offers artists the opportunity to pursue their work immersed in Appledore’s beautiful landscapes, free of everyday distractions. The 5-6 selected artists reside on the island, one at a time, for 2-3 concurrent weeks between May and August. Artists blend personal creative time with art programming designed for students enrolled in SML courses.” Residency includes housing, meals, and more as detailed on the website. NB: “Two-week residencies are preferred and typically run from a Sunday to a Sunday.” Deadline: March 1.
• At the University of Cambridge, “the Judith E. Wilson Poetry Fellowship is designed to enable practising poets to spend a period as members of the Faculty of English, bringing together the practice of poetry and their academic study.” Applications for the nine-month fellowship close March 3. NB: Requires “right to work” in the UK.
• “The Drexel MFA program is looking for writers who work in different styles and genres, such as literary fiction, fantasy, humor, historical fiction, sci fi, suspense, young adult, etc. to be hired as adjunct faculty. The adjunct faculty member will teach one student in a structured packet exchange, offered fully online.” Apply by March 7.
• In Ohio, “the English Department of Bowling Green State University seeks a poet with expertise and publishing history in at least one additional genre to serve as the College of Arts & Sciences Distinguished Visiting Writer. The successful candidate will be on faculty spring 2025; teach one workshop in our BFA program and one workshop in our MFA program; give a public reading and a lecture; and advise theses.” Deadline: “Position is open until filled, but for fullest consideration please submit a completed application by March 11, 2024.”
• “The University of Central Arkansas’s Department of Film, Theatre, and Creative Writing invites applications for a nine-month, tenure track Assistant Professor of Creative Writing (Poetry + Secondary Genre), beginning August 16, 2024. ” Deadline: “open until filled.”