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.

• At Pulp Literature, they’re currently open for poetry and artwork submissions; for short fiction, they’ve indicated that they are open for this month. NB: “Because our title says ‘Pulp’ Literature, some authors assume we want guns and blood. The pulp in our title refers to cheap pulp paper of dimestore novels and digests of the past. We want our magazine to include a balance of all genres, including fantasy, romance, mystery, literary, etc.” Pays: “We pay $0.05 – $0.08 per word for short stories (to 5000 words),  $0.03 – $0.06 per word between 5000 and 10000 words,  and $0.02 – $0.04 per word for works over 10000 words. Poetry and interior illustrations pay between $25 – $50.  Sequential art (graphic novels and cartoons) and illustrations are at a rate of $25 to $75 per page. We accept a limited number of reprints at rates up to 50% of first publication rates.” (Hat tip: @Duotrope.)
• An opportunity for “women-identifying writers who currently live, grew up in, or recently lived in the Baltimore area” from Yellow Arrow Publishing: “Now in its third summer, Yellow Arrow is delighted to continue its online creative nonfiction and poetry series, Yellow Arrow Vignette….We landed on “vignette” because literary vignettes are known to be pieces of writing that depict brief but highly detailed moments in time. Through Yellow Arrow Vignette, we share vibrant and poignant glimpses into our writers’ lives; when viewed as a collective, we hope these stories tell an expansive and inclusive narrative.” Submissions window remains open until April 30. Pays: $10 (via Paypal).
• From Sleeping Bear Books: “The Own Voices, Own Stories Award is offered annually to children’s picture book manuscripts written by new authors from historically marginalized groups with the intention of recognizing and amplifying new and diverse voices with underrepresented perspectives. With this award, we hope to reflect authentic perspectives thereby highlighting the universal experience of our shared humanity through the prism of multifaceted experiences. For the 2024 award season, and in alignment with award’s perennial goals, the Own Voices, Own Stories Award will be eligible to new authors who identify as BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+.” Cash awards, (and for the grand-prize winners, publication) as detailed on the site. NB: “Please note that these must be exclusive submissions. Manuscripts cannot be submitted to additional publications, publishers, agents, or contests concurrently.” Deadline: April 30. (Hat tip: FundsForWriters.com.)
• In California, “Stanford Libraries seek an Editorial Coordinator to support the Stanford University Libraries publishing imprint. Stanford Libraries books showcase the Libraries’ extraordinary collections, making them visible to people across and beyond campus. We publish exhibit catalogs, annotated bibliographies, scholarly texts, essays and poetry, and keepsakes and miscellanea.” I don’t see an application deadline. “The expected pay range for this position is $32.69 – $39.42 per hour.”
• In Ohio, the Department of Languages and Literatures at Ashland University “invites applications for an Assistant or Associate Professor of English and Director of the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing. Housed within the university’s College of Arts and Sciences, this position reports directly to the Department Chair. This position is on a nine (9) month contract with a summer stipend to direct the residency for MFA.” Deadline: “open until filled”; “desired start date” is August 19, 2024.
• In Texas, “the Department of English and Modern Languages at Angelo State University invites applications for a tenure-track position in Creative Writing (Fiction) with an open secondary specialization.” No deadline indicated; “desired start date” is August 19, 2024.