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.

• Today, we are at the mid-month mark. Which means that it’s time for a reminder that plenty of opportunities listed in the April newsletter and in recent Markets & Jobs posts remain open for submissions and applications. Make sure that you haven’t missed anything!
• “Black Lawrence Press now offers scholarships for our consultation program. Although we work hard to keep the costs of our consults as low as possible, we understand that many writers are not able to afford these services. We plan to award a total of $1,000 in scholarships per month. The deadline to submit your manuscript is April 22. We will award the scholarships in the first week of May. If your manuscript is not selected for the scholarship, please feel free to apply again in the future. Scholarship recipients will be chosen by senior Black Lawrence Press editors and will be selected based on the merit of the submitted work. While we do not request that submitters disclose any personal financial information, we want to be clear that these scholarships are intended for writers who would not otherwise be able to afford the cost of our consultation service.” Deadline: April 22.
• Maine residents, this one, from the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance (MWPA), is for you: “‘There are 27 headstones in the island’s only graveyard, but there are 28 bodies beneath.’ That’s the first sentence of your next flash fiction story thanks to award-winning and bestselling writer and 2024 Maine CrimeMaster Michael Koryta. The MWPA is thrilled (pun intended) to announce the 2024 CrimeFlash Contest. You’re invited to finish Koryta’s opening line—written exclusively for this contest—with your own flash fiction of no more than 500-words. Every entry to the contest must begin with the [aforementioned] line.” Prize: “The winner will receive a free registration to the 2024 Maine Crime Wave, an invitation to read their story at the conference, and have their work printed in the conference program. Two runners-up will receive half-price registration to the Crime Wave.” Deadline: April 28.
• May 1 is the deadline for the West Virginia Fiction Competition, “a literary competition to encourage writers and storytellers whose talent and ability in creative writing is distinctive and promising, and to foster an appreciation of Appalachian people, culture, and values represented in the diverse writing of the region.” Open to “any resident of West Virginia or student attending school in West Virginia,” the contest confers “$500 First Prize Award and possible publication, $100 each for Second Place, Third Place, and Judges’ Choice Awards for high school and middle school students.”
• News from the Hellenic Research Fellowship Program (HRFP), which “enables visiting scholars to conduct research using the Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection in Sacramento, CA”: “This year we are happy to inaugurate writer-in-residence fellowships as an addition to the HRFP. These fellowships provide opportunities for novelists, poets, playwrights, screenwriters, journalists, translators, and others whose work is animated by or engages with Hellenic culture, and who show significant promise or have a record of publication, to spend time in residence researching and crafting their creative works while enjoying access to the Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection.” Fellowships range “from $1,500 to $5,000 in the form of reimbursement to help offset transportation and living expenses incurred in connection with the awards. Fellowships are open to external researchers/writers anywhere in the world who reside outside a 75-mile radius of Sacramento.” Deadline: May 3.
• “92NY School Engagement in the Arts is one of New York City’s largest community arts education providers, creating dynamic programs, performances and talks for thousands of K-12 students and their teachers each year across the boroughs. We are currently seeking applications for Teaching Artists for our Summer 2024 Young Writers Workshop.” Compensation: “$100 per class session.” No deadline indicated.