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.

• Re-opened for submissions: Cincinnati Review‘s online flash feature (miCRo). Pays: $25. No deadline indicated.
• From Welter: “Designed to honor Welter’s 60 years of publishing outstanding writers and visual artists from across the globe, our ’60 Years, 60 Words’ contest is your chance to be recognized as a champion of constraint. Give us 60 of your most provocative, compelling, relevant words for a chance to win $60 and featured publication in our Fall issue. Please submit fiction, nonfiction, or prose-poem pieces of exactly 60 words as a .docx or .doc file. One micro piece will be selected by the editors to be awarded a prize of $60.” Deadline: October 11.
• Last Syllable, “a literary journal that publishes longform poetry, prose, and multi-modal works,” is open for submissions through October 15. Pays: $20.
• From New Ohio Review: “Currently, we have a call for Feature Essays: Poetry and Dance. We encourage essay submissions (750–1500 words) that focus on a particular period of poetry or poet; or a particular style of dance. There is no submission fee for this call, and the deadline is October 15th.” NB: I’ve confirmed via email that will be compensating writers for this feature at their “usual” rates (“around $20 per page for prose”).
• “Jeannine Ouelette, Kristine Kopperud, and Elizabeth Austin are thrilled to announce a call for submissions for their forthcoming anthology, Root Cause: Stories of Health, Harm, and Reclaiming Our Humanity in an Epidemic of Loneliness.” They’re seeking “nonfiction narratives that explore the profound and often overlooked experiences of isolation and loneliness within the context of healthcare,” and they will consider reprints. Payment: “Works appearing in Root Cause will each be compensated $50, with the possibility of longer works being compensated slightly more as we are able.” Deadline: October 15. (Hat tip: Sub Club.)
• Also open until October 15: the window for poetry submissions at The Spectacle. Pays: $50.
• Applications for the 2024 John Lewis Writing Grants are due by October 28. These grants “are inspired by the late civil rights icon and his more than three decades of service as Georgia’s 5th District representative. The John Lewis Writing Grants will be awarded annually in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. The purpose of the grants is to elevate, encourage, and inspire the voices of Black writers in Georgia.” Winners in each genre receive “a grant of $500 to present a workshop or reading at a selected Georgia venue” and “a scholarship to the next annual Red Clay Writers Conference.”
• In case you missed it: The October edition of The Practicing Writer 2.0 went out to subscribers last week. It features 60+ fee-free and paying/funded opportunities spanning fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction (plus a few for kidlit), among other content.
• The UK-based Jewish Literary Foundation is advertising for a Part-Time Marketing and Communications Manager. This part-time position is “hybrid (remote with occasional in-office days in London),” with a salary of £35k pro-rated. Apply by October 16.
• “The Department of English and Literary Arts in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Denver, an R1 university, seeks applicants for an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing-Prose.” Application deadline: October 28.
• “The Department of English at the University of North Texas, a Minority Serving Institution (MSI) and a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Creative Writing to join a thriving Ph.D./M.A. program with a strong scholarly emphasis. The appointment begins August 2025. We plan to hire a specialist in Nonfiction….We will begin reviewing applications on November 1, 2024….The position will remain open until filled.
• In Pennsylvania, “the Department of English Literature at Swarthmore College invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track appointment in Creative Writing with specific expertise in poetry. Because this is an open-rank position, we will hire a poet at the assistant professor or tenured associate/full professor level, depending on qualifications and experience.” Deadline: “All applications received by November 15, 2024, will receive fullest consideration, though we will continue to review applications until the position is filled.”