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 weekly online miCRo feature, which pays $25.
• From Ecotone, “the literary magazine dedicated to reimagining place”: “Happy Valentine’s! It’s time for our annual fee-free Valentine’s Day window, in which we invite submissions of work we love and would like to see more of. This year we’re looking for debut fiction, essays, and poetry—work from writers who have not published in their genre before. For this purpose, we define a published work as one that is available to the public in a print or online magazine with which you were not affiliated, or in a book or anthology. The exception is undergraduate university publications, which we would not count as a debut. This reading period is two days only: Thursday, February 13, and Friday, February 14. If you already submitted during one of our general windows, but have additional work that fits these criteria, feel free to send one additional submission on Valentine’s Day. Thanks, debut writers, for sharing your work with us!” Pays: “$100 minimum for poetry and a $200 minimum for prose; two copies of the issue in which their work appears; and a one-year subscription beginning with the subsequent issue.”
• At Ninth Letter, they’ve recently opened for web-edition submissions on the theme of “reversal”: “In this winter of transition send us stories, essays and poems that portray the speaker’s u-turn, characters making their about face or the self coming full circle. We welcome reversals big and small, tragic or fortunate, long coming or sudden. We’ll be on the lookout for reversals of structure and form, theses refuted or contradictions embodied. In the best submissions, readers should feel the pull of two directions – in space, or time, or spirit.” Although the window’s published deadline is April 1, they’re capping submissions “at 325 subs per genre. Once we hit the submission cap in any genre, that genre will close automatically in Submittable.” Pays: ” $25 per poem or $75 per piece of prose, plus an exclusive discount for a one-year print subscription.”
• The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) is hiring a Communications Coordinator. “WMF staff work remotely; however, residency in the Washington, D.C., New York City, or Los Angeles regions is a plus for this position.” Salary: $55,000. Apply by February 15. (Hat tip: Mandy Hofmockel.)
• In New York, the Creative Writing Program at Stony Brook seeks “a full-time lecturer who will split their time between teaching courses and co-directing BookEnds, a one-year post-graduate program for advanced novel manuscripts founded by Meg Wolitzer and Susan Scarf Merrell, the current co-directors. Co-directors, working with an Associate Director, handle recruitment, applications, admissions, student advising, mentorship assignments, and alumni relations.” Deadline: February 15.
• Art Omi (Ghent, NY) is advertising for a part-time Writing International Residency Program Director. “Time commitment varies throughout the year: Writers Residency Program dates are Spring (late March through May) and Fall (September through the third week of November.) During these sessions, the program director will stay onsite at Art Omi for three to four days per week. During the off-season, December through March,  there is administrative work managing outreach, selection process, and preparing for the upcoming residency, all of which can be done remotely and averages 2.5 days per week.” Compensation: “Annual Salary $34,000.” Deadline: February 17.
• In Texas, the English Department at Southern Methodist University “welcomes applications for the Hughes Fellowship in Creative Writing (Poetry), for a two-year position beginning Fall 2025. Fellows will be expected to make significant progress on a major project, to teach one course in creative writing per semester, and to engage in the intellectual and creative life of the department and the larger Dallas literary community.” Confers $60,000 annual compensation with full benefits. NB: “To be eligible, applicants must have completed—or be scheduled to complete by August 2025—an MFA or PhD in creative writing and published no more than one full-length book of creative work.” Deadline: February 17.
• An opportunity for poets in Orange Country, North Carolina: “The Town of Hillsborough, Mayor Mark Bell, and the Hillsborough Arts Council are thrilled to announce the relaunch of Hillsborough’s Poet Laureate Program. Our next Poet Laureate will serve a two-year term from spring 2025 to spring 2027. By broadening our requirements for citizen-poets at any stage of their literary journey, we hope to attract a diverse applicant pool in background, perspective, and poetic craft.” Confers a $6,000 stipend ($3,000/year). Deadline: February 28.
• And another for those “who live or have a writing studio within the city limits of Eureka, California, or within 1 mile of Eureka” or who are “meaningfully connected to Eureka.” The City of Eureka’s Poet Laureate Program “brings new people and perspectives into visibility and generates powerful language for expressing the experience of ‘being here.’ In 2025 a panel, including at least one youth member, will appoint up to two youth poet laureates and an adult poet laureate. These poets will serve as poetry ambassadors to the city of Eureka for a two-year period.” The adult poet laureate will receive a $1,000 stipend (in two annual $500 payments).” Deadline: February 28.
• In Pennsylvania, the Writers Institute at Susquehanna University “invites applications for a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, with a specialty in Fiction, to start in August 2025. This is a one-year appointment.” Deadline: “Review of applications will begin on March 1, 2025, and will continue until the position is filled.”
• In Maine, Colby College’s Creative Writing Program “is accepting applications for a writer in any genre with experience managing and editing an undergraduate literary magazine for the Jennifer Jahrling Forese Residency for 2025-2026,” which is “a year-long opportunity for a writer to work on a new project while contributing to Colby’s thriving literary community…We encourage writers working in all forms—poetry, nonfiction, and fiction—to apply….In addition to a generous honorarium, Colby provides the writer-in-residence with housing in downtown Waterville and a generous stipend for expenses.” Deadline: “Review of applications will begin on April 21, 2025 and continue until the position is filled.”
• From 92NY School Engagement in the Arts in New York City: “We are currently seeking applications for Teaching Artists’ Assistants for our Summer 2025 Young Writers Workshop. 92NY’s Young Writers Workshop gathers talented teen writers from all over the country for warm, supportive workshops in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry with some of NYC’s best creative writing teachers….Each cohort of students will be led by one teaching artist and one teaching artist’s assistant. Teaching Artists’ Assistants will be responsible for supporting and collaborating with their assigned Teaching Artist in developing and leading all lessons for their respective cohorts. Teaching Artists’ Assistants will also be responsible for leading and facilitating the lunchtime conversation between the students and a visiting author.” Compensation: $25/hour.