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.

• “In recognition of Black History Month, The Maine Review is offering free submissions from February 14-20, or until we reach our allowed free submission maximum.” Pays: “Fiction and Nonfiction writers receive a $25 honorarium per published flash (1,000 words or fewer) and a $50 honorarium for work 1,001 words or more. Poets receive a $25 honorarium per published poem.”
• Catnip, “a joyful, sweet, sometimes silly but always smart print magazine celebrating all things cat,” is open for pitches until February 26 (early! 9am Eastern that day). Payment: “Rates will be $.50/word, negotiated as a flat fee upon commission. This means that we will set the rate based on the expected length of the piece. We do not recalculate the fee based on the final word count of your piece.”
• From Story Street Writers: “It’s time to grow your writing with our Springtime on Story Street flash fiction contest. No theme this time, just bring your 100 best words and tell us a story.” Deadline: February 28 (midnight, Eastern). “The winner will be announced on April 1, and receive a $100 prize as well as publication in the Story Street Review online. The three runners-up will also be published, each receiving a $25 prize.”
• At TRP: The University Press of SHSU (Texas Review Press), the Southern Poetry Breakthrough Series, which “highlights a first full-length collection by emerging authors from each state in the southern U.S.,” is welcomes submissions from poets in Virginia. “Open to any poet born in Virginia, currently residing in Virginia, or who has lived in Virginia for five consecutive years at any point, who has not yet published a full-length collection of poetry.” Awards “a standard royalty contract, and 10 copies of the published book.” Deadline: March 1.
• Free weekly newsletter Words of Mouth, “sharing opportunities for professional and creative development across design, the arts, education, information, and the built environment,” is assembling an anthology “that explores the activity of looking for work through essays, interviews, and other text-based or visual ruminations.” Payment: “All contributors will be compensated $350.” Pitch deadline: March 1. (Hat tip: The Writer’s Job Newsletter.)
• The New York-based Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College (CENTRO) “is calling on artists to present research proposals for the Summer 2025 Artistic Research Residency Program. Artists have been instrumental in shaping the Puerto Rican identity, untangling our daily experiences, and crafting possible futures. It is for that reason that we aim to provide an artistic residency in which the creative results are informed and inspired by research using materials from the CENTRO Library and Archives as inspiration. For this summer residency, we are seeking proposals that fall under our 2024-2025 annual theme: Archives: Memory & the Present Past of Puerto Rico. This call is open to all artistic disciplines.” Confers “$5,000 ($2,500 at the beginning of the residency and $2,500 at the end) for research conducting to the creation of an artistic project.” Deadline: March 1.
• Just past the mid-month mark, it’s perhaps a good time to remind you that plenty of fee-free and paying/funded opportunities in the February newsletter (and recent weekly supplements) remain open for submissions and applications.
• In Seattle, Hugo House is advertising for an Outreach and Events Coordinator. Salary: $50,000-$55,000. Deadline: “open until filled.”
• In New York, Kirkus Reviews “is seeking an excellent editorial assistant/customer service representative for its Indie (self-published) section.” “Base salary: “$42k-45K annually.” No application deadline indicated.
• PEN America “seeks a Workshop Leader to design and lead a series of poetry-based writing workshops with intergenerational participants affiliated with our partner organization, The Magic City Acceptance Center. Books That Saved Me is a new initiative that will bring together twelve LGBTQ+ youth and community elders to generate original poetry about books that have impacted their lives. This is a six-month contract position, and reports to the Senior Manager of PEN Across America.” NB: The partner organization is in Birmingham, Alabama, and the job announcement indicates that “work must be performed in or near” there. Compensation: “The consultancy fee will be $3,600 for a term of six months.” No deadline indicated.
• In Pennsylvania, “Bucknell University seeks to hire two one-year visiting assistant professors in English, one with a specialization in fiction and one with a specialization in creative nonfiction. Ability to teach across genres is valued but not required. The course load will be 3/3 and will include both introductory and advanced classes. These positions will begin in August 2025.” Deadline: “A review of the applications will begin on February 28, 2025, and will continue until the position is filled.”