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 case you’ve missed it, please check out yesterday’s note to those who subscribe to The Practicing Writer 2.0, with some important updates that connect with these weekly posts here on Practicing Writing. I expect to continue publishing these “Markets and Jobs” posts here on the blog, for the foreseeable future, but henceforth, they may look slightly different, and arrive slightly later in the day, than you may be accustomed to.

• Course proposals for possible inclusion in the Seattle-based Hugo House’s summer catalog are due by March 23. “Starting pay rate for classes is $10.50 per teaching hour multiplied by the number of registered students in your class. In other words, a 3-hour class with 15 students at the $10.50 rate will be $10.50 x 15 x 3 = $472.50. If you are co-teaching a class with another instructor, the pay will be split between the two instructors. Pay increases to $11.00 per teaching hour after teaching at Hugo House for 30 course hours, over at least 4 classes.”
• “The Creative Writing Division in the Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky invites applications for a full-time Lecturer position in English to begin August 1, 2025.” Application deadline: March 23.
• The Vancouver [Canada] Public Library’s writer in residence program “promotes Canadian writing and literature to Vancouver citizens. During the four-month residency from September to December, the writer spends 50% of their time working on their own project and 50% of their time mentoring emerging writers, conducting workshops and participating in other activities and programs to share their experience with the community. Applications for the 2025 Writer in Residence position are open until Friday, March 28. Compensation: “Contract terms: $22,000 for four months full-time activity ($5,500 per month on a self-employed basis).” (Hat tip: Funds for Writers.)
• From Bethlehem Writers Roundtable magazine: “We are now open for submissions for our Summer 2025 issue. The window will close on March 31, 2025. The theme for that issue will be Barbecued Beef: Tales of Disagreement. Our themes are broadly interpreted.” Pay rates: “Authors of stories published through our regular submissions process will receive $50.00 USD for featured authors, or $20.00 USD for stories published on our &More page and $10.00 USD for poems.” (Hat tip: Authors Publish.)
• Also open until March 31: entries for the Worcester County [Massachusetts] Poetry Association (WCPA) Frank O’Hara Prize. This poetry competition is open to residents of Worcester County; students or employees of institutions within Worcester County; and WCPA members in good standing. Confers cash prizes ($125/$100/$75) and publication.
• “Millay House Rockland, in partnership with the Ellis Beauregard Foundation, is pleased to announce our open call for two, one-month, juried residencies for writers of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, screenplays, or expository journalism….Two residents will be chosen, one for October 2025 and the other for July 2026. Each residency comes with a stipend of $1200 and one month’s accommodation in the house where Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Edna St. Vincent Millay was born,” in Rockland, Maine. Deadline: April 1 (or once the cap of 100 applications is reached).
• The Department of English at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro invites applications for a one-year visiting assistant professor position in creative writing (poetry), to begin August 1, 2025. Apply by April 11.
• In Ohio, Bowling Green State University’s Department of English “invites applications for a full-time, non-renewable (one-year) Assistant Teaching Professor position specializing in Creative Writing (Fiction). This is a 9-month appointment with a start date of August 2025.” Apply by April 12.
• The New York-based Authors Guild is advertising for a Social Media Engagement Manager (“hybrid, tri-state area applicants preferred”). Compensation for this part-time, contract position is “$50 to $65 per hour.” No deadline indicated.