Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: A Working Writer’s Vacation

Starting today at 5 pm, I’ll be using some of my treasured paid vacation days (one of the best benefits of being a #writerwithadayjob) for a VACATION. Much of the time will be a “staycation” along the lines of last year’s break. And once again, I have a lot of plans. For starters, I’ll be spending several days at two conferences.

ASJAFirst up: the annual conference of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), which begins tomorrow here in New York. I’ve only attended this conference once before, about a decade ago. This time, I’m going as a full-fledged ASJA member. I’m hoping to pick up plenty of freelancing tips and inspiration.

And next week, I head up to Boston for one of the most reliably excellent events on my literary calendar: Grub Street’s The Muse and the Marketplace. For obvious reasons, I’m especially grateful for the opportunity to return to Boston now. And I’m looking forward to the panel that I’ll be moderating, “Grubbie Guide to Writing Contests, Conferences & Residencies,” which will feature Sheri Joseph and Doug Trevor. (We’re Session 8K, and a few seats remain, if you’re still in the process of registering.)grub

I’ve got some other fun things planned, too. But don’t worry–I plan to keep blogging throughout! And while I have yet to master the art of live-tweeting, I’ll do my best to keep you posted on site from #ASJA13 and #muse2013. (UPDATE: I think I erred! ASJA hashtag seems to be #ASJA2013)

Monday Markets for Writers

Monday brings the weekly batch of no-fee competitions/contests, paying submission calls, and jobs for those of us who write (especially those of us who write fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction).

  • “St. Francis [College] is proud to once again offer its support and encouragement to the literary community by sponsoring the biannual $50,000 Literary Prize to a mid-career author who has recently published their 3rd to 5th work of fiction.” Self-published and translated works eligible. Will consider works published June 2011-May 2013. No entry fee. Deadline: May 1, 2013.
  • Bancroft Press publishes trade fiction and non-fiction, “and we publish, quite simply, what we like. We’ve done literary and commercial fiction, books on finance, sports, parenting, humor, history, biography…No topic is out of bounds for us if we think it’s done well and will make an important contribution to society.” See also the recent Publishers Weekly article on the press.
  • File this away, freelancers: a list of 45 websites that pay writers (I’m not sure about the “instantly” that’s part of the post’s title, but still, it’s an interesting collection).
  • Also of interest: Opportunities for writing about history.
  • From WritersWeekly.com: “We’re out of features! We pay $60 for around 600 words; non-exclusive electronic rights only. Our guidelines are here: http://www.writersweekly.com/index-markets.htm.”
  • “The English Arts Department at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside invites applications for a full-time (9 month) tenure-track faculty member in English, with a focus in 20th and 21st Century American Literature and Creative Writing – Poetry beginning August 2013.”
  • Wednesday’s Work-in-Progress: Updated Eponymous Guide to Literary Contests and Competitions

    By now, many of you know that I’m into the tenth year of publishing a free monthly newsletter for writers. Titled “The Practicing Writer,” the newsletter has evolved over time to include ONLY no-fee competitions and paying calls for submissions, plus other news and resources for writers of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. (Read the current issue.)

    Over the years, I’ve offered new newsletter subscribers an exclusive benefit: a guide to “eponymous literary contests and competitions.” I’ve previously titled this guide “From (A)lgren to (Y)eats.” But in the latest update–which I concluded a few days ago–I decided that, in keeping with my newsletter policies, I should limit the contests and competitions listed in the guide to opportunities that don’t charge fees. Sadly, I can’t find any Yeats-related contest that is also fee-free. So this edition of the guide brings a title change: “From (A)lgren to (W)illiams.”

    The guide goes out automatically to new subscribers, but the file is available to current subscribers as well. (NB: If you’re a newsletter subscriber but you have trouble accessing the file, please read this for advice. I hope that will help!)

    UPDATE, 8:00 AM: I can’t help but wonder if this post, which went live shortly after midnight, is what attracted the attention of the nefarious hacker who evidently hacked into my Yahoo! account a few hours ago. In any case, I apologize profusely for any nasty messages any of you have received from “me.” Hopefully, the situation has been remedied. Thank you for your understanding.

    Monday Markets for Writers

    Monday brings the weekly batch of no-fee competitions/contests, paying submission calls, and jobs for those of us who write (especially those of us who write fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction).

  • The February issue of The Practicing Writer went out to subscribers late last week. Plenty of no-fee contests and paying calls included there.
  • “The Cheryl Strayed/VIDA Memoir Scholarship will provide for one recipient the full registration fee for the Wild Mountain Memoir Retreat, March 15-17th 2013. The scholarship, provided by an anonymous donor, will be awarded to a female writer of demonstrated financial need and literary promise.” Deadline is February 14, 2013. No application fee.
  • Those of you in the NYC area: Gigi Rosenberg will be leading a free session on “Grantwriting for Artists: Perfecting Your Proposal,” on the afternoon of Thursday, February 14.
  • Canada-based Arc Poetry Magazine “is look­ing for sub­mis­sions of poetryor prose about poetrythat takes the North as its pole star. We are look­ing for writ­ing from the North and/or about the North in its many guises. We don’t take the North as a given and encour­age sub­mis­sions that engage with and chal­lenge ideas and his­tor­ies of the North. We encour­age sub­mis­sions of diverse North­ern voices, poetry styles, and lan­guages (sub­mis­sions in Eng­lish, French, Inuit lan­guages, Dené, and Cree are wel­come; how­ever, sub­mis­sions in lan­guages other than Eng­lish should be accom­pan­ied by author-approved translations).” Check the site for more guidelines and pay rates.
  • Westminster College [Utah] invites applications for an assistant professor in Fiction Writing, the New York Public Library is looking for a Production Assistant to join its Live from the NYPL series, and The University of Baltimore’s School of Communications Design seeks a published fiction or literary non-fiction writer for a half-time contractual position.