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.

• One Story opened for literary-fiction submissions on May 6; they’ll remain open until they reach their cap. Pays: “$500 and 25 contributors copies.”
• An update to our May newsletter: Cutleaf will re-open for fiction submissions May 15. Pays: “$100 to $400.” (And speaking of the May newsletter: We’re approaching the May’s midpoint; plenty of opportunities listed in that issue remain open for you to consider!)
• “The Wisconsin Writers Association is a non-profit organization that encourages, educates, celebrates, and promotes writers through its programs and services. WWA and its publishing arm, WWA Press, seek a dynamic marketer to promote our WWA Press books and our other programs and services.” Compensation for this position is an hourly rate of $40, with 5-8 hours (expected) per week. “Remote Position – Work from Anywhere!” Apply by May 24.
• From The Sick Times, “a journalist-founded website chronicling the Long Covid crisis”: two more remote, part-time positions also with a May 24 deadlines. These are positions for an engagement editor and a podcast producer; “for both, pay is $1500 per month, with an expectation of about 10 hours of work per week.” (Note also, if you’re interested, the information for pitching reported stories and essays, plus pay rates.)
• Pitch call from Narratively: “We’re back with a new series in our collab with the iconic Creative Nonfiction magazine, this one about that magical, sometimes terrifying, ubiquitous compound… water. It makes up about 60 percent of our body weight; it covers approximately 71 percent of the Earth; and it’s one of our basic human needs. We come to water to experience euphoria; and its power and unpredictability can also have devastating consequences. Which brings us to this call for pitches. We’re looking for stories about water, yes, but what about water, exactly? We want you to interpret this call in whatever way you feel inspired, which could mean anything from pitching us a story about a Jaws-like tale set in open water to one about a pioneering effort to produce safe drinking water. Do you have a profile of a swimmer who broke an unthinkable record despite physical challenges? Have you recently learned about a group of women who set out to retrieve a rumored fortune from a 200-year-old shipwreck? Did you or your neighbor organize a dangerous rescue mission after an avalanche and change the way things are done in your mountain town? Whatever your story — floods, snorkeling, championship ice-sculpting, dehydration, desalination — we want to hear about it. These can be first-person or reported pieces, and they should have the same epic, immersive, cinematic storytelling and compelling narrative arcs we always look for. Surprise, delight and educate us!” Deadline: May 28. Payment: “Rates for these stories will start at $1,000 per story.”
• “The Headlight Review, the online literary journal at Kennesaw State University, seeks multimedia pieces that reimagine the writing process. Tell us about how you do it, the messes you make, your favorite tools, or the role of collaboration or technology in your work. How do your process and today’s tools shape literary art? Essays may include hand-scrawled notebook pages, relevant photos, or be in video or audio format. All writers, ascending to established, are eligible.” Deadline: May 31 (“with priority given to early submissions”); pays: “$100 upon publication.” UPDATE: The submission category appears to have disappeared, which suggests that there was a cap that’s been met.
• Mini-contest alert from OnThePremises.com: “For this mini-contest, tell, show, or evoke a complete story between 25 and 50 words long in which a specific detail of something that would normally be trivial and uninteresting is in fact extremely important or interesting.” Prizes: “First place pays $35, second pays $25, and third pays $15, all in US dollars. Honorable mentions get published, but make no money.” Deadline: May 31.
• Pitch call from the Library of Arabic Literature (LAL) blog: “We welcome ideas for posts on a variety of topics. Previous blog posts have included reflections on how LAL books fit with a broader theme, such as the Global Middle Ages or disability studies, as well as surprising comparisons (e.g. ‘Antarah and Cardi B). Blog posts should be 800-1200 words long, written in English, and must feature at least one LAL book, preferably (but not necessarily) one published within the last two years. We offer an honorarium of $400 for each post.” Deadline: June 1. (Hat tip: The Writer’s Job Newsletter.)
• Pitch call from Talking Travel Writing :”Writing a weekly newsletter is an exhausting endeavour, and sometimes we need a break. Each summer since 2020 we’ve taken a month off from writing this and we’ve paused all your paid subscriptions when we do. But this time, instead of going quiet, we’re handing over the keys: we want you to write July’s series of newsletters. We’ve already commissioned the inimitable Sian Meades-Williams to write the first piece: an exploration of how travel writing and family life (or family planning) often don’t mix. But we need three more pieces to fill the gaps for the rest of the month.” Deadline: “Deadlines will be set for mid June….We’ll endeavour to reply to everyone before the beginning of June.” Payment: “We’ve got a wee budget of £125 for 500 words.” (Hat tip: Freelance Writing Jobs.)
• Poets & Writers is hiring a senior editor. “We offer a hybrid work environment, with potential to work from home several days per week; must be available to work in the office two days per week and additionally as needed. This is a full-time position in our New York City office. Please note that this job has a start date of July 22, 2024.” Salary: $55,000. No application deadline indicated.