Monday Morning Markets/Jobs/Opportunities

Switchgrass Books is a new imprint of Northern Illinois University Press. It is "committed to enhancing the cultural landscape of the Midwest by offering a forum for publishing dynamic, original voices of literary fiction." The imprint "exclusively publishes literary novels that evoke the Midwestern experience, whether it be urban, suburban, or rural." No agented manuscripts. For more information, click here.
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For a Seal Press anthology to be titled Girl Talk: 25 Open Letters to Our Female Friends, editor Megan McMorris is "looking for a wide range of stories, in a letter format." Visit the Seal Press Web site for the detailed call for submissions, and submit by January 15, 2009. Pays: $100 plus two copies of the book.
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Shenandoah and the Virginia Poetry Center announce the $500 Graybeal-Gowan Prize for Virginia Writers. This $500 prize (plus publication in Shenandoah) will be awarded for a single poem by a writer "born in or with current established residence in Virginia." Submit up to three previously unpublished poems by November 21, 2008. No entry fee. For guidelines, click here.
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And this one is for Wisconsin poets: The first Woodrow Hall Award will go a Wisconsin poet. The prize includes $500 "to implement an idea for a new poetry program or project." There's no entry fee. Deadline: December 15, 2008. Details here. (via the NewPages blog)
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Narrative magazine is holding a "30 Below Story Contest": "Narrative is calling on writers, visual artists, photographers, performers, and filmmakers, ages eighteen to thirty, to tell us a story. We are interested in narrative in the many forms it takes: the word and the image, the traditional and the innovative, the true and the imaginary." Top three prizes are $1,500, $750, and $300; prize winners will be announced in Narrative and 10 finalists will also be chosen and identified in the magazine. Alll entries will be considered for (presumably paid) publication. There's no entry fee. Submission deadline is October 27, 2008. More information here.
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The Feminist and Women's Studies Association (UK & Ireland) "invites entries from students who are doing innovative and interdisciplinary work which is grounded in feminist theory for the annual essay competition. Students from any discipline and at any stage of their studies at a UK or Irish university are invited to take part in the competition." Prize includes £200 and one year's FWSA membership; top six entries will be published in a special issue of the Journal of International Women's Studies. No entry fee. Deadline: November 1, 2008. More information here. (Thanks to BJ Epstein for sending this opportunity along.)
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And, as always, here's a batch of teaching and non-teaching jobs for writers:

English Professor-Open Rank (Creative Writing-Poetry), College of Staten Island/CUNY
Tenure-track position (Professional Writing), Kutztown University (Pennsylvania)
Assistant Professor of English (Creative Writing-Poetry), Wofford College (South Carolina)
Assistant Professor of Creative Writing (nonfiction), Ohio University
Assistant Professor of Creative Writing (Poetry) and Modern American Literature, Ohio Northern University
Assistant Professor of Creative Writing (Poetry), University of Oregon
Assistant Professor of Creative Writing (fiction, drama, film, and/or television), University of Washington-Tacoma
Senior Writer, University of California-Merced
Editor, External Communications, Oberlin College (Ohio)
Alumni News Editor, Bucknell University (Pennsylvania)
Director of Communications and Writing, Russell Sage Foundation (New York)
Public Relations Writer, St. John's University (New York)

P.S. If you're interested in learning more about nonteaching jobs for writers at colleges and universities, be sure to pick up the current (November) issue of The Writer magazine, which includes my article on the subject and perspectives from four other poets/writers who hold such positions. Go right to page 36 to read it, and check out some additional information on the magazine's staff blog and on the Web site (registration required).