Genre: Creative Nonfiction

Off Topic Writers’ Conference

July/August 2025

The 2025 Off Topic Writers’ Conference was held online on August 9 and August 10. The conference featured craft talks, panels, and workshops for poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers. The faculty included poet, fiction writer, and creative nonfiction writer Murgatroyd Monaghan and fiction and creative nonfiction writers Finnian Burnett and Chanel M. Sutherland. Poet Duncan Mercredi and fiction writer Michelle Butler Hallett delivered the keynote addresses. The cost of the conference was $120 (or could be priced on a sliding scale based on financial need).

Type: 
CONFERENCE
Ignore Event Date Field?: 
yes
Event Date: 
January 13, 2026
Rolling Admissions: 
ignore
Application Deadline: 
January 13, 2026
Financial Aid?: 
no
Financial Aid Application Deadline: 
January 13, 2026
Free Admission: 
no
Contact Information: 

Off Topic Writers’ Conference, 10 Marble Avenue, Paradise, NL A1L 0T3, Canada. Marion Lougheed, Off Topic Publishing Founder and Editor. 

Marion Lougheed
Off Topic Publishing Founder and Editor
Contact City: 
Online
Genre: 
Poetry
Fiction
Creative Nonfiction

Oregon Literary Fellowships

Literary Arts
Entry Fee: 
$0
Deadline: 
August 8, 2025
Fellowships of $3,500 each are given annually to aid Oregon writers in initiating, developing, or completing literary projects in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. These include one Women Writers Fellowship and one Writers of Color Fellowship. In addition, two Oregon Literary Career Fellowships of $10,000 each are awarded to writers who demonstrate exceptional talent; one of these two fellowships is reserved for a writer of color. Using only the online submission system, submit up to 15 pages of poetry or no more than 25 pages of prose (with an artist’s statement and an impact statement for those applying for Oregon Literary Career Fellowships) by August 8. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Maine Artist Fellowship

Maine Arts Commission
Entry Fee: 
$0
Deadline: 
September 3, 2025
A fellowship of up to $5,000 is given annually to a poet, a fiction writer, a creative nonfiction writer, or a writer working in a genre outside these categories who is a resident of Maine and has lived in the state for at least one year. The fellow is expected to reside in the state for the year of the fellowship. Writers who are age 25 or older and are not enrolled in a degree-granting program are eligible. The fellowship committee can appoint a translator to assist in the review of work submitted in a language other than English. Using only the online submission system, submit up to five poems, stories, or essays of no more than eight pages each; an artist statement; and a résumé (or a brief bio) between July 23 and September 3. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Jackson Hole Writers Conference

July/August 2025

The 2025 Jackson Hole Writers Conference was held from October 23 to October 25 at the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts in Jackson, Wyoming. The conference featured craft and publishing classes, lectures, panels, readings, and manuscript critiques for poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The faculty included poet Dāshaun Washington; fiction writers Laura Pritchett and Lucas Schaefer; and creative nonfiction writers Julie Barton, Bridget Crocker, and Greg Marshall.

Type: 
CONFERENCE
Ignore Event Date Field?: 
yes
Event Date: 
January 13, 2026
Rolling Admissions: 
yes
Application Deadline: 
January 13, 2026
Financial Aid?: 
no
Financial Aid Application Deadline: 
January 13, 2026
Free Admission: 
no
Contact Information: 

Jackson Hole Writers Conference, P.O. Box 3871, Jackson, WY 83001. Matt Daly, Executive Director. 

Matt Daly
Executive Director
Contact City: 
Jackson
Contact State: 
WY
Contact Zip / Postal Code: 
83001
Country: 
US
Genre: 
Poetry
Fiction
Creative Nonfiction

Summer Short Story Award for New Writers

Masters Review
Entry Fee: 
$20
Deadline: 
September 7, 2025
A prize of $3,000 and publication in Masters Review is given annually for a short story or an essay by an emerging writer. Writers who have not published a book, self-published writers, and writers who have published books only with indie presses are eligible. The winning story will also be sent to agents Victoria Cappello (Bent Agency), Sarah Fuentes (United Talent Agency), Andrea Morrison (Writers House), Heather Schroder (Compass Talent), Nat Sobel (Sobel Weber Associates), and Marin Takikawa (Friedrich Agency) for review. Submit a story or essay of up to 6,000 words with a $20 entry fee from July 1 to September 7. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Andrea Long Chu: Authority

Caption: 

In this Center for Fiction event, author and critic Andrea Long Chu reads from her essay collection Authority (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025) and talks about the inherent contradictions in the way people discuss and disagree about art, and traces the political and intellectual history of literary criticism in a conversation with Arielle Angel.

Genre: 
Creative Nonfiction
Tags: 
Andrea Long Chu
Authority
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Center for Fiction
Arielle Angel
2025

Rehearsing

The Time Is Now
6.12.25

In the comedic documentary series The Rehearsal, Nathan Fielder helps ordinary people rehearse difficult conversations they may be dreading by creating precisely replicated environments and hiring actors to prepare for each scenario. The elaborate sets include a fully functioning bar with patrons, a household with a child actor, and an exact reproduction of a Houston airport terminal. Compose a personal essay about a necessary conversation that has been weighing on you and write out several vignettes exploring potential ways the exchange might play out given your knowledge of your own mindset as well as the person you’re confronting. Consider incorporating thoughts about how some reactions or behaviors may be impossible to predict. How might this rehearsal of sorts help calm your nerves or provide an understanding of your own social tendencies?

All Talk

The Time Is Now
6.5.25

“The price of the ride was listening to people talk.” This sentiment is expressed by the young narrator of Joe Westmoreland’s 2001 coming-of-age autofictional book, Tramps Like Us, reissued this week by MCD, to describe his hitchhiking adventures in search of queer belonging and identity. The novel portrays a wide range of characters Joe comes across, befriends, works with, sleeps with, and sometimes loses on the road and in various cities. Compose a memoiristic piece that recounts a cast of characters you’ve met in the past, perhaps only briefly as you traveled from one place to another, who had colorful tales about lives very different from your own. Incorporate snippets of dialogue, trying as best as possible to recall any idiosyncrasies in their speech or vocabulary. Reflect on what you learned from listening and why these stories have stayed with you through the years.

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