The Prestigious Fulbright Award Is for Creative Writers, Too

Katherine Arnoldi | January 2020

Do you have a novel you want to write that takes place in Sicily? Madagascar? Belarus? Tahiti?
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I Wanna Be Rich: On the Financial Realities of Writing

Sheree Winslow | June 2019

When I was seven years old, people from the church we attended delivered bags of groceries to our apartment because my parents couldn’t afford food. A little more than a year later, when I was eight, I decided I wanted to attend Vassar College after reading about it in a book.
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AWP’s 2017–2018 Report on the Academic Job Market

Jason Gray | December 2018

A year off from AWP’s annual academic job report finds the state of affairs in higher education, unfortunately, not much improved, and trends settling in to become industry standards.
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What’s an Older Job Seeker to Do?

Alyssa Colton | April 2018

Whatever your initial reasons for obtaining a writing degree, it’s doubtful that they were primarily about landing a great job.
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Why Freelance Writers Love Working Part-Time for Nonprofits

Christine Ro | March 2018

In some ways, Hannah Brown is living the dream. A few years out of college, she has a remote, part-time job working on a cause that’s deeply important to her. She also has the freedom to write about varied topics, from food to theater.
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Research Beyond the Archives

Julia Gordon-Bramer | November 2017

Whether you have a term paper, a graduate thesis, or you’re planning to write a book, graduate writing students usually end up in library archives at some time in their academic career.
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Kindergarten, When You’re a Writer and a Solo Mom

Alison Stine | August 2017

At the door we say goodbye. He hugs me. I tell him I love him, hand him his lunch. He’s already shouldered on the backpack. His teacher shakes his hand, as she shakes the hand of all the children and wishes them good morning. He goes into the classroom determinedly. He doesn’t look back.
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Making Poetry Pay: Five Ways to Increase Your Poetry Income

Erika Dreifus | July 2017

Not everyone writes poetry for financial profit. But for some writers, earning payment beyond bylines, copies, and karma matters. Sometimes, it matters a lot.
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Writing from Another Country

John Coyne | July 2017

Throughout the history of literature in the United States, American writers have looked towards, and gone to, foreign countries to seek inspiration, new experiences, and find work.
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Writing for the Screen

Alexandra Salerno | March 2017

In particular, the explosion of scripted television and streaming platforms has driven so much growth that the entertainment industry is ripe with employment opportunities for writers looking for creative day jobs. And I’m living proof.
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About Authorial Identity

Ronald Goldfarb | February 2017

The literary world is pondering the disclosure in the US and abroad, in four languages, that the books by internationally celebrated author Elena Ferrante, most noted for her quartet of novels (2011–2014) set in Naples, Italy, may have been written by her translator, Anita Raja.
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AWP’s 2015–2016 Report on the Academic Job Market

Jason Tucker | December 2016

This newest addition to AWP’s Academic Job Market Report series finds the trends of fewer full-time tenure-track jobs and the increased use of part-time adjunct labor continuing. This is no doubt bleak, but if there is something to hope for amongst the dismal news, it is that awareness of the problem is increasing.
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Show Your Joy: Getting and Preparing for an Academic Interview

Dora Malech | August 2016

In 2005, I added my newly earned MFA degree to the top of my CV and proceeded to apply for every tenure-track job that included the words “Poetry” or “Creative Writing.”
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Be a Literary Agent

John Coyne | April 2016

I called a novelist friend and asked her if she knew of any MFA graduates who were employed as literary agents and she replied, “MFA graduates are writers, not agents.” She was categorically right, but she wasn’t totally correct.
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You and Your Future Colleagues: Tips for the Interview

Katharine Coles | February 2016

Almost all of my suggestions here, then, focus on very practical, even mundane things that are nonetheless important.
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AWP’s 2014–15 Report on the Academic Job Market

Daniel D’Angelo | December 2015

Since 1988, AWP has published annual reports on the academic job market and the plight of adjunct faculty members. Since 1995, our website has provided free, continuous public access to these reports.
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Storytellers: Writers Working in Communications

Katherine Perry Harris | November 2015

Talk with any of your writer friends, and surely they can share a bit of writerly trivia about the early jobs of now-famous writers: William S. Burroughs worked as an exterminator. Charles Dickens was a factory worker. Raymond Carver found work at a saw mill, and later as a janitor and a delivery man while building his short story career. And who knew that Harper Lee was an airline ticket agent back in the day, writing in her spare time? Flash forward to the present day, and sure enough you and your own writer friends have held a series of interesting jobs, whether it’s cleaning houses, serving as a hospital orderly, or walking dogs.
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The Benefits of the University-Based Creative Writing Fellowship

Sarah Katz | September 2015

You’ve turned in your thesis and graduated from an MFA program in creative writing. OK, now what?
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I Want to Get Paid to Travel the World!

Suzanne Roberts | April 2015

On the first day of my travel writing class, I ask my students why they are taking the class, what they hope to get out of it, where they want their writing to go. Many of them say some version of this: I want to travel the world and get paid to write about it!
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Writers from the Peace Corps

John Coyne | March 2015

Since 1961, Peace Corps writers have used their volunteer service as source material for their fiction and nonfiction. These writers have also found that the overseas experience has helped them find jobs once they returned home.
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Seeking the Work-Life-Writing Balance Post-MFA

Kirsten Clodfelter | December 2014

The rumor isn’t exactly a new one: After you graduate with an MFA, there’s a chance you might find yourself shelving the novel draft, or maybe even completely regretting your MFA in the first place, because it’s just too difficult to balance a viable work life with a viable writing life.
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The 2013-14 Report on the Academic Job Market: Adjunct Unions, Administrative Bloat, & Reform of Student Loans

Susan Falcon | November 2014

Those who plan to become professors in the arts and humanities have little recourse than to start working as adjuncts. While adjuncts vie for job security in academia, institutions continue to employ more adjuncts than ever to fulfill teaching appointments, while the number of open tenure-track positions remains small for a growing student population.
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Beef Jerky, Bras, and Car Parts: Writing for Advertising

Rachel Kessler | August 2014

F. Scott Fitzgerald did it, Salman Rushdie did it, Don DeLillo did it – it is no surprise that many serious writers have made their rent by writing copy for advertisements.
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Making It Work: Writers Finding Careers

Dave Essinger | June 2014

When I began organizing a panel called “Good Luck with That: Writers Paying Bills” for the AWP conference in Seattle, it wasn’t difficult at all to find qualified and enthusiastic participants. More writers with diverse professional careers were willing to share their experiences than we had room for on a single panel.
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Consider the Digital Disruption

Steve Almond | June 2014

A few months ago, I had the odd experience of serving on a panel entitled The Digital Disruption, which had been convened to answer a basic question: why are writers of literary fiction not taking advantage of digital innovation as much as their colleagues who write genre fiction?
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The Creative Writer at the University Press

Kevin Haworth | April 2014

In Summer 2013, Peter Givler stepped down after fifteen years as Executive Director of the Association of American University Presses (AAUP), the umbrella group for university presses—roughly AWP’s equivalent in the scholarly publishing world.
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Acquisitions Editing: Centurions at the Gate

Susan Falcon | February 2014

Many college graduates and others looking for employment in the publishing industry may wonder what opportunities exist aside from the more well-known copy editor, editorial assistant, or editor-in-chief jobs.
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Hired!

How to Approach the Job Hunt in Today’s Tough Climate

Alyse Knorr | December 2013

Writers today, whether pursuing an academic or a nonacademic career, face a more competitive market than ever before. Job-seekers can take heart, however, with the knowledge that, by taking advantage of opportunities and cultivating one’s professional self, success on the market is possible.
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2012-13 Annual Report on the Academic Job Market

The State of the Market, the Plight of the Adjunct, and the Affordable Care Act

Sara Flood | November 2013

With fewer chances to move into full-time positions, and more instructors saturating the market, adjuncts are finding themselves stuck in limbo for longer. It is estimated that such positions comprise roughly 75 percent of all college instructors.
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Business and Technical Writing Specialization: A promising option for creative writers

Kate Nesheim | August 2013

Those of us who are already waist-deep in a program sometimes ask ourselves if, at the end of all this, there will be a job that pays well enough.
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Right on Time

Getting the Timing Right – is There a Perfect Time to Pitch?

Devyani Borade | June 2013

‘Thank you for sending me your wonderful article,’ read the editor’s reply. I smiled. ‘I would have accepted it but...’ I frowned. This did not bode well. ‘...but in the next issue we are publishing a similar article. So I am sorry but I cannot use your piece – bad timing!’
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Creative Writing and the Twenty-first Century Workplace

Abby Bardi | May 2013

Throughout his high school years, my nephew Matthew was asked repeatedly by well-intentioned associates what he is planning to major in when he goes to college. His consistent response was that he planned to major in creative writing. While pleased at his commitment to my chosen field, I have also felt stirrings of concern: what would he do with a degree in a course of study that often seems, even to those of us who teach it, like a somewhat self-indulgent, even airy-fairy pursuit?
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Look Here, Graduate: Consider Teaching in a Private School

Kurt Caswell | February 2013

After his reading at the Bread Loaf School of English a couple years ago, the poet John Ashbery was asked if he made his living primarily through the sale of his books. An electrical storm had knocked out the power, and Ashbery read by flashlight in the dining room. God no, he answered, the flashlight illuminating his ghostly face. Very few writers can. But teaching, he said, is one thing a writer can do to make a living.
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Annual Report on the Academic Job Market

Kristin Hahn | December 2012

While independent presses and online magazines seem to be flourishing, and while MFA and PhD programs are still growing or are stabilizing at high numbers, the reality for many writers is that it is still very difficult to find a job.
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Opportunities for Writers: Teaching English Abroad

Alyssa Colton | September 2012

You've completed your degree and are ready to do something different. But you need to earn money, too. Living and working abroad, whether short- or long-term, can be a valuable experience, especially for writers.
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The Tech-Savvy Writer: Embrace Technology, Establish Your Online Presence, and Earn More

Christina Katz | July 2012

The ability to create and maintain a multifaceted, multimedia body of work is one of the most exciting propositions of the new economy we live in—for those who are willing to embrace it.
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The Art of the Fellowship Application

Martha Carlson-Bradley | May 2012

One by-product of receiving a fellowship is that you're likely to be invited to help select new fellows.
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Ghostwriting the Eulogy: How to Make Some Money & Your Name Beyond the Academy

Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum | March 2012

These days it seems everyone is talking about the poor academic job market—and for good reason.
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Jumping Ship: Navigating the Waters of Alternative Career Options

For those who always thought they'd be teaching in academia and now are wondering what else they can do

Alyssa Colton | January 2012

One of the most powerful forces that prevent people from seriously considering all of their options is psychological.
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2010-11 Report on the Academic Job Market

Sara Flood | November 2011

In the midst of concern over a prolonged economic recovery, the Modern Language Association (MLA) reported in September that the academic job market stabilized during the 2010-11 academic year.
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Bloom Where You're Planted: Five Steps to Creating a Community Art Project

Nadine Pinede | September 2011

Across the nation, arts funding is in trouble.
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Helping the MFA Cross the Digital Divide

Lisen Stromberg | July 2011

If we think of the writer as the content producer and the publisher as the manufacturer, the final product still needs to find its way into the hands of the end consumer.
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Attention Adjuncts: Get Paid to Research Your Novel! (or: How Teaching Comp Saved My Fiction)

Tyler McMahon | June 2011

Among us writers, there are those stoics who don’t suffer excuses gladly. You know the type. They insist there’s always time to write, even if it’s an hour a day, early in the morning or late at night. After all, isn’t the best art produced under impossible circumstances, despite great odds and after much suffering? Teaching—even a heavy load—beats digging ditches, right?
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Building a Professional Platform: A Brief Overview

Angela Render | May 2011

Platform is a word that gets tossed around often by agents and editors these days.
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Making the Move to Freelance Copyediting

Bernadette Geyer | March 2011

Although economic indicators point to a recovering economy, jobs for full-time copyeditors may not be high on the list of types of jobs that are being created.
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Editorial Careers in Textbook Publishing

Susan Whalen | December 2010

In the digital world of the 21st century, when immediate communication drives abbreviation of language in text messages, tweets, and e-mails, syntax and grammar are barely an afterthought. However, there are many of us who get unnerved by the lackadaisical, shortened version of phrases like “by the way,” or pronoun misuse when a friend texts “btw will be their soon” to alert us that he or she is running late for dinner.
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Job Seekers Face Historically Weak Academic Job Market

Emily Lu | November 2010

Job openings in English departments sharply declined 40% in the past two years, according to the Modern Language Association, indicating one of the worst job markets in the thirty-five years the organization has been tracking openings.
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How to Prepare Yourself for the Academic Job Market

Natasha Sajé | September 2010

The truism about a PhD being the safer degree may no longer hold true. In the last few years, Paisley Rekdal has seen "the bulk of the tenure-track creative writing jobs go to MFAs, and mostly MFAs with multiple books.
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The Unlikely Writer: An Argument for Teaching in Prison

Matt Hudson | March 2010

Imagine the perfect student: eager, full of life experience, willing to commit extensive amounts of time to their writing. Now imagine that student lives thousands of miles away—behind concrete walls and razor wire.
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Curiosity is the Keyword

Molly Fuller Reynolds | January 2010

Whether you are entering the job market due to a recent graduation or a recession- induced layoff, if you find yourself embarking on the dreaded job search, do not despair.
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Annual Report on the Academic Job Market 2009

Kristin Lane | November 2009

Across the nation, people are feeling the recession. In nearly every city, industryand demographic, Americans are struggling to maintain the standard of living they enjoyed in the financial heyday of the 1990s and the early 2000s.
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How Writers Can Use Social Networking to Find Jobs

Woody Lewis | August 2009

Social networking is a fundamental human process. The formation of personal and business connections through regular contact with existing and new acquaintances has influenced every civilization in history. In that context, information has been a commodity whose value derives from timeliness as well as content: the faster it’s received, the greater its worth to the recipient.
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"Who Cares" About the "Adjunct Problem"?

P.D. Lesko | May 2009

When the editor of the AWP Job List initially approached me to write a piece about part-time faculty employment, I was delighted. It wasn’t until after I started narrowing down a topic that the realization hit me: who cares?
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The Bashful Writer's Guide to Self-Promotion

Glenn Kurtz | March 2009

You've just delivered the manuscript for your first book to the publisher. Congratulations! Now your work as a writer is done and you can sit back and wait for the royalty checks to roll in.
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Freelancing Through A Recession

Mike Scalise | January 2009

I'm a strong believer in finding a niche. Take a close look at your area of expertise, interests, and hobbies, and go from there. What do you have to offer that will set you apart from other freelancers right now?
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Economic Crisis Affects Academic Job Market

Emily Lu | November 2008

Higher education is not recession proof. Eighty percent of college students attend public universities, most of whose budgets are being cut because state tax revenues are leveling off or declining.
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The One-Day Gig: Teaching Effectively for Writers' Organizations, Festivals, and Conferences

Martha Carlson-Bradley | September 2008

Leading a one-time class or workshop for a writers’ organization, conference, or festival is a wonderful opportunity: you meet other writers, discuss craft in a meaningful way, hone your teaching skills, add credentials to your résumé, and generate interest in your writing.
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The Teaching Portfolio and Your Academic Job Search

Alyssa Colton | June 2008

Even if you are not yet on the job market, you should start thinking now about constructing a teaching portfolio. The teaching portfolio is increasingly an important part of a job-seeker's package.
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Talking about Teaching as a Job Candidate

James Lang | March 2008

You don't have to be a brilliant teacher to get a faculty job this year—you don't need to have taught dozens of courses, or won teaching awards, or sent students on to win literary prizes and competitions. Even if you have done these things, and you are the most brilliant teacher ever to have danced through the groves of academe, that still won’t guarantee you a job. 
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Job Applications Can Do Everything but Fake It

Dedria Humphries | September 2007

There was no putting it off. I needed to start reading the applications for our position. Ever mindful of my back and the long hours I clock sitting at the computer or with a book in my hand, I stood up to my computer on the high desk. At the college’s HR site, I logged into the application queue. Eighty-seven applications waited.
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The Job of Getting a Job in Publishing

John Coyne | May 2007

Castles in the air need solid foundations. Every year graduates of MFA programs, returning Peace Corps Volunteers, and people changing careers decide that publishing is for them!
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How to Get Your First Job as an Editor, Copywriter, or Graphic Designer

Emily Lu | March 2007

You’ve just graduated from an MFA program, and like most recent grads, you’re probably looking for a job that not only makes use of your ability with words but that is also welcoming and satisfying for writers.
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Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Poetry Manuscript: Some Ideas on Creation and Order

Jeffrey Levine, Editor-in-Chief of Tupelo Press | January 2007

Beyond style... other advice here concerns more abstract matters: what makes a book a book? How is the artistic process applied to making a poetry manuscript cohere? What are some useful approaches to the art of transforming individual poems into a transcendent whole?
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Report on the 2005-2006 Academic Job Market

Kristin Hahn and Caren Scott | November 2006

The last academic year delivered mixed blessings for job seekers and teachers of English literature and writing. State funding of higher education increased last year, and this thawed hiring freezes in many academic departments; but the good news may not have ameliorated a trend of reduced support for higher education coupled with accelerating rates of inflation.
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Teaching English Online: How to Connect

Amanda Watson Barnett | October 2006

Online learning has often been looked upon with disdain in academia, most likely because of its reputation of being too easy, or a “do it yourself” pedagogy.
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The Telephone Interview

Natasha Sajé | September 2006

If you are looking for a teaching job, you will probably run into an aspect of the interview process that is rarely the subject of job hunting advice, the telephone interview.
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A Strategy for Adjuncts: How to Acquire Classes in the 11th Hour

Thomas Kunz | August 2006

August is here, and by now you’ve either succeeded in securing a few classes or now find yourself stuck in limbo for another semester, assuming that the chance of picking up a few classes this semester is over. You could be wrong.
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Careers in Copyediting: Tips for Creative Writers

Erica Olsen | March 2006

For writers who are looking for job options beyond academia, editorial work can seem like a natural choice. But an MFA in creative writing is not a stepping-stone to an editor’s job any more than it is to a teaching position.
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Surviving the Trip from Adjunct to Professor: How to Keep Writing Through an Overload of Teaching

Sally Shivnan | February 2006

You want to write and you want to teach. The dilemma: to get a tenure track job, or even a position as a visiting professor or full-time lecturer, you must publish, but where is the time to write if you’re scrambling to teach half a dozen classes as an adjunct instructor?
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Surviving the Teaching Demonstration

James M. Lang | January 2006

When Mike Land earned his PhD in English with an emphasis in creative writing from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1999, he went on eight on-campus job interviews over the course of two job-hunting seasons. He knew, from his graduate training and from the interviews he had observed for positions in the department at Missouri, that he would be expected to have a job talk to impress his potential future colleagues at on-campus interviews, one that presented either his literary research or his creative work.
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The MLA Job Interview: How to Prepare & What to Expect

Andrea Quarracino | November 2005

The annual convention of the Modern Language Association, to be held December 27–30, 2005 in Washington, DC, has become notorious as "the" site for the academic job interview.
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Annual Report on the Academic Job Market 2005

Andrea Quarracino | October 2005

The number of academic jobs in literature and creative writing increased slightly in the 2004–05 academic year.
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Technical Writing: Growth Industry for Sharp Minds

Woody Lewis | September 2005

The other day I told a neighbor of mine I was looking into technical writing as a career. She didn't know about my ten-year stint as a programmer and systems architect, jobs that required me to continuously document my work in great detail.
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Playing the Numbers Game

Harriet Gordon Getzels | August 2005

The day I sent my manuscript off to five literary agents-agents recommended to me by published authors-I left the post office feeling hopeful, relieved, and a bit -inebriated with thoughts of what might happen next. After seventeen months of full-time writing, I'd completed a narrative nonfiction book proposal and three sample chapters.
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Photos Add $$$: Learn to Include Photos with Your Next Submission

Penny J. Leisch | March 2005

Today, editors want quality writing, great photos, and one-stop shopping. You don't even have to own a camera to submit a great package; yet, two editors I know pass up articles due to the lack of photos every day. Writers take note-if you write travel, news, sports, interviews, crafts, nostalgia, or memoirs, adding photos can secure sales and increase pay.
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Travel Writing 101

Susan Miles | February 2005

Travel writing is often characterized as a glamorous profession, appealing to writers and nonwriters alike. Certainly, getting paid to travel, either solo or with friends and family, is a dream job regardless of your previous writing experience.
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Beyond Writing Conferences & Residencies: More Summer Opportunities for Writers who Teach

Erika Dreifus | January 2005

You're reading correctly. This is an article about summer opportunities. Yes, 2005 has barely begun, but already application deadlines for the summer's programs are starting to appear on my calendar, and probably yours too.
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A Report on the Academic Workplace: Opportunities Decline in 2003-04

Kirsten Hilgeford | November 2004

Departments continue to rely heavily on adjunct, nontenure stream, and other “contingent” faculty, so that good, full-time positions remain relatively few.
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Conferring with Others: The Writers Conference Pitch

Amy Holman | October 2004

Hundreds of writers conferences and festivals convene here and abroad each year for a day, a weekend, one or two weeks, offering a wide range of topics and structures of workshops, lectures, and readings to anywhere from 20–300 writers.
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"Commercial" Writing: Good Money, a Flexible Schedule, and the Time to Pursue Your Writing Passions

Peter Bowerman | September 2004

The PR firm had hired me to work on a twelve-page brochure for their client, a local telecomm giant. Source materials were nine one-hour interviews which I then transformed into the same number of one-page profiles plus an intro piece.
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The Art of Conducting E-Interviews

Kamala Thiagarajan | August 2004

We often hear people say that the world has shrunk to a global village. It’s perfectly true, because today, a writer from as far away as Zambia can reasonably expect to get published in any American magazine-even one that deals with specific and local content!
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Make a List: It's Good for Your Literary Life

Chris Haven | March 2004

You've been good: you've researched the literary journal markets. You've browsed the stacks of the libraries, and made suggestions for acquisitions. You've requested sample issues. Occasionally, you've bought one at the newsstand.
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Paying the Rent/Feeding the Soul: Six Writers Discuss Life After the MFA

Camille Dungy | February 2004

If the growing number and increasing competitiveness of first and second book contests is any indication, America 's MFA programs are producing many talented writers every year.
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Writing What We Know... For Love and For Money

Erika Dreifus | January 2004

Early in the book I assign my composition students (and recommend to my fiction writers, too), Richard Marius's A Writer's Companion, the author explains the challenges of the beginning stages of the writing process...
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Seven Tips to Avoid the Slush Pile

L.J. Bothell | January 2004

Publishers get several hundred slush--meaning unsolicited and mostly inappropriate--manuscripts a week. Large book publishing companies find assistants, receptionists, mailroom personnel, and temps reading slush pile manuscripts at Saturday slush parties.
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The Roadmap to Part-time/Full-time Faculty Parity

P.D. Lesko | November 2003

Imagine a higher education system in which part-time faculty who taught just two hours or more would be entitled to pro-rata pay, and that holiday, leave, pension, sick pay, and other benefits extended to full-time faculty would be offered to part-time faculty on a pro-rata basis, as well.
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So You Want To Be a Speechwriter?

Katherine Perry Harris | October 2003

It is, perhaps, every writer's dream to appear in The New Yorker, and Ned Randolph had his chance while serving as a speechwriter for Marc Morial, then mayor of New Orleans. Right before a last minute press conference, Randolph threw together talking points on the gun industry for the mayor, and it was one such 'sound bite' he wrote that later appeared in the magazine.
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Poor Economy Weakens Academic Job Market

Emily Lu | September 2003

Poor Economy Weakens Academic Job Market
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Things MFAs Are Expected to Know But Aren't Taught-and How Knowing Them Might Get You a Job

Beth Ann Fennelly | August 2003

All MFA candidates know that it's hard to get a teaching job after they receive their degrees. With many more qualified applicants than there are openings, entering the job market is a daunting endeavor.
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Why I Am Not (Presently) Working in Academia

J.D. Smith | March 2003

If you read this article aloud, you will hear the pressing of sour grapes. I may as well concede the point and have it done with.
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When No Means Yes: Professors as Objects of Sexual Harassment

Diana Hume George and Christopher Origer | February 2003

Teaching writing invites intimacies less likely to occur in many other disciplines. Our apprentices, whether they’re writing poetry, fiction, or personal essays, often transmute their life experiences into art, and we mediate that transformation.
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So You Want to be a Book Reviewer?

Niki Taylor | January 2003

After analyzing books in college as an English major, I decided book reviewing would be a good way to share my knowledge about books and maybe get paid for it too.
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Independent Publishing (and You?)

Ananya Bhattacharyya | November 2002

A few literary people, in the recent past, have chosen to create new jobs for themselves by establishing a new press or magazine. With more and more people writing poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, the independent publishing industry plays an important role in bringing this writing to the general population.
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Creative Writers and the Community College

Tim Waggoner | October 2002

During the expansion of the community college system in the 1960s and ’70s, great numbers of faculty were hired. Now, some three decades later, two-year schools are experiencing massive retirements which are expected to continue over the next few years.
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The Recession and the Academic Job Market

Emily Lu | September 2002

Although the Modern Language Association (MLA) reported growth in the number of academic job openings in English in 2001, the academic job market will likely tighten in 2002-03 due in part to the current economic recession.
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How to Give a Good Reading (or, What We Talk About When We Talk About a Good Reading)

Katherine Perry | August 2002

I recently attended a reading by a well-known writer-we'll call him Mr. Long Wind-sponsored by the Midwestern University in my town.
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Good Write, Sweet Prince: Applying at Community Colleges

Meg Files | March 2002

It may be true that you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince. But I've just read half a zillion applications for one community college position, and many of the applicants looked a lot like royalty, with dreamy vitae listing awards and prizes and honors and publications and degrees and experience.
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Writing Fellowships at Conferences, Colonies, & Centers

Katherine Perry | February 2002

You’re tired of writerly solitude-what now?
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Freelancing

Melissa May | January 2002

Many writers graduating from schools experience a shock upon entering the "real world" where money must be made-and creative writing is often not the way to do it. If you are a member of the 9-to-5 world, there is often not enough time to feed your creative habit. But is there a way to balance your monetary needs with your writerly interests?
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Working in Publishing

Hope Smith | November 2001

It seems natural that writers play a part in publishing. Without writers, publishing wouldn’t exist & without publishers, how would we reach our readers?
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The Challenges of Teaching English Overseas

Supriya Bhatnagar | October 2001

"Expect the unexpected. To my surprise, all the young monks were obsessed with 'My Heart Will Go On,' the Celine Dion song from the movie Titanic. They insisted that I teach them the lyrics, which I did not know. A tape was produced, however, and soon I found myself belting out song lyrics to a classroom of enthralled and highly amused monks."
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Comfort Among Strangers: The On-Campus Teaching Demonstration

Chauna Craig | September 2001

Evaluation is a necessary part of any profession. As writers, our work is evaluated every time we send it out, and as teachers, our work is evaluated primarily by our students.
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A Report on the Academic Job Market

Katherine Perry | August 2001

According to the Modern Language Association (MLA), job openings in English rose by 6% in 2000, from 899 positions in 1999 to 954 positions in 2000.
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Administrative Careers in Higher Education

Liesl Swogger | March 2001

Graduate students spend many years in higher education. But as a grad student, you’re probably in the dark about educational functions that fall outside those of student or instructor.
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Academic Fellowships for Recent Creative Writing Graduates

Katherine Perry | February 2001

You have just earned a graduate degree in creative writing-what next? Perhaps you’re not quite ready to make the transition to a full-time job in the "real world," or you don’t yet have enough teaching experience to find a tenure-track teaching position.
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Seeking a Profession Outside of Academia

Liesl Swogger | January 2001

If you receive this publication, chances are you’re looking for a job. And, given the academic job market, chances are you’re also looking more and more frequently at the Other Opportunities section of the AWP Job List. What if, out of base, financial need, you decide to abandon teaching and actually apply for a job outside of academe?
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Teaching English as a Second Language

Supriya Bhatnagar | November 2000

English as a second language is taught at various levels-elementary, middle, high school, or college. Where you teach depends on your level of education; the more qualified you are, the higher up you go.
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How to Handle Illegal Questions at the Job Interview

Katherine Perry | October 2000

"Do you own your own home? What did your father do for a living? Do you drink alcohol and how often? Do you have a boyfriend?"
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Examining America’s Commitment to Supporting Individual Artists

Jules White | September 2000

For the artist considering whether or not to apply for a grant, and which grant to apply for, the plethora of grants listed in various directories and on the Internet is rather intimidating. But it is also intimidating to note how few grants and opportunities exist for today’s artists.
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Preparing for Your First Full-Time Teaching Position

Nolde Alexius | August 2000

"Does being a good departmental citizen mean holding your tongue, especially when you’re not tenured?" So asks Courtney Leatherman, regarding the seniority system of today’s colleges and universities.
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How to Survive on the Tenure Track

Diana Hume George | March 2000

In English departments, whether in major research universities or small colleges, writers on the tenure track are probably the ones who lie to themselves the most. If you are among them, you are sometimes forced into hypocrisy about what matters most to you.
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How Writers Can Work with Job Recruiters

David Sherwin | February 2000

Can creative writers use recruiters, staffing services, or headhunters to find jobs in the business world? The question comes up often at AWP, as we hear from friends, colleagues, or AWP members.
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How to Succeed as a High-Tech Writer & Editor

David Sherwin with Marlana Patton | January 2000

I recently heard a from an acquaintance who landed a job at Microsoft. While he isn't a writer-his creative impulse is more focused on songwriting-he is truly an artist when it comes to his music, and because of it, Microsoft hired him for his creative savvy.
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Helping with the Internship Search

Supriya Bhatnagar | October 1999

Helping with the Internship Search
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What Makes an Effective Curriculum Vita

AWP Staff | September 1999

If you are planning to apply for an academic job, you will need to prepare a curriculum vita (CV), which is a listing of your education, publications, grants, awards, teaching experience, and more—in essence, an academic resumé.
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Writing Cover Letters for Academic Jobs

Robin Hemley | August 1999

Fresh out of graduate school at the age of 24, I once applied for the directorship of a prestigious creative writing program. I felt certain they'd hire me, even though I had one short story published in a good-but-obscure literary journal (that transposed the pages of my story, making it incomprehensible).
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