Two PAYING Opportunities for DePaul Grad Students/Writers!

Ex LibrisCall for Submissions, Career Builders, Contests, Jobs/Internships

Check out these two fantastic opportunities for grad students! The first is a writing contest with a significant cash prize (deadline of May 1). The second is a 10-month, salaried position for Writer in Residence at Washington, D.C.’s St. Albans School, which includes room and board (deadline of February 20). (See below for details.)

The information below has been copied from each institution’s info pages.

1. ABA Journal / Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction

Deadline: May 1, 2025, 5:00 PM CDT

About:

The ABA Journal, the flagship magazine of the American Bar Association (“ABA”), sponsors the annual ABA Journal / Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction (the “Contest”).

Entries should be original works of fiction, no longer than 5,000 words. Entries should illuminate the role of law and/or lawyers in modern life. The winner will receive a prize of $5,000.

Guidelines and Contest Details:

  • Entries must be original works of fiction of no more than 5,000 words that illuminate the role of the law and/or lawyers in modern society.
  • The winner will receive a prize of $5,000.
  • Entrants must be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents and 21 years or older by May 1, 2025. The winner is responsible for all taxes associated with receipt of the prize. As a condition of receiving the prize, the winner must submit a completed IRS Form W-9.
  • The ABA Journal will accept only one entry by any individual author. Joint entries are not permitted.
  • Entries must be submitted via email to webmaster@abajournal.com. Please attach your story as a .doc or .pdf file to your email with the subject line Ross Writing Contest Submission, and include your full name, mailing address, daytime phone number, and whether you are an ABA member. [ABA membership is not necessary to win.]
  • Entries may be unpublished or published no earlier than December 1, 2024. Entries posted publicly on the internet, regardless of the forum or venue, will be considered published for the purposes of the Contest, as would be any entry published in a print publication or literary journal of any kind. The ABA Journal will be the sole judge of an entry’s eligibility.
  • The author of any work submitted will retain copyright to his or her entry. However, by submitting a work for consideration in the contest, the winning author grants the American Bar Association and/or the ABA Journal a non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide license to publish the work in its periodicals, books, anthologies, e-books, audiobooks or any other publication platform, whether print or digital or hereafter developed, without further compensation.
  • Contest entries will be judged by a panel selected by the editor and publisher of the ABA Journal and the winner confirmed by the ABA Journal Board of Editors. All decisions are final. Entries will be judged on creativity, plot exposition, legal insight and character development. The winner will be notified by email on or before July 5, 2025. The winner will be notified prior to any public announcement. If the winner does not respond within five business days, or if the email is returned as undeliverable, the winner forfeits all rights to the prize and an alternate winner will be chosen.
  • ABA officers, directors, staff members, members of the ABA Journal Board of Editors and their immediate household or family members, and freelance writers for the ABA Journal who have been paid for articles published after January 1, 2024, are not eligible to enter or win.

For full details, read here: https://www.abajournal.com/contests/ross_essay/

2. St. Albans Writer in Residence Program

Deadline: February 20, 2025 

About:

From the top of Mount St. Alban, St. Albans School looks up to the Washington National Cathedral and out to the United States Capitol. Our location serves as an embodiment and constant reminder of the School’s motto: Pro Ecclesia et Pro Patria, for Church and Country. The School was established in 1909 by the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation. Our mission is to prepare boys in grades 4 through 12 to develop and use their spiritual, intellectual, artistic, and physical gifts not for themselves alone, but in service of the greater community. As an Episcopal school, we welcome and embrace boys of all faiths and backgrounds to this caring community that learns, prays, plays, sings, and eats together. We are committed to a diversity among students, faculty, and staff that shapes and enriches our shared experiences.


As part of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation (PECF), St. Albans, the Cathedral, the National Cathedral School, and Beauvoir benefit from strong ties and collaboration.

Job Description:

The Writer in Residence Fellowship is a 10-month position that coincides with a single academic year. This Fellowship, under the sponsorship of the English Department, provides a stipend along with room and board at the School.


The School seeks a creative artist – poet, novelist, short story writer, or dramatist – who shows promise as a writer and who also possesses an enthusiasm for teaching young people to write. By their own writing and by what they encourage others to produce, the St. Albans Writer in Residence should be one who enriches and inspires. In addition to pursuing their own craft, they are expected to teach a one-semester creative writing seminar in the fall and another in the spring. Our hope is that the writer will have adequate time to spend with students and certainly enough free time to write.


The Program, now in its forty-fourth year, has been most successful. The writer-in-residence provides a unique opportunity for St. Albans students to broaden their literary experience and to learn about the process of writing from a practicing artist. Through the program the School has also been able to make the statement both to students and the broader community that fostering literary endeavor is important, that works of art and creative talent are essential for the wellbeing of all society. Because of the program, the School is a richer, more creative, and a healthier community.


The holder of the St. Albans Fellowship should find a broad cultural life readily available as well as an unhurried and unpressured atmosphere in the School, where they can think, teach, and write.


ALL MATERIALS DUE BY FEBRUARY 20, 2025


For inquiries or questions about the program, please contact Donna Denize at: ddenize@stalbansschool.org

For more details and application instructions, read the full flyer here: http://www.english-exlibris.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Writer-In-Residence-2025.pdf