43 Writing Jobs, Internships, Lit Mag Opps, Fellowships, and More

Jobs for Writers (5.15.25) | Remote roles at PRH and HarperCollins, fellowships for emerging writers, and how to shake off rejection and break in to humor writing

May 15, 2025

∙ Paid

Welcome to Sub Club’s Jobs for Writers!

I’ve been thinking a lot about fellowships and residencies lately. Reminiscing. I did my first (so far only, hopefully not last) residency last summer, a two-week-long stint for comedy writers working on half-hour pilots. Approximately around, oh, this very time last year I was freaking out: imposter syndrome, the idea of being away from my beloved dog and his bad attitude, the unknown of spending weeks in a small town in Pennsylvania with people I had never met before. You know. Just a small, wee, itty bit of a meltdown. Very casual. Very cool.

The residency was self-guided, so I ended up spending less time actually writing and more time working through my process—letting my brain unclench and slip into creative-ish mode; sweating an unseemly amount during a heat wave; watching a lot of Starstruck and Fleabag and millennial High Fidelity for (mostly legitimate) research; stress-eating popsicles and angry-eating semi-wilted salads. Did I mention it was hot? It was so hot.

Anyway, toward the end of the fellowship, I started to worry I wasn’t doing enough. Honestly, I probably wasn’t. Sure, I had finished most of the outline for my pilot, and I had a deeper understanding of my characters. But I only had two pages of my actual pilot written. Spoiler alert: In the last year, I’ve written maybe three more pages. I am nothing if not distracted. Am I a Sagittarius, or do I have ADHD? You decide!

Lifelong battle against procrastination aside, I got something very, very valuable from the residency: a fellow comedy friend who is now my accountability person. Writing is a lonely business, and I personally tend to get myself down before I even get started. But talking to Katie—Hi Katie! I didn’t mean to write an ode to you, but I did—has helped me realize that writing might be lonely, but I’m not, like, alone. Failures that I thought were unique are actually universal (either that, or said failures have only ever been experienced by the two of us). I have someone in my corner. Things aren’t okay, but they also are okay.

Having our accountability meetings keeps me more inspired and open, and since we have a lot of the same comedy sensibilities, it’s very fun to bounce ideas off of each other. I get excited to write because I have someone to share my work with, even if it’s literally just a sentence. Overall, it is extremely pleasant.

I say all this to say: Do you have people? Beta readers? An accountability group? How does it help you as a writer? I would genuinely love to hear about it, so feel free to tell me in the comments. I’m trying to see something.

How to Break In to Humor Writing (and Reject Rejection) with Kara Panzer

Well, well, well! This week I chatted with Kara Panzer, humor writer and comedian. The world of humor writing—including but not limited to satire—is basically the Wild Wild West to me, and I wanted to hear from someone who is in the thick of it. Enter: Kara.

“Publishing short humor provides a quick win to keep me motivated, and gives some small validation to the act of writing,” Kara says. “There's not a lot of money or fame to be found as a humor writer, so really all we compete for is being funnier. The vibes are good. I'm glad to be an emerging writer on this scene.”

Ahead, Kara chats about how humor outlets’ fast response times have shifted her perspective on rejection, being a good citizen in the humor community, and how you can be a humor writer too.

rachael vaughan clemmons: What's your background?

Kara Panzer: I graduated from Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. Then I worked at Goldman Sachs for six years and transitioned to a PR role for Huawei (yes, that one; yes, they were already banned). Now I'm the director of PR for a private college. Stressful situations have helped me develop a strong sense of humor, and I frequently draw on my corporate comms experience to critique contemporary business culture in my humor writing.

rvc: As a person with like, a Real Person Job, what sparked your interest in actually pursuing humor writing and comedy? What was your relationship with comedy and/or humor writing before?

KP: I've always loved writing and felt that a sense of humor is an asset in life. When I was in elementary school, I would write little parodies of our world to share with my friends (think fairy tales but rewriting the characters as people we knew; Hansel and Gretel starring my siblings etc.). I also would make my friends act out SNL-style sketches (including hits like "Every ring begins with R," a Kay Jewelers ad parody that at least one of our moms laughed at).

Landing in humor was sort of an accident. When I was graduating from college, I wanted to move to New York, and I wasn't going to be able to do that unless I found a corporate paycheck, so I put my writing on the back burner. Then I remembered I don't mind embarrassing myself as long as it is entertaining to other people, so I jumped back in.

At work, I used to jot down funny notes to pass the time. I didn't realize there was such a rich community of outlets that published pieces like this. Once I found them, I read a lot of their backlog to get a sense of the style and started submitting. I took Luke Burns' excellent humor writing classes for additional feedback twice. He attracts a very talented pool of students, and I always appreciate their feedback as much as his.

I placed my first piece at Weekly Humorist—thank you Marty!—and from there, I looked at other writers' bios to see where they were submitting. I can save new humorists this step by sharing the PIC List.

If my Serious Fiction ever finds a more welcome reception, I will write more Serious Fiction.

rvc: What does the whole humor writing thing look like for you right now?

KP: In the past eighteen months, I've published over thirty humor pieces at various outlets like The Offing, Points in Case, Slackjaw, The Belladonna, and others. The best thing about humor publications is that they tend to respond quickly. That's a tight feedback loop to help humorists like me hone a sense of what works. When a piece gets rejected, I can quickly incorporate feedback and send it out to another publisher. It's helped me develop emotional immunity to rejection.

rvc: An emotional immunity to rejection sounds very mature. Can you talk a little bit more about that—about how the submissions process has helped you reframe rejection?

KP: Most humor outlets have fast response times, and they're looking for pieces under 1,000 words, which creates the ideal circumstances to send out a lot of work. Obviously, we should be considerate of our hard-working humor overlords/editors and send our best, spell check, adhere to submission guidelines, and actually read the magazine to gauge the fit. But once you've made your best effort on those fronts, who cares if you get rejected?

I've sent out so much that it's made me way less sensitive to the stomach dropping feel of seeing a no. A no can mean the piece needs more work or maybe it just wasn't right for that editor. The more writing and submitting you do, the faster you learn which it is. Rejections are just part of the process. I'm not gonna end this response with a joke because I really do believe that.

rvc: You mentioned taking classes to hone your skills. Is there anything else you do to nurture your writing?

KP: I try to be a good citizen in the humor community. I go to my friends' shows, subscribe to their newsletters, buy their books, and volunteer to give feedback when asked. I do think it helps my own writing to see what my much more successful peers are up to (I really like Jennie Egerdie and Eli Burnstein's books). Morning pages are great too. Some of the humor outlets have Slack groups for writers they've published, which is another great avenue to find feedback.

In New York, there's a very vibrant humor writing community. I frequent the Some Fun Lines open mic to share my work and hear what others are up to. It's a really inspiring group of funny people.

rvc: I know from experience that open mics can be such a good way to figure out if a joke that's funny in your head is actually funny to other people. Do you have a kind of process to work jokes from the mic to the page?

KP: This is very true! I think it speaks to the value of feedback in general, and when you perform in front of an audience, feedback is immediate. When you're on stage, there are so many other factors that influence the reception (energy, timing, delivery etc.). A satire piece may still work really well without getting a ton of laughs, but if you deliver your best punch line to blank stares, it may be time to revisit the structure.

rvc: Ex-New Yorker here (RIP me, should have never left). Can you talk about finding your humor community in NYC and what you do to sustain it?

KP: Come back any time! Summer is in the air and it smells like hot trash. The NYC humor community is self-sustaining like a terrarium, but I have successfully glommed-on. Take a local humor writing class to meet others and follow your favorites on social media. Subscribe to A Newsletter of Humorous Writing and go to their meetups. Share your work at Some Fun Lines. The basic rules of socializing apply even to comedians: What you put in is what you'll get out.

rvc: What advice do you have for people who want to start pitching and submitting humor writing?

KP: Don't wait. Humor is a way to find joy in the absurd, critique the powerful, and have fun. What do you know about the world that no one else has named yet? Humor editors want to read your funny takes. Stop reading this and get to work right now!!

rvc: Lastly, what’s your Substack? How can people find you?

KP: Wait, come back. You can find me and my social handles at karapanzer.com. I have a newsletter and I'm averaging two posts/year.

Always leave the people wanting more. Follow for more useful advice.

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