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

Jobs for Writers (4.4.25) | Gigs at Simon & Schuster Audio and The Adroit Journal, how to break in to working as a published author's assistant, and internships galore!

Apr 04, 2025

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Welcome to Sub Club’s Jobs for Writers!

Okay, things are a little different this time around. Maybe you noticed today’s headline doesn’t say anything about pitch calls? Maybe you didn’t? I won’t presume.

Anyway, that’s because there are no pitch calls this week, besides the ones that are in the Past Opportunities section at the bottom. Instead, pitch calls will have their own newsletter again, every other week, starting next week. This newsletter will go back to being every other week, too.

Now that all of that is out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff. We’ve got gigs at the Big 5, small presses, and university presses; a handful of jobs for UK friends and aspirants; and lots of internships for those who dabble. Get in the car, friends, we’re going shopping (for employment. Not actual shopping. In this economy?).

How to Break In

This week, I spoke to a fellow Rach(a)el: Rachel Deel, Assistant to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Kingsolver. After taking a sabbatical—and in the midst of the early pandemic—Rachel went back home and started farming nearby. And it just so happened that Barbara’s farm was right next door.

“We live in a small town and a big part of doing anything around here involves the neighborhood grapevine,” Rachel writes. “We had multiple points of connection before I ever set foot in her office for an interview.”

Now, thanks to the experience of working with—and the support of—Barbara, Rachel is wrapping up her assistant duties and moving on to the next: literary translation thanks to an upcoming French intensive in Paris. It’s all very exciting!

Below, Rachel talks about a day in the life of being an assistant to a published author, how being open to talking about what you’re working on can lead to unseen opportunities, and how working on Barbara’s latest novel piqued her interest in translation.

rachael vaughan clemmons: What's your background?

Rachel Deel: I have a background in journalism, and started my career in documentary film and TV. I was a producer for years in New York, but craved the creative side of things.

I took a sabbatical to volunteer on organic farms all over the world, and in the middle of that the world shut down for the pandemic. I came home, and because farming was what I'd been doing, I started working on a little farm in Southwest Virginia. As it turned out, the farm was right next door to [author] Barbara Kingsolver's farm. I was writing at the time and loved gardening, and both of these things connected me to Barbara and her ethos.

rvc: How did you get the job?

RD: We live in a small town and a big part of doing anything around here involves the neighborhood grapevine. Of course, this is a large part of getting a job in any industry, it's who you know. But here it is how you accomplish anything.

I would say that I got the job with Barbara because I was already integrated in her community, we had multiple points of connection before I ever set foot in her office for an interview.

But at the end of the day, the path that led to this job was one in which I was following my own energy. You could call it luck or fate, but I think there is something to turning attention toward projects that light you up, and trusting that you will find fantastic people to work with along the way. I have a kind of portfolio resume that is very project-based and not confined to a specific career channel. This is a hard sell for employers, but it left me open to the opportunity of working with Barbara when that came along.

rvc: Can you describe what your day-to-day looks like as Barbara’s assistant?

RD: I work out of a carriage house attached to Barbara's farm in Southwest Virginia. The drive into work is a long gravel road that hugs a stream and the pastures where her sheep graze.

I mention the setting because a lot of the day-to-day work with Barbara is a kind of integration into her life. There are emails and inquiries to answer, but the main function of the job requires an understanding of how Barbara organizes her time and attention. I've developed a kind of shorthand for who she is as a writer and a person, so that the office can function as an extension of her. Logistically, it's a little of everything: copyediting, proofreading, reviewing contract details, responding to requests for interviews and speaking engagements, reading and answering fan mail, and organizing closets full of archival material.

rvc: What are some lessons you have learned as an assistant, either about yourself or publishing and writing?

RD: Because I get a look at everything that came across Barbara's desk, I have so much more optimism about making a living as a writer. It's not just about books and royalties, it's also all of these opportunities to speak, participate in literary events, contribute to anthologies, and invitations to write articles and essays. Of course, Barbara is in a league of her own, but I've come to realize that this exists at all levels of the writing world. I mean, look at me writing this thing for you right now.

Working with Barbara was also an opportunity to survey the playing field, to have first-hand experience with the whole ecosystem. Because I've come at this industry sideways, I was still searching when I met Barbara. I discovered that I loved working with her translators, fielding questions that were as cultural and deep as they were practical and linguistic. There is something almost mystical about translations, the attempt to understand another cultural reality while accepting that there will always be a deficit. Barbara herself is very linguistically accomplished, and under her guidance, I am moving to Paris to do a French intensive and move into literary translations.

rvc: Can you describe some more about how working with Barbara helped you find your way to a love for translations?

RD: I started working with Barbara just before Demon Copperhead was published, and very soon we were receiving contracts for international editions. Translators from all over the world would reach out for help in answering questions about the text.

Often, these questions were more about culture than language. One of the first translations for Demon Copperhead was the French edition. Barbara's French translator is this wonderful woman named Martine Aubert who physically came to visit the farm. She wanted to see where Demon grew up, so that she could accurately depict it in French. She spent several days with us and had long meetings with Barbara going through a copy of the book that was highlighted and covered in notes and flags. Barbara spent nearly half an hour just trying to explain the concept of "snake-handling Baptists" to this French woman, and I thought, now that's what I want to do. That is how we make meaning in this world. So much of human relation is in that space between the entirely incomprehensible and a newfound awareness.

Barbara and I started having long conversations about what language can do, the power of etymology, and how words and syntax shape reality. It's really very magical. So I'm moving to Paris to focus intensively on French and to work on translations and interdisciplinary art. (And by the way, "snake-handling Baptists" in French is "des baptistes manieurs de serpents" which does translate directly by way of language, but in terms of culture, I will always hear Martine asking over and over again, "But Barbara, why??")

A big thing I’ve gotten from you is the power of making genuine human connections—this idea of it’s who you know. I’d love to hear more about your approach to this: you getting to know Barbara was really organic, but how do you approach creating connections elsewhere?

Yes, this is absolutely about the power of making genuine human connection, but for me it was also about doing things I was interested in.

The advice to create meaningful connections is maybe a little misleading, because that is actually the endgame. Connections are the product of a long process of leaning into what fascinates you and meeting other people who are fascinated by it too. I was saying yes to a lot of different opportunities and being open to talking about my projects. I was in this area of Southwest Virginia because I'd become interested in sustainable agriculture and market gardening, and had the opportunity to work on a farm there. I was also reading old notebooks that had belonged to my grandfather, and I was writing about him. I absolutely loved it, so I was talking a lot about it.

When a farming friend heard about the opening in Barbara's office, she nominated me for the role because I'd been telling her about all this writing. If I hadn't been talking openly about it, no one would have known that I was even interested in writing. I've had times in the past when I was very closed off about the things I was doing. I thought maybe no one would care, or they would think I was foolish for wanting to try something new. Now I think I should be talking about my interests all the time. You never know who is listening.

rvc: Would you recommend working as an assistant as a good way to break in to or learn more about the world of writing or publishing? What advice do you have for folks who might be interested in following a similar path?

RD: Working as an assistant to a published author is a great way to familiarize yourself with the entire literary ecosystem. It's a good role for someone who is working on their own projects, and there is a lot of crossover with other literary professionals, but it is not glamorous.

It is also entirely dependent on personality. This is not a corporate job, it is very intimate, so a personality match is extremely important. Ultimately, this is someone who is going to be in your corner when you head off to do your own thing, because that is what you will have to do. There isn't growth in the sense of opportunities to move up into a new role at the company. It's just you and your author and only you can decide when it's your time to try it on your own.

Maybe the big takeaway here is to get involved and see what happens next. That's certainly how I want to go about it on the next go around too.

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