Work with Ecotone: Opportunities for UNCW MFA students

Ecotone is made by faculty and MFA students in the department of creative writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Our work is intense, intensely collaborative, and a lot of fun. MFA editors and designers emerita have gone on to positions at such magazines and presses as Sierra, Southern Humanities Review, Longleaf Review, Graywolf Press, Autumn House Press, the University of Minnesota Press, and Milkweed Editions, to name a few—as well as teaching and publishing their own work. Join us!

Want to be part of the Ecotone team?
Prospective MFA students: Details about the MFA program at UNCW can be found on UNCW’s MFA program page, and details about how to apply can be found on our prospective students page. Applications for fall 2023 are due January 7, 2023.

Current MFA students who have not take the Ecotone practicum before: Please see the course descriptions page for details about the upcoming CRW524: Ecotone practicum, offered each fall. Then, using the instructions in the course description, write to editor Anna Lena Phillips Bell to request permission to register. (The address listed on this page is for students and not for inquiries about submissions. Thanks for your understanding.)

Staff Positions, Editorships, and Assistantships

Ecotone readers and staff members (practicum course): The magazine offers two intensive practicums for UNCW MFA students. CRW524, taught by editor Anna Lena Phillips Bell, is for students new to the magazine. This practicum runs only in the fall semester. The work for the course includes learning the magazine’s aesthetic, reading submissions, fact checking forthcoming work, setting run order, drafting paratext, and brainstorming special features and promotions, among other things. The course may be taken more than once. If you’re a current or incoming UNCW MFA student who is interested in working with the magazine and/or applying for an editorial position, please contact Bell for permission to register. Details can be found in the course description, on this page.

Editors (practicum course): Students who have taken the initial practicum in a fall semester may apply in spring for section-editor positions with the magazine, in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Section editors take an advanced practicum, also taught by Bell, in which they manage submissions and reading in their genre, acquire work, top edit, and lead edit, among other tasks.

Graduate assistant/managing editor (paid assistantship): Typically every other year, the editor selects an MFA student to become managing editor of Ecotone. This graduate assistantship, at twenty hours per week, is awarded to a rising second-year MFA student without an existing assistantship. The managing editor works closely with the editor and has the opportunity to learn a wide range of skills related to magazine editing, production, and promotion.

Designers (paid assistantships): The magazine’s interior spreads are designed by teaching assistants in The Publishing Laboratory, supervised by art director Michael Ramos. These assistantships are awarded upon acceptance to the MFA program. In addition, one Pub Lab TA, selected by the faculty before entering their second year in the program, serves as Ecotone’s designer, and works with the art director and editor on our isssues’ interior layout, among other design projects.