DREAMing Out Loud
DREAMing Out Loud is a paid, tuition-free creative writing workshop series for migrant writers.
DREAMing Out Loud is a paid, tuition-free creative writing workshop series for migrant writers. We welcome writers from all immigrant communities and backgrounds, both citizens and non-citizens. By providing community and professional support to the next generation of immigrant writers, the program seeks to counter anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. and to amplify the voices of many living in this country who are marginalized because of their immigration status.
In workshops led by established writers from immigrant backgrounds, 40 participants are provided a modest stipend to develop original fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and plays to perform at public readings and to publish in various print and digital formats, including our annual anthology. The program also helps build a pipeline to publishing and theatre industries in New York City, empowering students to develop their own unique artistic voice and craft to ensure that any future literary canon will include their stories, perspectives, and lived experiences. Participants receive access to resources tailored for immigrant artists, including at least one author-led talkback about writing and publishing each year.
Closes December 10, 2025, at 11:59 PM EST.
The DREAMing Out Loud program runs from February through April 2026.
To learn more about the program, including how to enroll or make a donation, email TC Mann ([email protected]) and Sabir Sultan ([email protected]).
DREAMing Out Loud is supported by Karen Pritzker, RJ Julia Booksellers, Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, CUNY Mexican Institute, New York Theater Workshop and National Queer Theater. It is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Sponsored by
The Anthology
DREAMing Out Loud, PEN America’s series of tuition-free writing workshops for emerging migrant writers in the U.S., was founded by the award-winning Mexican novelist Álvaro Enrigue in 2016. Under his vision, and with the support of accomplished teaching-artists, including writer Charlie Vázquez, writer and playwright Cherry Lou Sy, and writer and illustrator Claudia Rueda, students are empowered to develop their own unique artistic voice and craft to ensure that any future literary canon will include their stories, perspectives, and lived experiences.
My DREAMing Out Loud students have taught me the most valuable lesson any writer could wish for: to write courageously, no matter what. This volume contains the memories, visions, and dreams of immigrant and/or undocumented writers, a range of perspectives, and voices that demonstrate the complexity of our pain and our persistence.
I hope these stories deepen your humanity as they have deepened mine. By conjuring the purest courage, these writers push back against the harmful profiling that seeks to revoke their humanity. Sharing their stories and experiences brings the immigration issue into the realm of flesh and emotion, revealing the nuanced realities of their lives, including their hopes, struggles, and visions for the future. While the undocumented face severe systemic injustices, their contributions to our shared human story must never be forgotten.
This anthology ensures that.
– Charlie Vázquez
Past Anthologies
Teaching Artists
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Charlie Vázquez
Charlie Vázquez is the director of the Bronx Writers Center at Bronx Council on the Arts, as well as the New York Coordinator for Puerto Rico’s Festival de la Palabra. He writes speculative fiction and is inspired by the crossroads where history meets spirituality.
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Cherry Lou Sy
CHERRY LOU SY is a writer & playwright originally from the Philippines of Chinese and Filipino heritage. Currently based in Brooklyn, New York, she received her BA at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study and attended Brooklyn College’s MA in English Literature as well as the MFA in Playwriting program under Mac Wellman and Erin…
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Claudia Rueda
Claudia Rueda is a Colombian author and a New York Times bestselling illustrator of over thirty picture books for children. Rueda’s books have been published in the United States, Mexico, and Spain and have been translated into fifteen different languages for Asia and Europe. She’s a 2016 Hans Christian Andersen and Astrid Lindgren Awards nominee.…
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Álvaro Enrigue
Álvaro Enrigue is a Mexican writer who was a Cullman Center Fellow and a Fellow at the Princeton University Program in Latin American Studies.
Program Highlights
‘DREAMing Out Loud Amplifies Migrant Voices Amid Climate of Fear’
Three DREAMing Out Loud students joined writer and artist Charlie Vázquez at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater to present their writing and reflect on how they developed their craft and a sense of community over the course of the program.