Join us virtually to celebrate the 2025 Emerging Voices Fellows, who will read together as the culmination of their fellowship.
Fellows: Ava Pauline Emilione, Danielle Shandiin Emerson, Elisabeth Vasquez Hein, Emily del Carmen Ramirez, Leila Farjami, Pegah Ouji, Solomon Tesfaye, Trini Bui, and Varun U. Shetty
Mentors: Ashna Ali, Kenzie Allen, Remica Bingham-Risher, Ayşe Papatya Bucak, Tajja Isen, Chinelo Okparanta, Cherry Lou Sy, Nafkote Tamirat, & Swati Teerdhala
Learn more about this year’s cohort >>
The Emerging Voices Fellowship provides a virtual five-month immersive mentorship program for early-career writers from communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the publishing world. The program is committed to cultivating the careers of Black writers and serves writers who identify as Indigenous, persons of color, LGBTQ+, immigrants, writers with disabilities, and those living outside of urban centers. Through curated one-on-one mentorship and introductions to editors, agents, and publishers, in addition to workshops on editing, marketing, and creating a platform, the five-month fellowship nurtures a creative community, provides a professional skill-set, and demystifies the path to publication—with the ultimate goal of diversifying the publishing and media industries.
The Emerging Voices Fellowship grew out of PEN America Los Angeles’s forum “Writing the Immigrant Experience,” held at the Los Angeles Central Library in March 1994, which explored the experiences of first- and second-generation immigrant writers. In 1996, PEN America Los Angeles initiated Emerging Voices as a mentorship program designed to provide professional resources to writers seeking financial and creative support to pursue their craft professionally. Virtually accessible programs and an expanded cohort of fellows will further the goal of diversifying the publishing and media industries by enabling participation from writers across the country.
This program is made possible by the generous support of the Jason Mraz Foundation.