Emerging Voices Fellowship

People ineligible for the Emerging Voices Fellowship:

• Full-time graduate or undergraduate students.
• Those who have a B.A., M.A., M.F.A., Ph.D. in creative writing.
• Writers who have published one or more books through major publishing houses, university presses, or established presses.
• Current professional magazine/newspaper feature writers or editors.
• Writers who are widely published in top tier literary journals and/or magazines.
• Anyone under the age of 21.

Emerging Voices is a rigorous fellowship based in Los Angeles with weekly meetings and an intense reading and writing schedule. With this in mind, participants must be willing and able to make an enthusiastic commitment to the fellowship and to their involvement as members of a group. If you are not a resident of Los Angeles and you are awarded the fellowship you will need to relocate for the seven-month period. Housing is not provided.

The Emerging Voices Fellowship originated as a mentorship project. The project 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 issues and challenges faced by first and second generation immigrant writers. It was evident from the forum that many of the culturally diverse communities of writers in Southern California were often isolated from the literary establishment. In the fall of 1996, PEN America Los Angeles initiated Emerging Voices as a literary mentorship program designed to launch potential professional writers from minority, immigrant and other underrepresented communities. The program has now evolved into an seven-month writing fellowship for writers who lack access to a traditional writing education and seek financial and creative support.

Here’s a note from one of the fellowship’s supporter, Jamie Wolf, supporter of the Emerging Voices Fellowship program:

“The Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation was established in 1948 by my parents, a young businessman and his fashion-editor wife, who clearly had a great deal of confidence in their eventual financial success as well as a genuine desire to contribute to the world outside themselves. As my father formulated it in the beginning, ‘Individuals fortunate enough to receive unusual benefits from a society have the distinct obligation to return meaningful, tangible support to that society—in the form of creative energy as well as funding.’ What this has meant over the years is a pattern of rewarding excellence and accomplishment by giving awards in the fields of medicine, art and literature. In the last several decades, as the younger generation has begun to have more of a say, the goal has modulated into an emphasis on more directly encouraging excellence and accomplishment—by funding programs as well as awards, thus concentrating on setting up structures for achievement, and utilizing the multiplier effect.”

PEN America’s Emerging Voices Fellowship is generously supported by the California Arts Council, New Balloon and Catapult, Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, Pasadena Literary Alliance, UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, The Rosenthal Family Foundation, Jamie Wolf, and in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

Thank you for your interest in PEN America’s Emerging Voices Fellowship. Given that the Fellowship has traditionally taken place in-person in Los Angeles, the 2021 Emerging Voices application has not been opened at this time as we assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our programming and what offerings will be possible.

PEN America is firmly committed to sustaining support for emerging writers from historically-excluded communities, and is taking the time to monitor evolving circumstances and carefully examine how we can best fulfill this goal in light of them. We plan to post a substantive update here in August 2020, so please check back then.

In the meantime, we hope you can join us on July 28 for The Final Reading of the 2020 Emerging Voices Fellows, which will be held virtually in partnership with the Hammer Museum. For further information, please contact Michelle Franke, Executive Director, PEN America, Los Angeles.

Do I need to live in the Los Angeles area to apply to the Emerging Voices Fellowship?
You must be a resident of the United States to apply. All fellows must live in Los Angeles or close enough to commute to Los Angeles for the duration of the program. No funds are available for relocation.

Are there any age restrictions?
The Emerging Voices Fellowship is open to all writers over the age of 21.

Can I submit work that has been previously published?
Yes, if you feel it is the work that best represents you as a writer.

Can you help me decide what work to submit as my writing sample?
No, although we do strongly encourage you to submit writing that corresponds to your genre and your project proposal. Please make full use of the 20 page submission limit for prose, but do not exceed 20 pages. This allows the selection committee to gain a better understanding of your project and how you and your work could benefit from the fellowship.

How should the manuscript be formatted?
Fiction and nonfiction manuscripts should be 20 pages of double-spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins all around. You may format poetry manuscripts however you feel best represents the poetry you are submitting, as long as you do not exceed the 10-page limit and the typed font is legible. All pages must be numbered.

What does the selection committee look for in a manuscript?
A strong writing sample. The best advice we can give is to seek the advice of other writers and instructors when preparing your manuscript.

When are applicants notified of the committee’s decision?
All applicants will be notified in late November.

Can you give me feedback on my manuscript or tell me why I wasn’t selected for the fellowship?
We cannot provide any comments on manuscripts or on applications submitted.

On the short answer section of the Emerging Voices application, it states you may use up to 500 words for each answer. Does this mean 500 words for each answer or 500 words for all ten questions combined?
It states each response can be up to 500 words maximum. That means each response for each individual question may be up to 500 words, not 500 words for all ten responses.

I write screenplays/graphic novels/children’s books. Am I eligible? 
The accepted genres for the Emerging Voices Fellowship are fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. All classes, mentors, and programming for the fellowship are based on one of these three genres. Many alumni have gone on to pursue careers in graphic novels, performance art, and screenwriting, but concentrated on either prose or poetry for the duration of the fellowship.

If offered a place in the fellowship, may I defer acceptance for another year?
You may not defer acceptance.

If not awarded the fellowship, may I reapply?
If you are not awarded a fellowship, we encourage you to reapply if interested.

For more info, please contact [email protected].

Emerging Voices Antioch MFA Scholarships

Effective immediately, Antioch University Los Angeles (AULA) and Antioch University Santa Barbara (AUSB) are offering Advanced Standing in the MFA in Creative Writing Program (AULA) and the MFA in Writing & Contemporary Media (AUSB), plus additional scholarship opportunities, to all alumni of the PEN America Emerging Voices (EV) Fellowship who are accepted into either program.

1. Advanced Standing: All EV alumni will receive 12 units of MFA credit for their work with PEN America as Emerging Voices Fellows. As a result, they will only have to complete three semesters (versus the standard four) in order to receive their MFA in their chosen genre: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or writing for young people at the Los Angeles campus; or film, television, playwriting, or emerging media at the Santa Barbara campus. All MFA students are also eligible to be mentored in a second genre during at least one “genre jump” semester on either campus. (Consult the AULA or AUSB catalogues for further details.)

2. Creative Writing Scholarship Opportunities:  EV alumni are eligible to compete for the following scholarships:

• At the Los Angeles campus: Creative Writing Fellowships (25 percent off one’s tuition each semester); Antioch Opportunity Grants ($1,000); and Eloise Klein Healy Scholarships ($1,000).
• At the Santa Barbara campus: all scholarships available to AUSB MFA students, including the Riskin-Rintels Writing Scholarship ($5,000) and the Don and Vivienne Bellisario Scholarship ($5,000). 

These opportunities will be available on an ongoing basis, and EV alumni will need to apply to the MFA Program through the AULA or AUSB website like all other MFA applicants.

By the end of July, 2019, there will be 151 Emerging Voices Fellowship alumni. It is Antioch’s hope that providing alumni with the above opportunities in a low-residency program might allow them to further their writing lives beyond the Fellowship.

Please note that you are an Emerging Voices Fellow in your cover letter and inform Amanda Fletcher at [email protected] of your application.

“As a prior PEN America EV Mentor and multiple Author Evening host, I have had the opportunity to engage with many Fellows, and am always impressed by their talent, passion, and commitment to the written word. I have also been impressed by the rigor of the Fellowship itself. With our social justice and community engagement mission, Antioch’s low-residency MFA Program seems like a great next step for EV alumni looking to continue learning and writing beyond Emerging Voices.”

 —Victoria Chang, MA, MBA, Core Faculty, Antioch MFA Program

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Bennington Writing Seminars Emerging Voices Scholarship

Thanks to the generosity of the Class of June 2018, Bennington Writing Seminars is able to offer a scholarship of $10,000 to an alumnus of PEN America’s Emerging Voices Fellowship program for the second time.

Effective during the September 2018 admissions period for the January 2019 residency, Bennington will grant a $10,000 scholarship in $2,500 increments across four terms to an Emerging Voices Fellow.

If a candidate is not selected for January admission, the scholarship will be available for an Emerging Voices Fellow for the March 1, 2019, admissions period with a June 2019 start date.

Thanks to the fundraising efforts of the January 2017 graduating class, Bennington Writing Seminars was able to accept three talented Emerging Voices Fellows last year: Shari Poindexter, Davin Malasarn, and Monica Carter (pictured above).

Deadline for applications is September 1.

Please note that you are an Emerging Voices Fellow in your cover letter and inform Amanda Fletcher at [email protected] of your application.

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SLICE Literary Writers’ Conference

As of 2017, a partnership between SLICE Literary Writers’ Conference and PEN America waives the conference fee and admission requirements for up to five Emerging Voices Fellows. 2017 EV Fellow Kirin Khan attended the 2018 conference under the terms of this agreement. (Fellows must provide for their own travel arrangements.) Kirin says, “The conference was phenomenal. I was able to really chat with panelists, meet editors and agents, and talk to speakers in a relaxed setting. And the tote bag is the best! Thanks, SLICE.”

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UCLA Extension Writers’ Program

In addition to the classes all current Emerging Voices are enrolled in during their tenure as Fellows, UCLA Extension Writers’ Program has agreed to waive the candidacy fee for Specializations and Certificate Programs for EV Fellows in the two years following their tenure.

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The Long Beach Festival of Women Authors

In keeping with their mission of encouraging new writers of talent and promise, the Literary Women of Long Beach invites a minimum of two PEN America Emerging Voices to attend the Long Beach Festival of Women Authors every year. Selected Fellows are included in the program and seated with presenting authors who offer invaluable support and advice. The 2019 festival lineup includes Attica Locke, Tayari Jones, and Leni Zumas, among other notables.

The PEN America Emerging Voices Podcast was created to increase the reach of the fellowship and provide the tools necessary to launch a professional writing career to writers in need beyond the five fellows awarded each year. Hosted by Fellowship Manager Amanda Fletcher, the podcast features fellows, mentors, master class instructors, Author Evening hosts, and more, all talking craft tips, writing advice, agents, query letters, carne asada, trauma, transcendence, and the importance of literary community.

Episodes streaming now on your favorite device.

Writers. Readers. Talkers. See how they’re just like you.

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