Emerging Voices Fellowship

Please read the following closely, as our application requirements may have changed and aspects of our program adjusted for 2025.

Nine fellows will receive an honorarium of $1,500. Fellows will be paired with a mentor to serve as a source of guidance for the project.

PEN America will draw on the Emerging Voices Advisory Committee, as well as its network of agents, editors, publishers, partner organizations, and outlets in order to assist efforts for publication and dissemination of the work of the fellows. Opportunities for sharing the created work through public forums will be organized on virtual platforms.

The five months of the fellowship are designed for fellows to connect with mentors and the cohort and refine their writing project while learning new skills and building relationships with publishing industry instructors, PEN America staff, and the literary community.

• January 1-31: 2025 Emerging Voices Fellowship application period
• May: 2025 Emerging Voices Fellows announced
• June-October: 2025 Emerging Voices Fellowship period

• Applicants must be 21 years of age or older at time of application.
• Applicants do not need to be a U.S. permanent resident and/or citizen but must be residing in the United States at the time of applying for, and during the duration of, the fellowship.
• Applicants must be available to participate actively in all dimensions of fellowship programming, including mandatory virtual workshops, virtual gatherings, and virtual public programs.
• Applicants cannot be enrolled in a degree-granting program at the time of the fellowship’s start date (June 2025).  Doctoral candidates who have completed all coursework are considered eligible.
• Applicants cannot be a recipient of an advanced degree in fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry. 
• Applicants cannot have one or more books published through major or independent publishers, university presses, or established presses, nor have a book under contract to a publisher at the time of application. Chapbooks or work published in literary journals are acceptable.
• Former Emerging Voices Fellows are not eligible to reapply.

Given the highly competitive nature of the selection process for this fellowship, we advise using care in your project application. Though the application will be assessed as a whole, fellows will be selected primarily based on the strength of the writing sample by a committee of established writers and publishing professionals, former fellows, and PEN America staff. We encourage you to submit writing that best showcases your work.

Please be mindful of the specific application requests. Failure to follow instructions carefully will result in disqualification. Late applications will not be accepted, without exception. We suggest you submit early to avoid technical issues. Applicants may only submit in one genre to the 2025 fellowship.

The selection decisions of PEN America will be final and not subject to review. We regret that due to the volume of applications, we will not be able to provide any individualized feedback at any point during or after the application process. General questions about the application process sent to [email protected] will be answered at the discretion of PEN America.

Terms of Use: PEN America archives submissions in their entirety for organizational purposes. We will never use or share your application outside of PEN America, and you retain all the rights to your work submitted as part of your application.

PEN America does not discriminate based upon age, color, national origin, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, status as a veteran, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.

Application Fee: $25

Do I need to live in the United States area to apply to the Emerging Voices Fellowship?
Yes. Although applicants do not need to be a U.S. permanent resident and/or citizen, you must be residing in the United States during the duration of the Fellowship.

Are there any age restrictions?
The Emerging Voices Fellowship is open to all writers 21 years of age or older.

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. 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 15 pages of double-spaced, 12-point font, one-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. Your name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript.  The document must be in PDF format.

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 May.

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.

I write screenplays/graphic novels/children’s books. Am I eligible?
No. 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.

Do I need to provide references?
Applicants must provide the name and contact information (email address and phone number) for at least one reference. Your reference should be familiar with you and can attest to your character, ability to work within a community, and is familiar with your work.  During the selection period, we may contact your references for additional information. Your reference should be aware that we may be in contact with them during that time. 

Is there an application fee?
Yes, there is a $25 fee to submit the application. The application fee must be paid on Submittable.

Are there application waivers for financial difficulties?
Yes, application waivers are available to those facing financial difficulties. Please email [email protected] to request an application waiver. 

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.

Am I allowed to apply to both the Emerging Voices Fellowship and the Emerging Voices Workshop in Los Angeles?

Applicants to the Emerging Voices Fellowship are also welcome to apply to the Emerging Voices Workshop an intensive in person week-long workshop, offered twice annually, in Los Angeles, California. Applications will submit separate applications for each program. The committee for each program will review respective applications individuals and decisions by one program may not reflect decisions by the other. 

Are current PEN America staff, interns, donors, and Board members eligible for the Emerging Voices Fellowship? What about past staff, gap year fellows, interns, donors, and Board members?
Writers who also are current PEN America staff, gap year fellows, or interns, trustees, or chairs of member committees are not eligible for the fellowship. We understand the literary community to be close and interconnected, and being involved with PEN America in these ways in the past does not result in disqualification. We ask that the writer have not been connected with PEN America in these ways during the calendar year of the applicable fellowship cycle. For example, a person involved with PEN America in one of the categories described in 2025 will not be eligible for the fellowship in 2025.

If someone is a member and active in, say, a committee, they are eligible, so long as they aren’t chair or co-chair.