“These Are the Stories I Want to Tell”: An Essay by 2019 Emerging Voices Fellow Fajer Alexander Khansa
"When my stories get published, some readers will be disappointed; they’ll want more. That’s okay. Because these are the stories I want to tell." More
“Leaving The Light On”: An Essay by 2019 Emerging Voices Fellow Dare Williams
"Your stories, your essays, and your poems need you to tell them. Because we need to hear them." More
“I Started to Write the Way I Needed To”: An Essay by 2019 Emerging Voices Fellow T.K. Lê
"There is no time left to be small. This year, I took a risk: I called myself a writer, and I started to write the way I needed to." More
Cry, the Beloved Country: Ma Jian on Resilience, Resistance, and Hope
"The Chinese language is my homeland. From exile, I can use it to drag repressed memories into the light" More
The Swallow War
"This singular edifice sits in the center of the prison; it's open air and we call it the plaza. There are a couple of trees, some sickly grass, and… More
Execution Day—Involuntary Witness to Murder
"The significance of this cannot be understated. I’ve been down here on death watch before years ago and came within hours of being executed myself, and there’s always been… More
Going Forward with Gus
"As Gus would speak about the love for his kids and the things he wished he had done better, I thought about what it would have been like to… More
The Thrill of Discovery
"My family was never much into literary books. They read cheap paperbacks that cost less than a dollar, the stories printed on thin newsprint." More
Emerging Voices’ Community and Connections
"Emerging Voices offers a community that is forever welcoming new family. And I can’t wait to hear how those voices sound." More
Speaking Silence
"As a Mexican-Filipino-East Indian teen, I felt most comfortable in silence—scribbling words into notebooks, hoping my classmates couldn’t see me." More