About the Emerging Voices Rosenthal Fellowship Program
“Emerging Voices is providing me with the precise support to move from one developmental milestone, as a writer, to the next. It is slow and hard, but I’m moving from crawling to toddling, amazed at what I’m being guided to do. There is no turning back and generous cheerleaders on every side.”
—Colleen Nakamoto, PEN Fellow 2003
ABOUT EMERGING VOICES
Many writers in culturally diverse communities in the United States are isolated from the literary establishment and excluded from the critiquing and publishing process. To address this issue, PEN USA initiated Emerging Voices to launch potential professional writers from minority, immigrant, and underserved communities.
Emerging Voices is an intensive eight-month program involving writers in the early stages of their literary careers. The program includes one-on-one sessions with mentors, seminars on topics such as editing or working with agents, master classes with a renowned novelist, courses in the Writers’ Program at UCLA Extension, one-month teaching residencies, a monthly book group, and literary readings. It culminates in a public reading and reception.
Participants are selected according to potential, experience, and goals. There are no age restrictions, and the selection is not based solely on economic need. Although participants need not be published, the program is directed toward poets and writers of fiction and creative nonfiction with clear ideas of what they hope to accomplish through their writing.
Mentors are chosen from PEN’s comprehensive membership of professional writers and beyond. Participants are paired with established writers sharing similar writing interests and often with those of the same ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
EMERGING VOICES PROGRAM COMPONENTS
MENTORING RELATIONSHIP: Writers are paired with a mentor with whom there will be at least monthly contact, including two in-person meetings. Mentors are chosen from among PEN’s comprehensive membership of professional writers and the larger literary world. Mentors will offer feedback on work in progress, informal conversations, suggested readings, and a glimpse at a writer’s day-to-day life.
MASTER CLASSES: An established author will offer a five-session workshop that will give Emerging Voices writers the opportunity to share work and receive feedback from the teacher and each other, tackle creative issues in the work, and strategize about living the writing life.
UCLA EXTENSION WRITERS’ PROGRAM: Participants will receive courses and workshops donated by the Writers’ Program, with counseling provided by the program’s staff, who consult with participants on writing goals and course selection.
CONVERSATIONS WITH AUTHORS/PROFESSIONALS: There will be informal visits with prominent authors and poets and private meetings with editors, agents, and publishers to discuss the ins and outs of the literary world.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH: Writers will participate in a month-long residency as part of the PEN After School in partnership with the PEN in the Classroom program, which has been running in Los Angeles area high schools since 1995. The participants will conduct writing workshops with teenagers at public libraries or community centers conducting workshops in poetry, creative nonfiction, or fiction. The writer and the partnering arts organization administrator jointly develop the curriculum.
READING GROUP: Every month, the participating writers meet as a group to discuss books, authors, and poets involved in the Emerging Voices program or ones of their own choosing.
FINAL READING: The culmination of the program is a public reading at the Mark Taper Auditorium where Emerging Voices participants can share the progress of their work with the public.
LITERARY COLLECTIONS: Writers have access to a collection of videotapes from the Lannan Foundation readings and PEN’s library of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry submitted to its annual literary awards competition.
UPDATE May 2007: During the 2008 Emerging Voices program, a work-study position will be available at PEN USA. Emerging Voices 2008 fellows will be eligible to apply for this 25-30 hour a week paid position at the office of PEN USA. The work-study fellow will be chosen based on a separate application distributed to those chosen for the 2008 Emerging Voices fellowship, and will solely be based on relevant work experience and need.
GUIDELINES
Eligibility restrictions
People not eligible for the program:
* M.A., M.F.A., and Ph.D. graduates in Creative Writing or related field
* Students currently enrolled in B.A., M.A., or M.F.A. writing programs
* Full PEN members
* Writers with significant publication credits, fellowships, and writing awards/grants. For instance, people who have books published and former or current magazine/newspaper staff writers are ineligible.
PEN USA will accept writers working in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. The program is designed to serve writers working on a specific project with the goal of publication.
Emerging Voices is a rigorous program, calling for a time commitment of at least one activity each week in addition to time spent on the writer’s own work. The program involves a close working relationship with other participants. Participants should be willing and able to make an enthusiastic commitment to the program and to their involvement as members of a group.
You may download the pdf versions of the Emerging Voices application and brochure from our site, or you can email your mailing address to to receive an application by mail. There is a $10 application fee.
For more info, contact:
Emerging Voices Director
PEN USA, C/O Antioch University, 400 Corporate Pointe, Culver City, CA 90230
310 862 1555 phone
310 862 1556 fax
http://www.penusa.org
Emerging Voices is made possible in part by grants and donations from the Rosenthal Foundation, the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and individual PEN members.