Emerging Voices

DOWNLOAD THE 2013 APPLICATION

The application period for the 2013 cycle opens May 2, 2012. Applications are due AUGUST 15, 2012.

Jump to Frequently Asked Questions

About


Emerging Voices is a literary fellowship program that aims to provide new writers, who lack access, with the tools they will need to launch a professional writing career. Over the course of the year, each Emerging Voices fellow participates in: a professional mentorship; hosted Q & A evenings with prominent local authors; a series of Master classes focused on genre; and two or more public readings. The fellowship includes a $1,000 stipend.

Participants need not be published, but the program is directed toward poets and writers of fiction and creative nonfiction with clear ideas of what they hope to accomplish through their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.

For more info, please contact: ev@penusa.org

Learn about alumni of the Emerging Voices program and their publishing credits.

Lack of Access

Emerging Voices serves writers who lack access to financial and/or creative support.

Program Eligibility

Those not eligible for the program:
  • Writers who work in academia and publishing.
  • B.A., M.F.A., and Ph.D. graduates in Creative Writing.
  • Students currently enrolled in B.A., M.A., or M.F.A. 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.
  • Writers with an agent or publishing contracts.
  • Applicants under the age of 18.

Overview

Emerging Voices is a rigorous program based in Los Angeles with weekly meetings and an intense reading and writing schedule. Participants should be willing and able to make an enthusiastic commitment to the program in 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 eight-month program. Housing is not provided.

If offered a place in the Fellowship, you may not defer acceptance for another year. If you are not awarded a fellowship, we encourage you to reapply if interested.

Program Elements

PROGRAM MENTORS: EV fellows are paired with mentors that they are expected to contact monthly. Mentors are chosen from PEN’s membership, comprised of professional writers. EV Fellows are paired with mentors who share similar writing interests and who will challenge and compel their work further. Over the course of the program, EVs and mentors should meet three times in person. In these meetings, mentors will offer feedback on the EV fellows’ work in progress.

UCLA EXTENSION WRITERS’ PROGRAM: Participants will attend two free courses at UCLA extension, donated by the Writers’ Program. Program and PEN staff will assist EV fellows with course selection. Fellows will also have access to the UCLA libraries.

AUTHOR EVENINGS: A schedule of Q & A Evenings with prominent authors, poets, editors, agents, and publishers will be distributed at the first EV orientation meeting. Fellows must read each visiting author's book before the evening.

MASTER CLASSES: After completing the UCLA Extension courses, EV fellows will enroll in a PEN Master Class. Master classes are four-session, genre specific workshops with a professional writer that will offer the fellows the opportunity to receive new feedback from the from one another.

VOLUNTEER PROJECT: All fellows are expected to complete a 25-hour volunteer project that is relevant to the literary community.

VOICE CLASS: The fellowship will provide a one-day workshop with a professional voice actor. The EV fellows will read their work in a recording booth and receive instruction on reading their work publicly.

FINAL READING: The program culminates in a public reading to showcase the progress each fellow has made in his or her work.

SPECIAL EVENTS: PEN Center USA provides complimentary admission to select events throughout the fellowship.

History of Emerging Voices

The Emerging Voices program originated as a Mentorship Project. The Mentorship Project grew out of PEN Center USA’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 are often isolated from the literary establishment. In the fall of 1995, PEN Center USA 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 eight-month writing fellowship for writers who lack access to a traditional writing education and seek financial and creative support. 

Support for Emerging Voices

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.

-- Jamie Wolf

Apply

The application period for the 2013 cycle opens May 2, 2012. There is a $10 application fee.

Applications must arrive at the PEN Center USA P.O. Box by 5PM on or before August 15, 2012. Please mail all application materials to:

Emerging Voices
c/o PEN Center USA
PO Box 6037
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Applicants who have made it to the final round will be notified and then interviewed the first weekend of October 2012. All interviews take place in person at the PEN office in Beverly Hills, CA. See FAQ for application inquires. For more info, contact: 
ev@penusa.org.


Frequently Asked Questions


Do I need to live in the Los Angeles area to apply to the Emerging Voices Fellowship?
You must be a US citizen or have the correct documentation to apply to the EV Fellowship. However, 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 EV Fellowship is open to all writers over the age of 18.

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 project proposal.  Also, please submit work that corresponds to your genre. 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 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 page limit and the typed font is legible.  Please number your pages.
 
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 two months after the close of the application period.

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.

PLEASE REMEMBER: No FED EX or UPS packages.
You must use only non-signature mail.
Your manuscript must be double-spaced, with 1-inch margins, 12-point Times New Roman font.
Letters of recommendation must be signed.
SASEs accepted.

 

PEN Center USA is pleased to present the 2012 Emerging Voices fellows:

Jonathan AlfiJonathan Alfi was born and raised in Los Angeles. In 2008, he earned a Bachelors of Arts in Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles. Alfi lives in Venice, California, and is writing his first novel, Saint with Lipstick.

 
 

 
Amanda FletcherAmanda Fletcher, a Toronto native, received her kinesiology degree from McMaster University in 1998, and now makes her home in Venice, California. Her current project is a memoir entitled HALO: The Crowning of a Marginal Life.

 

 
 

 
Rayne Gasper, a 2010 UCLA Kirkwood Literary Award nominee, was born and raised in Lynn, Massachusetts, and earned a BA in American History at Boston University. Rayne currently resides in Los Angeles, where she is at work on her debut collection of stories, If Anyone Was Going to Die It Should Have Been You.

 

 

 
Nathan Go was born and raised in the Southern Philippines. He graduated from University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts with a BFA in Screenwriting. He currently lives in Los Angeles and is working on his first short story collection, Beware Ladies Uncircumcised Men.

 

 

 
Chelsea HodsonChelsea Hodson, originally from Phoenix, received her BA in journalism from the University of Arizona in 2009. She has worked as a Space Grant intern for NASA’s Phoenix Mars Mission. Her chapbook, BEACH CAMP, was published in 2010. Chelsea lives in Los Angeles and is writing an essay collection.

 

 

 
Sacha A. Howells grew up in Canada, Libya, and Bakersfield, California. His work has been performed at the New Short Fiction Series; published in Gauntlet Magazine, Menda City Review, and Coachella Review; and is forthcoming in an anthology from Forest Publications. He is at work on his first novel, about the once-and-future hair-metal superstars Juggernott. He lives with his wife and daughter behind the Sunset Strip Guitar Center.

 

Emerging Voices Alumni and The Mark

You can learn about last year's Emerging Voices fellows here, and watch the video of the 2011 Final Reading. The Mark is a rigorous manuscript finishing school for Emerging Voices alumni. Visit the Mark page and the new Mark Blog to learn more.

 

 

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