Emerging Voices

Emerging Voices is an intensive eight-month program for writers in the early stages of their literary careers. The program includes free classes at UCLA Extension Writers’ Program; a one-on-one mentorship with a professional writer; Q&A evenings with professional writers, publishers, editors, and agents; Master classes by genre with a published PEN author; Workshops on various elements of publishing and a public speaking seminar; a $1,000 stipend. The program culminates with a public reading and reception.

The Mentorship Project grew out of PEN USA’s forum “Writing the Immigrant Experience,” held at the Los Angeles Central Library in March 1994, which explored the issues, problems 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 have special needs and are often isolated from the literary establishment. In the fall of 1995, PEN USA initiated Emerging Voices as a literary mentorship designed to launch potential professional writers from minority, immigrant and other underserved communities.

Emerging Voices serves writers from underserved communities, though selection is not based solely on economic need. Participants need not be published, but the program is directed toward poets and writers of fiction and creative nonfiction with clear ideas of what they hope to accomplish through their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. There are no age restrictions.

For more info, contact:
ev@penusa.org

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

As the largest and most comprehensive continued education writing program in the United States, the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program is committed to providing the highest quality writing courses possible to a broad-based and culturally diverse community. They offer an extraordinary variety of individual courses (over 525 annually) as well as certificate programs to meet the needs of their students. Adult learners study with professional screenwriters, fiction writers, playwrights, poets, nonfiction writers, and writers of children’s literature who bring practical experience, theoretical knowledge, and a wide variety of teaching styles and philosophies to their classrooms. The Writers’ Program’s open admissions policy and supportive atmosphere ensure that all students, whether they seek to write only for themselves or as professionals, are inspired and guided to achieve their best writing.

http://www.uclaextension.edu/writers

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.

Emerging Voices is a rigorous program. 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 from our website. There is a $10 application fee.

For more info, contact:
ev@penusa.org

Emerging Voices is made possible in part by grants and donations from the Rosenthal Family Foundation, the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, and individual PEN members.

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. Over the course of the program, EVs and mentors should meet twice in-person. In these meetings, mentors will offer feedback on the EV fellows’ work-in-progress.

UCLA EXTENSION WRITERS’ PROGRAM: Participants will attend 2 free courses at UCLA extension, donated by the Writers’ Program. Program and PEN staff will assist EV fellows with course selectio

Q&A EVENINGS: A schedule of Q & A Evenings with prominent authors, poets, editors, agents, and publishers will be distributed at the first EV Orientation meetin

MASTER CLASSES: After completing the UCLA Extension course, EV fellows will enroll in a PEN Master Class. Master classes are five-session, genre specific workshops with a professional writer that will offer each EV fellow the opportunity to receive new feedback, late in the progra

VOLUNTEER PROJECT: All EV fellows are expected to complete a 10-hour volunteer project that is relevant to the literary community.

FINAL READING: The culmination of the program is a public reading where EV fellows can share the progress of their work.

LITERARY COLLECTIONS: EV fellows will 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.