PEN America’s Emerging Voices Fellowship will select 9 emerging writers for a five-month mentorship program.
The Emerging Voices Fellowship provides a virtual five-month immersive mentorship program for early-career writers from communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the publishing world. The program is committed to cultivating the careers of Black writers, and serves writers who identify as Indigenous, persons of color, LGBTQ+, immigrants, writers with disabilities, and those living outside of urban centers. Through curated one-on-one mentorship and introductions to editors, agents, and publishers, in addition to workshops on editing, marketing, and creating a platform, the five-month fellowship nurtures creative community, provides a professional skill-set, and demystifies the path to publication—with the ultimate goal of diversifying the publishing and media industries. Nine fellows will be chosen in 2025. Each will be awarded an honorarium of $1,500.

Guidelines:
Please read the following closely, as our application requirements may have changed and aspects of our program adjusted for 2025. Learn more information on benefits and components of the program: https://pen.org/emerging-voices-fellowship/.

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

   January 1-31, 2025:      2025 Emerging Voices Fellowship Application period
   May 2025:                  All applicants will be notified by May 1
   June-October 2025:   2025 Emerging Voices Fellowship period
 

Eligibility

• 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.

Selection Criteria and Process:
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.

Closely review all required materials listed below. 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 ev@pen.org will be answered at the discretion of PEN America.


Applications close at 8:59pm PT / 11:59pm ET on January 31, 2025. All applicants will be notified of decisions by May 1.


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.