EMERGING VOICES FELLOWSHIP
PEN Center USA
INFO: The Emerging Voices Fellowship is a literary mentorship that aims to provide new writers who are isolated from the literary establishment with the tools, skills, and knowledge they need to launch a professional writing career.
LITERARY MENTORSHIP BENEFITS
By the end of the Emerging Voices Fellowship, a writer will leave with:
- Seven months of guidance from a professional mentor and written notes on their current writing project.
- An author photo and bio.
- A logline—the short summation of the project in progress.
- A clear action plan for finishing this project.
- Writing life, and craft tips, from notable visiting authors.
- An editing guide from a professional copy editor.
- Insider knowledge of publishing from agents, publishers, and editors.
- An individualized submission guide for literary journals, agents, residencies, and fellowships.
- Improved reading technique from a professional voice coach.
- Public reading experience for a variety of audiences.
- An understanding of how to be an effective workshop participant.
- Lifetime membership in PEN Center USA.
- An introduction to the Los Angeles literary community.
FELLOWSHIP COMPONENTS
The seven-month fellowship includes:
PROFESSIONAL MENTORSHIP: Emerging Voices Mentors are carefully chosen from PEN Center USA’s membership and from professional writers based in Los Angeles. The Mentor-Fellow relationship is expected to challenge the fellow's work and compel significant creative progress. Over the course of the fellowship, Emerging Voices Fellows and Mentors should meet three times in person, and be in contact at least once a month. In these three meetings, Mentors will offer written feedback on the Emerging Voices Fellows’ work in progress. Authors who have been mentors in the past include Ron Carlson, Harryette Mullen, Chris Abani, Ramona Ausubel, Meghan Daum, and Sherman Alexie.
CLASSES AT THE UCLA EXTENSION WRITERS’ PROGRAM: Participants will attend two free courses (a 12-week writing course and a one-day workshop) at UCLA Extension, donated by the Writers’ Program. Program Manager will assist the Emerging Voices Fellows with course selection.
AUTHOR EVENINGS: Every Monday, fellows will meet with a visiting author, editor or publisher and ask questions about craft. Fellows must read each visiting author's book before the evening. A schedule of Author Evenings is distributed at the first Emerging Voices orientation meeting.
Click here for info for the Emerging Voices Author Evening Series, which is open to the public.
MASTER CLASSES: After completing the UCLA Extension Writers' Program courses, Emerging Voices Fellows will enroll in a Master Class. The Master Class is a genre-specific workshop with a professional writer that affords fellows the opportunity to exchange feedback on their works in progress. The 2017 Master Class Instructors are Alex Espinoza (fiction and nonfiction), and F. Douglas Brown (poetry).
VOLUNTEER PROJECT: All Emerging Voices Fellows are expected to complete a 25-hour volunteer project that is relevant to the literary community.
VOICE INSTRUCTION CLASS: The Fellowship will provide a one-day workshop with Dave Thomas, a professional voice actor. The Emerging Voices Fellows will read their work in a recording studio and receive instruction on reading their work publicly.
PUBLIC READINGS: Fellows will participate in three public readings, The Welcome Party, Tongue & Groove Salon, and the Final Reading. Fellows have read in various venues and events including the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Silver Lake Jubilee, Skylight Bookstore, The Standard, Downtown LA, and Hotel Café. The fellowship culminates in a Final Reading showcasing the progress each fellow has made in his or her work.
STIPEND: The fellowship includes a $1,000 stipend, given in $500 increments.
The Emerging Voices Fellowship runs from January to July. Participants need not be published, but the fellowship is directed toward poets and writers of fiction and creative nonfiction with clear ideas of what they hope to accomplish through their writing.
DEADLINE: August 1, 2017.
penusa.org/programs/emerging-voices
WRITER TO WRITER MENTORSHIP PROGRAM
Association of Writers & Writing Programs
INFO: AWP's mentorship program, Writer to Writer, matches emerging writers and published authors for a three-month series of modules on topics such as craft, revision, publishing, and the writing life. Mentors volunteer their time and receive a free one-year AWP membership. Writer to Writer is free of charge to mentees.
Should you be chosen to participate, your mentor will review your writing, listen to your concerns, and help you problem solve. You will have opportunities to interact with others taking part in that session, and AWP's membership team will be there with you every step of the way.
Their Fall session begins each September and consists of six modules over a three-month period, concluding mid-December.
Their Spring session begins each February and consists of six modules over a three-month period, concluding mid-May.
SUBMISSION FEE: $0
DEADLINE: August 12, 2017
awpwriter.org/community_calendar/mentorship_program_overview
ERNEST J. GAINES AWARD FOR LITERARY EXCELLENCE
Baton Rouge Area Foundation
INFO: The Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence honors Louisiana’s revered storyteller, Ernest J. Gaines, and serves to inspire and recognize rising African-American fiction writers of excellence at a national level. The book award, initiated by donors of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, is now in its ninth year and has become nationally recognized in its role of enhancing visibility of emerging black fiction writers while also expanding the audience for this literature.
The 2017 panel of judges are themselves renowned contributors to the literary world. They are Anthony Grooms, Edward P. Jones, Elizabeth Nunez, Francine Prose and Patricia Towers.
The Baton Rouge Area Foundation sponsors the winner’s travel to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to receive the prize at a ceremony attended by Ernest Gaines where the author reads an excerpt from the selected work of fiction.
The literary award winner also participates in educational activities at selected area schools and after-school programs in keeping with the Gaines Award's interest in emphasizing the role of literature and arts in education. Through small creative writing workshops with the winning author, students are encouraged to pursue reading, delve into their own creativity, and to consider becoming an author.
AWARD: $10,000 cash to support the writer and help enable her/him to focus on her/his art of writing.
DEADLINE: August 15, 2017
ernestjgainesaward.org/literary-award-criteria-registration/
2017 RED HEN PRESS FICTION AWARD
INFO: Established in 2015 to nurture the unique and vibrant channels through which fiction has carried us, the Red Hen Fiction Award is for a fresh and original story of fiction with a minimum of 150 pages. The awarded fiction manuscript is selected through an annual submission process which is open to all authors.
JUDGE: Charles Yu
AWARD: $1,000 and publication by Red Hen Press
SUBMISSION FEE: $20
DEADLINE: August 17, 2017
redhen.org/awards-2/red-hen-press-fiction-award/
FALL 2017 AWARDS
Sustainable Arts Foundation
INFO: Sustainable Arts Foundation – a non-profit foundation supporting artists and writers with families – is committed to offering half of its awards to applicants of color.
Writers may apply in one of the following categories:
- Fiction
- Creative Nonfiction
- Poetry
- Long Form Journalism
- Playwriting
- Picture Books
- Early and Middle Grade Fiction
- Young Adult Fiction
- Graphic Novel
AWARDS:
- Sustainable Arts Foundation Award: $6,000
- Sustainable Arts Foundation Promise Award: $2,000
DEADLINE: August 31, 2017
apply.sustainableartsfoundation.org/
THE SUBMERGING WRITER FELLOWSHIP
Fear No Lit
INFO: In 2017, FEAR NO LIT will pull one submerging writer out of the water. The fellowship is for writers who have the chops but lack the luck; who drown, who try, who try again; who try again so many times there might not be any tries left; who see writing as both a buoy and shark-bite—a boogie-board and an iceberg; who would love to attend AWP to meet the writers they admire but just can’t fucking afford it; who are sinking in the giant sea of the writing industry.
AWARD:
- a chapbook (limited-edition print run of 50 copies)
- a launch party at AWP 18 (reading featuring the winner & 3 finalists)
- $500 for AWP 18 expenses (travel, room)
- $500 to spend however they like, no strings attached (maybe scuba gear?)
- In addition, three finalists will receive complimentary registration to AWP 2018 in Tampa, FL.
DEADLINE: August 31, 2017
PEN / BELLWETHER PRIZE FOR SOCIALLY ENGAGED FICTION
Pen America
INFO: The Bellwether Prize, which was established in 2000 by Barbara Kingsolver and is funded entirely by her, was created to promote fiction that addresses issues of social justice and the impact of culture and politics on human relationships.
AWARD: $25,000 prize is awarded biennially to the author of a previously unpublished novel of high literary caliber that exemplifies the prize’s founding principles. The winner also receives a publishing contract with Algonquin Books.
SUBMISSION FEE: $25
DEADLINE: October 26, 2017
pen.org/content/penbellwether-prize-socially-engaged-fiction-25000
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