PEN Emerging Voices Fellowship

Below is info on how you can apply for a writing fellowship. About the sponsors, from their website:

PEN Center USA, one of two centers in the United States and the third largest in the world, was founded in 1943 and incorporated as a nonprofit association in 1981. PEN USA’s membership of more than 800 writers includes poets, playwrights, essayists, novelists (for the original letters in the acronym, PEN), as well as television and screenwriters, critics, historians, editors, journalists, and translators. PEN Center USA strives to protect the rights of writers around the world, to stimulate interest in the written word, and to foster a vital literary community among the diverse writers living in the western United States.

The organization, therefore, has two distinct yet complementary aims: one fundamentally literary and the other having a freedom of expression mandate. Among PEN USA’s various activities are public literary events, a mentorship project, literary awards and international human rights campaigns on behalf of writers who are censored or imprisoned.

Vision: PEN Center USA endeavors to create a world in which freedom of expression is guaranteed for all writers, and where friendship and intellectual cooperation thrive among writers and readers worldwide.

The Emerging Voices Rosenthal Fellowship Program

Emerging Voices is an intensive eight-month program for writers in the early stages of their literary careers. The program includes free classes; 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; Day-long workshops on various elements of publishing; a $1,000 stipend.

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 Participants need not be published, but the program is directed toward poets and writers of fiction and creative nonfiction with clear ideas of what they hope to accomplish through their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

A Successful EV Application will include:
Completed EV Application
Summary Sheet from your 2009 federal tax return
Professional CV that details your work experience, education and publications credits.
Short Answer Section Responses
Two letters of recommendation written by people who are familiar with your writing and can comment on your commitment to large projects. Letters from relatives not accepted.
Writing Sample should include up to 20 pages of fiction or creative nonfiction or 10 pages of poetry. Sample should be typed and double-spaced. Please indicate if/how the work in your sample is relevant to the project you plan to propose as an EV fellow.
$10 application fee. Address checks and/or money orders to PEN USA. No cash, please.
Five (5) copies of your application packet

Materials are not returned. Please make copies for your records and direct any questions to ev@penusa.org.
Applications are due by August 31, 2010.

We look forward to reading your work.

To apply, go here.

PEN Center USA
P.O. Box 6037 Beverly Hills,
California 90212

Our thanks to Alvaro for this info:
Alvaro Huerta, Ph.D. Candidate,
Dept. of City & Regional Planning (UC Berkeley) Visiting Scholar, Chicano Studies Research Center (UCLA) Visiting Lecturer,
Dept. of Urban Planning (UCLA)
http://sites.google.com/site/alvarohuertasite/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX1fLwIS_oA