Helping Writers Make Their Voices Heard in 2020

Despite the challenges of 2020, we’re excited about all the talented writers we’ve been able to work with this year through the Writing Fellows program. Since the program’s founding in 2014, we’ve worked with aspiring writers to help them write more persuasively, pitch their work to editors, and build their careers as writers. 

This year, we had a record-setting 185 participants across all of our programs. This incredible growth wouldn’t be possible without our dedicated alumni; more than a quarter of our new fellows applied to the program because of a referral from an alum.

And that’s not the only way our alumni have been helping us train aspiring writers. As part of the fall cohort of the program, we launched a new mentorship group component. As our crowd of alumni grows larger (we’re up to 423 as of this year!), that means more liberty-lovers who are passionate about writing. This fall, nearly two dozen alumni stepped up to lead small mentorship groups and pass on writing feedback and career advice to our writing fellows.

This year, we also expanded our training opportunities with two new seminars focused on other writing styles and career paths. The first, the Local Reporting Seminar, gave participants the chance to hear from established journalists and learn how to report the stories that are the most important to their communities

The second, the Policy Communications Seminar, focused on how to target your policy positions to different audiences, tell compelling stories, handle communications in a crisis, and ultimately land a career in policy communications, whether at policy nonprofits or government offices. We’re so overwhelmed with the positive reactions we received to these new seminars, and we’re so excited to continue to find new ways to offer more training opportunities in the new year!

If any of this has inspired you to improve your writing skills, check out the program (applications for the spring cohort are due January 4), or contact josh@americasfuture.org with any questions!