The recipients of the 2012 Emerging Voices literary fellowship, sponsored by nonprofit organization PEN Center USA, will read at the UCLA Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater on Wednesday. The event marks the completion of the fellowship, which provides new writers with the tools necessary to jump-start a professional writing career. Daily Bruin’s Braden Baseley spoke with Jonathan Alfi, an art history alumnus and one of the recipients of this year’s fellowship, about his experience in the program, his first novel and his plans for the future.
Daily Bruin: Describe what the Emerging Voices literary fellowship is all about. What was it like going through the program?
Jonathan Alfi: The fellowship is about giving (new writers) the resources that they wouldn’t otherwise have. The most useful (aspect) was introducing (me) to a writing community that I knew existed, but didn’t really have access to. We did a lot of author evenings where we would read a work and then do a private Q-and-A with the author of that work, which occurred about once a week. The program also gave us a stage to showcase our own work to the community in the form of public readings. Lastly, each Emerging Voices fellow has their own mentor, so we all got paired up with (a professional writer) based on the projects we were working on, either stylistically or in terms of genre. I got to work with Ben Ehrenreich, who wrote “The Suitors” and “Ether,” and did a lot of journalistic work.
DB: Wednesday’s event at the Hammer Museum is the culmination of the fellowship. What will that be like?
JA: Even though it’s a large venue, (the event is) in a quiet theater, so it will still be an intimate setting. I’m reading an excerpt from my first novel; I had to find a more self-contained piece of my work, so it’s just a chunk I pulled out of the middle.
DB: Speaking of your first novel, tell me a little bit about it and the writing process.
JA: It’s called “Saint with Lipstick,” and it’s about a mentally unstable, sex-obsessed art student who tries to glorify his dismal life through art. It’s a strong-voiced, male narrator who’s unhappy with his life. I’m trying not to think about (publishing the novel) just yet because I’m still in the writing process. My attention is completely focused on fixing plot holes and things like that.
DB: What sparked your interest in writing?
JA: I was working at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I studied art history at UCLA, so I wanted to work at a museum afterwards. What always interested me about art history was … the biographical aspect behind various pieces of artwork. I liked the stories of Michelangelo hanging from the ceiling while he painted the Sistine Chapel, his skin peeling off his feet. I sort of just started to write by accident, since I wanted to write an art novel. I did it with so much energy that I thought, “I should probably learn to do this better than I’m doing now.” So I started taking night classes at UCLA Extension after I got off from work at LACMA.
DB: Where do you see your writing going in the future?
JA: The only thing I’m certain about is that I’m always going to write. I don’t really know the when and the how; I just know that it’s always going to be something I do. If I can make money and get my novels out to tons of readers (by way of publishing), that would just be a huge bonus. Either way, it’s my passion, so I’m going to keep doing it anyway.
Email Baseley at bbaseley@media.ucla.edu.