As a part of the New Voices Interview Series, we asked our New Voices alumni to share about their writing process, their experience with mentorship, and what inspires them. Today’s interview is with New Voices Fellowship alum, Eric Glover.

Humanitas: What kind of characters do you love to write and why?

Eric Glover: I tend to write characters who have been given second chances to do something right. They’ve either failed in the past or haven’t lived up to their potential to be heroic in the present. I love putting them through their paces toward becoming better people. I, personally, tend to dwell on past mistakes, so it’s usually my instinct to have a character who feels the same way and works to forgive themselves.  

H: Which writer working today inspires you?

EG: Patrick Somerville blew me away the subtlety, heart, humor, and layers of his dialogue in Station Eleven. It’s absolutely the kind of work that I aspire to write. Challenging the viewer, but also communicating with them clearly, is such a beautiful tightrope walk, and Somerville (and his team) nailed it. 

H: What are you watching right now? 

EG: I am the latest person ever to this party, but I just started watching Friday Night Lights, and for a show to live up to the hype this many years later is damn remarkable. The character work is fantastic. 

H: If you could go back in time to when you wrote your first script and give younger you a piece of advice, what would it be and why?

EG: Focus on character. Plot is important, but when building the grand plan for the script, make the spine of it who the characters are and how they’re changing over the course of the story. Then have fun with all the bells and whistles!

H: What impact did the New Voices fellowship have on your writing/career? 

EG: Carter Covington, Humanitas’s New Voices Program Advisor, helped me land representation that–within six months–got me staffed on my first ever television show. I will forever be grateful to him and Humanitas for the assistance in getting my career started.

Eric Anthony Glover is a feature writer, TV writer, and graphic novelist. He’s currently a Story Editor on the CW series Tom Swift, on which he co-wrote an episode. Eric studied screenwriting at Sarah Lawrence College. After his sci-fi feature script earned him a fellowship through Final Draft’s 2016 Big Break Screenwriting Contest, Eric went on to write his first drama pilot, which earned him representation. Additionally, Eric was selected for the 2020 Humanitas Prize New Voices award, NBC’s Writers on the Verge 2020-21 fellowship, the 2021 Sony Pictures Television Diverse Writers Program, and the 2021 WarnerMedia Access Writers Program. As a writer for the arts and entertainment company Meow Wolf, Eric developed storylines and wrote scripts for immersive science fiction exhibits across the country. His graphic novel, Black Star, was published in 2021 as a title in Abrams ComicArts’ imprint, Megascope, and he’s written digital comics for InterPop’s “Emergents” superhero universe. He is managed by Echo Lake Entertainment and represented by the Culture Creative Entertainment agency.

Are you an emerging, unrepresented writer? You can apply for the New Voices Fellowship right now by visiting our Coverfly portal. The deadline is Saturday, April 30, 2022. 

New Voices is a four-month mentorship program for emerging television and screenwriters. The program is committed to identifying and empowering five writers each year who are currently at work on a 30- or 60-minute pilot or feature film screenplay that upholds the mission of Humanitas. 

Learn more about the Humanitas New Voices Fellowship by visiting this webpage.