Every year, Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V. in cooperation with Reporters without Borders Germany and the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library at the University of Southern California (USC), awards a fellowship for up to six months to writers and journalists who defend human rights and/or are persecuted in their home countries.

With this program, Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V. commemorates the exile of artists and intellectuals during World War II and calls attention to the fact that censorship and suppression of free speech is still prevalent around the world.