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>> Good afternoon. Welcome to the NEA Creative Writing Fellowships webinar. Thanks for joining
us today. I am Amy Stolls, acting director of Literature, and with me here are Eleanor
Steele, our Literature specialist and Rebecca Mainer, Literature's division specialist.
Thank you for joining us. A few housekeeping issues before we begin. We will give you a
brief PowerPoint presentation and then open the floor to questions. Note that you are
all muted and will only be able to hear us. You can submit questions and comments at any
time using the Q&A box below the PowerPoint and we will do our best to address as many
as possible during the time we have. Please do not use the raise and button. This webinar
will be posted on our website in a few days so you can refer to it in the future.
So first a quick overview of the NEA. We are a public agency dedicated to advancing artistic
excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefits of individuals and communities.
We award grants to arts organizations of all sizes and we give grants across all 50 states
and the six U.S. territories. Our goals are to support the creation of art that meets
the highest standards of excellence, to engage the public with diverse and excellent art,
and to promote public knowledge and understanding about the contributions of the arts.
Now, to the Creative Writing Fellowships. We're going to begin with an overview of the
program, then I will focus on the eligibility requirements, and then the logistics of the
application process. I will hand that over to Eleanor to do that. We will, as I said
before, save time for questions. If there are two takeaways from this entire presentation
that are most important, here they are - we will say them a few times throughout the presentation,
but we thought it important to say at them the beginning. The first is that we really
care about writers. The NEA literature staff respects what you do and we are happy to help
throughout the application process. Know that we are here to help. The second thing is that
really do not wait until the day of the deadline to apply. We cannot stress that enough. Let's
start with the program overview. NEA Literature Fellowships are grants offered to published
creative writers that enable recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel,
and general career advancement. Grants are not awarded for specific projects, they are
designed to give Fellows the time and means to write.
Literature Fellowships are the NEA's only direct awards to available to writers. We
are proud of these fellowships and grateful that the NEA can continue to directly support
individual writers. The fellowships are for $25,000 each. Prose
and poetry fellowships are available in alternating years. This year fellowships in poetry are
available. The deadline usually falls in late February or early March. This year our deadline
is March 12th. Manuscripts are reviewed anonymously - the panel only sees your manuscript. And
the fellowships at the NEA are the most competitive funding category. Here are some numbers. We
received 1137 eligible applications in poetry in fiscal year 2013 and awarded 40 fellowships.
In fiscal year 2014, we received 1316 applications and funded 38 fellowships. The prose application
pool is usually a little bit larger than poetry. NEA fellowships have a proven track record
of identifying and supporting new talent. Since 1990, NEA Fellows have won 33 Pulitzer
prizes, 27 National Book Critics Circle awards and 27 National Book Awards. Most of these
winners received an NEA Literature Fellowships before any major national award, usually a
decade earlier. Here we have some examples of folks who did win an NEA earlier in their
career, and then 10 or more years later won prestigious awards.
Here you can see some of the poet laureates. Nine of the last 10 U.S. Poets Laureate are
NEA Fellows and here are two examples: Philip Levine and Natasha Tretheway.
Here are the names of the fiscal year 2013 NEA poetry Fellows because we wanted to put
this up there to remind everyone that the NEA fellowships fund writers at all stages
of their career. At the time of the award, some of these poets had several books published
while others had one or none at all. Because it is an anonymous process, you do not have
to have a book or two to apply. We encourage if you if you are eligible to apply. So now
I will hand the presentation over to my colleague Eleanor Steele.
>> Good afternoon everyone. We're going to jump into the details surrounding the application
process and most importantly, eligibility. Guidelines regarding eligibility are available
on the NEA website, arts.gov. Please take the time to read them in their entirety. If
you do that first, it will save you time later. Basic requirements -- here are the basic eligibility
requirements. You must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. You may only submit one
application per year. You must be a published creative writer and you must meet publication
eligibility requirements. To establish your eligibility in poetry, you must have a published
volume of 48 or more pages of poetry, or 20 or more different poems or pages of poetry
in five or more literary journals, anthologies, or publications which regulate include poetry
is a portion of their format. For the upcoming poetry application deadlines, the work must
be published between January 1, 2007 and March 12, 2014. Please note that up to 16 poems
may be in a singe volume of poetry of fewer than 48 pages. This volume, however, may count
as only one required five places of publication. For online publications, a page of poetry
is considered to be 20 lines or less. Here is a list of the material that cannot
be used to establish eligibility. Prepublication material such as galleys, proofs, and advance
readers copies. We use the publisher's date of publication in order to determine when
the work was officially published. Work that has appeared in a publication for which you
are the editor, a publisher, or staff, collaborative work, scholarly writing, instructional writing,
journalism, book reviews, editorials, letters to the editor, interviews, and student publications.
By student publications we mean publications that are primarily print work by persons who
are affiliated with a particular academic institution. Additionally, an applicant cannot
establish eligibility with publications by presses or journals that require individual
writers to pay for part or all of the production costs, require writers to buy or sell copies
of the publication, published work without competitive selection or a stated editorial
policy, or published work without professional editing. We are aware that the publishing
world is changing rapidly for writers and readers alike, however at the time these are
the publishing requirements for poetry. But please know that they are re-visited and revised
every summer. These requirements may be altered in the future, but they stand for now.
OK. Now, we'll move on to the application process. All applications must be submitted
through Grants.gov. The NEA does not accept paper applications. What is Grants.gov? Grants.gov
is the federal government's online application system. It provides one central portal where
individuals and organizations can electronically find and apply for grants throughout the federal
government. Grants.gov is the single access point for over 1000 grant programs offered
by the 26 federal agencies that make grants. The Grants.gov system is not customized for
NEA Creative Writing Fellowship applications. Also, please note that Grants.gov and the
NEA are not the same agency. Step one, find and review the guidelines . The first step
in the application process is locating and reading guidelines. The guidelines are available
on the NEA's website, arts.gov. To locate the guidelines for fellowship applications,
find the grants tab on our homepage and select the Apply for a Grant option. Under the Apply
for a Grant section, choose the Grants for Individuals option. Next, click on Creative
Writing Fellowships, and that will bring it to the guidelines homepage.
Step 2 -- register and download. After reading the guidelines carefully, your next step should
be registering with grants.gov, and downloading applications package from grants.gov. Registration
with grants.gov is a one-time process that can take up to one day to complete. Under
the Applicants tab on the Grants.gov home page, you will choose to register as an individual.
To register you'll need to create a username and a password. Remember your username and
password. Maybe even stick it to your refrigerator with a magnet. When it is time to submit your
application, you will need this information again.
Under the Search Grants tab on the Grants.gov homepage, you will download the application
package. To download the application package, you'll need the funding opportunity number,
which can be found in the guidelines on the NEA's website. You can also use the hyperlink
on our website under the Download the Application Package section of the guidelines. It will
take you to directly to the Fellowships funding opportunity at grants.gov.
Once downloaded, your application package will be in the form of a PDF and will look
like the screenshot you see on the slide. Remember to save your downloaded application
package to your desktop or somewhere easy to locate on your network. As you work on
your application, you may routinely save your application in order not to lose anything.
Excuse me, you must routinely save your application in order not to lose anything. Remember, you're
not working in the cloud. Step three. Prepare and submit your application.
Now that the application package is downloaded and saved on your desktop or network, you
will follow the step-by-step instructions in the How to Prepare and Submit an Application
section of the NEA guidelines for Creative Writing Fellowships. We recommend you keep
this section of the guidelines open on your computer as you work through the Grants.gov
application package. After completing your application, you will submit it via Grants.gov.
Before you submit your application you must make sure that it is complete. A complete
application consists of an SF 424 Individual Form and an Attachments form, to which you
have uploaded the Literature Fellowships Supplemental Information Form, your manuscript, your cover
page, and your summary of applicant publications. The Grants.gov application package requires
that you select forms to complete. This means you will need to move the SF-424 form and
the Attachments form from the box titled Mandatory Documents, as seen on the left side of the
slide, to the box titled Mandatory Documents for Submission, as seen on the right side
of the slide. This action which will cause the mandatory documents to appear in succession
as a part of your application package. Let's go over the mandatory documents one
by one. This is what your SF-424 Individual form will look like. The form asks you for
basic information like your name and address. The NEA guidelines provide detailed instructions
on how to complete each field in this form. This is what the Attachments form will look
like. This is the area of the application where you will add the other required documents.
Adding a document to this form is much like attaching a document to an email. You will
only have four required attachments for the Creative Writing Fellowships application.
Let's review what those required attachments are. Number one, the Supplemental Information
Form. This fillable form is available for download on the NEA's website under the How
to Prepare and Submit an Application section of the guidelines. You cannot find this form
on Grants.gov. Number two is your manuscript sample. This attachment is created by the
applicant, and it is the only attachment reviewed by readers and panelists. Number three is
your cover page. This attachment is created by the applicant. Number four is your summary
of applicant publicationsl this attachment allows us to verify your publication history
and eligibility. It is created by the applicant. All attachments should be uploaded as PDF's
- we have detailed information on how to convert documents to a PDF in our guidelines. Our
guidelines also have specific information about what should be included by the applicant
in each required attachment. Once your application is complete, the most important component
of it is the manuscript. Your manuscript sample must be from work you have written in the
time period that establishes your eligibility, and for which you have sole artistic responsibility.
You may submit published work, unpublished work, or work-in-progress. Do not indicate
whether or not the material has been published. Your manuscript sample must also be in the
literary genre in which you established your eligibility. So this year, if you are applying
for poetry, your manuscript sample must be poetry. It must also be completely free of
your name, initials, address, or any other marks that could identify you. The manuscript
sample must be labeled to indicate the title and genre of your sample. At the top of every
page include the page number in the upper right corner and state the title of the manuscript.
If the manuscript does not have a title, you may list a title of the poem on that page.
Finally, your manuscript must be in typescript and clearly readable. Use a 12-point font
and margins of at least one inch at the top, bottom, and sides of all pages and do not
submit more than the maximum number of pages allowed. Excess pages will be removed. For
poetry, your manuscript may be up to 10 pages in length.
That was a lot of information, so we have some helpful reminders and tips for you all.
Amy already mentioned this, but please read the guidelines in their entirety. Again, if
you do this first, it will save you time later. Visit the Need Help? section of the NEA guidelines.
This section in our guidelines includes several FAQs addressing a range of topics from how
to create a PDF to a issues of eligibility to formatting your zip code on the SF-424
form. Please consult this section before emailing or calling the NEA. Remember, too, that the
summary of applicant publications, attachment number four, is not a resume. Do not get bogged
down over listing everything you ever published on your summary of applicant publications.
Those attachments are for staff use only. The panel will only review your manuscript.
If you use a Mac, do not use Safari as your browser. Applicants using a Mac have had luck
with Mozilla Firefox. Also Mac users, make sure you are using Adobe Reader to view PDF's,
not Preview. Remember not to create PDF's of your documents by scanning as this results
in very low quality and rather large attachments that are difficult for our staff and panelists
to read. Finally, do not begin your application the day before or the day of the deadline.
Nine times out of 10 it results in a great stress for the applicant and often means that
you miss the deadline. Even if you submit the application five seconds after 11:59 p.m.
Eastern Standard Time on March 12th, your application will be not accepted. There are
no exceptions to this rule. When to contact the NEA versus grants.gov.
As I mentioned earlier, the NEA and Grants.gov are two different government agencies. If
you have already visited the Need Help section of our website and you still need to talk
to someone about your question, you can contact the NEA or the Grants.gov help line. Grants.gov
can assist you with technical concerns like downloading your application package, uploading
the package, or registering as an individual. The NEA can help with questions about our
guidelines, specifically eligibility, and/or contents of your attachments.
Let's talk briefly about what happens to your application after you successfully submit
through Grants.gov. Each eligible manuscript is read by three
first-round readers who submit comments and recommendations to a panel of judges. Panelists
discuss the manuscripts and make recommendations for funding. Recommended applications are
sent to the National Council on the Arts. The Council votes to approve or disapprove
the panel's recommendations. Finally, the NEA chairman reviews the Council's recommendations
and makes the final decision on all grant awards.
NEA readers and panelists represent a diverse range of aesthetic taste, age, ethnicity and
race, gender, and geography. If you are curious, you can find the names of past panelists online
at arts.gov. It takes a long time to process your NEA application.
The timeline above shows why. First, you submit your application in March. Next the application
is processed by NEA staff and your manuscript is reviewed by three different readers during
the spring and summer months. In September, the panel meets to discuss the manuscripts.
In October, the National Council on the Arts needs to approve the panel recommendations.
In December, the NEA staff notifies applicants about the status of their application. If
awarded a grant, the earliest date you can begin to request funds from the NEA is January
1, 2015. This is a complex review process and we believe it serves our applicants well,
however it takes time, so thank you for your patience.
Email notifications go out to all applicants around Thanksgiving. We no longer send hard
copy letters of notification. If you do apply for an NEA Fellowship, remember to check your
junk mailbox in late November or early December to see if you missed an email from us. If
you change your email address after you submot your application, please notify the NEA to
update your file. If you are curious about what type of work
the NEA is funding, please take time to visit the Writer's Corner feature on our website.
On the Writers Corner page you can review excerpts from winning manuscripts and learn
more about recent fellows. It is a great resource. Here is our contact information - the Literature
hotline inbox will reach us directly. As we mentioned earlier, please contact the NEA
only after consulting the Need Help section of the guidelines. This is the end of our
formal presentation, but we will take the remaining time to answer as many questions
as possible.
>> Hi, there. I am seeing a question about when we say poetry, what kind of poetry? Stanza
driven poetry or do other forms such as prose poems and hybrid works. Sure, we accept all
types of poetry as long as it is on the page, so we do not accept CDs, for example, with
music. If you can put it on the page, all types of poetry are fine.
>> We have a question about when we would suggest applying, how many weeks in advance.
Really, we would say 10 days is the latest you want to start. So, March 12th, 10 days
out from that begin registering with Grants.gov and working on the application. If you have
time, we recommend starting much earlier than that. If you want to begin the process now,
if you have never registered with Grants.gov, we would recommend starting today, tomorrow,
as early as possible. But I would not wait any later than 10 days before the deadline
to begin applying. We have a question about the content of the
manuscript. Is there a preference toward tied-together manuscripts versus random poems? And the short
answer to that is no. We recommend you submit your strongest work. We have seen a cycle
of prose poems be funded and we've also seen 10 pages of 10 individual poems that are not
linked by anything receive funding. It really just depends on the strength of the work.
We would not say one is better than the other. Remember, the only thing you are being judged
on is those 10 pages of poetry, so do not worry about providing us with a CV or anything
else other than what we asked for in those attachments and make those 10 pages your best
work.
>> So, there is a question: Is there a preference for the summary of application publications
for book listings versus individual poems listed? No. The eligibility is really an on
and off switch. You need to show us that you are eligible, and you can show that by it
being a book or you can show us that through individual poems. One is not favored over
the other. It's simply show us you are eligible however you can, and you are in.
>> We have a question about how many applicants applied in the last year for poetry. The last
year that we accepted poetry was fiscal year 2013, and we had 1137 eligible applicants,
and we funded 40 of those individuals.
>> There is a question about the timeline question on the application, and we are wondering
if that is period of support. The period of support can't begin before January 1st. You
can have January 1 of the following year as the beginning of your project date and go
up to two years.
>> We have a question about when we would be accepting creative nonfiction applications.
The next deadline for prose which includes fiction and creative nonfiction will be late-February
or early-March of 2015. We will update the guidelines for the prose fellowships in the
fall of 2014, so be on the lookout for those on the NEA's website.
>> OK, there is a question: If I have a project in mind would it be best to include work from
that, or to include proven, published work. This is for the manuscript, not to establish
eligibility, but the manuscript you are submitting to be reviewed. We really suggest that you
submit your best work. The panel will not know whether it has been published or not
it is you will submit it in typescript form. If you feel more confident with material that
has been published in the past, certainly submit that, but if you feel the best work
is what you are working on right now, go ahead and submit that. It is up to you.
>> We have a question about allowances being made for spoken word or rap poetry on the
page. The question is: Will formal spelling be required or can one submit poetry written
phonetically, as performance poetry on the page. The answer is yes, you certainly can
submit work that is written phonetically. That's completely fine. Again, it is up to
you what you choose to submit, but that work will have the same review process as all of
the other manuscripts. We treat everything that comes in the same way in terms of our
review and checking for eligibility, so that would be fine.
>> OK, so we have a question: Is it better for the manuscript to reflect a collected
work as if it were a book or chap book collection, or is it that are to show a wide range of
ideas and styles? It is a hard question to answer because we have seen it work both ways.
Sometimes a panel response to different problems as part of a manuscript that shows a wide
range of ideas and styles, so they say this writer has potential, look what he or she
is doing, but sometimes it does not work. Sometimes the panelist will say it is all
over the place and they like to see cohesive. Eleanor, what do you think? I think at this
point, you should submit your best work, and if that is a collection of poems all dealing
with one subject, that is what you do. Or if you really feel that what you are best
at is a range of styles, show that.
>> We have a specific question about how to title your manuscript for poetry. What we
say in our guidelines is in the upper right-hand corner of each page we want you to include
the title, and we want you to include the genre. So for poetry that's is easy. The genre
is poetry. We still want you to include that information for us, though. When we say title,
it does not necessarily mean your manuscript must have a title, that is more common for
our prose deadline. For poetry, if you want to include the title for each page, the title
of the poem that's on that page, you can certainly do that. If the poem doesn't have a title
and you simply want to number that, poem 1, poem 2, poem 2, ,3, 4 and on in your manuscript,
that is fine with us as well. It just helps us to identify your manuscript when you have
clearly stated the genre and clearly stated the title of the poem on the first page or
the title of the manuscript if it has a title. Sometimes a poet will submit, as we've been
talking about, a series of poems or a collection, and that has a very clear title, and sometimes
an applicant will submit a different title for each page on their manuscript, and that
is fine as well. We just want you to be clear. It helps us and it helps our panelists.
>> OK. So, the question is how important are the project description or other descriptions
of our project plans or plans to apply the awarded funds toward future work and what
are you looking for there? We said -- it's the poems themselves they are reviewed by
readers. Is the award is based solely on the poetic work and nothing else? Yes. It is an
anonymous process, which means the panel is not looking at who you are, where you are
from, what you want to do with the funds. They are looking at only the manuscript that
you submit. The reason we are asking for your plans for your project along with a bunch
of other questions on the form about who you are and where you are from is in part because
it helps us know that you are planning to write. These are grants, general grants, but
they are grants for writing. We want to know that you have writing in mind. But the review
is based on the manuscript itself. >> Here is a question about the summary of
applicant publications. Th individual is asking, Can I just list recent books versus journal
publications for my summary of applicant publications? You can list whatever establishes your eligibility
and falls in the timeframe that we gave you. For the upcoming poetry application deadline,
the work you are using that you're using to establish eligibility must be published between
January 1, 2007, and March 12, 2014. If you have a single book that has been published
in that time period and you just want to list the one book rather than 20 journal publications,
that is fine with us, and it actually makes our jobs easier because we are checking one
place and not 15 or 20.
>> Yeah. There is a question here: What is the most common difficulty applicants have,
where do they get stuck? We get so many questions from a lot of people, and perhaps what we
might suggest is that Grants.gov is sometimes tricky for folks, so it is at the very beginning
stages that might get you stuck, so we suggest registering early and submitting early so
that if there is a problem, you hear about it before the deadline. Because if it is after
the deadline, there is not much we can do to help you.
>> There is a question about individuals who are applying on a Mac, and we noted earlier
that if you are using a MAC, Safari is not a particularly good browser. But Firefox,
and I have heard from other applicants that Google Chrome works really well for downloading
the application package from Grants.gov. So I would try either Google Chrome or Firefox.
If you have tried those things and you are still stuck give the Grants.gov hotline a
call. They are really great with technical assistance, and they can help you, especially
knowing that you are using a Mac.
>> There is a question about monologue-based plays. Not for the poetry cycle, but for the
next cycle of grants in prose, whether they would be considered for an NEA grant. Sure.
In prose, it's fiction or creative nonfiction and we accept plays as well. If it is on the
page, and you are eligible, that would be fine.
OK. I am going to take a question on -- here is a question: If poems are in a book published
within guidelines, but written earlier, can they be submitted? Yes. In terms of eligibility,
we pay attention to when the poems have been published, not when they have been written.
We know it takes sometimes a long time after you've written poems to get them published,
so it is by when they are published.
>> We have a question about a particular publishing house, and I would just remind everybody that
an applicant can not establish eligibility with publications by presses or journals that
require individual writers to pay for part or all of the production costs, require writers
to buy or sell copies of the publication, published work without competitive selection
or a stated editorial policy, or published work without professional editing. Those are
our guidelines that are up on the website. If you have a question about a publishing
house, it takes any one of those four boxes, it will be a problem for establishing your
eligibility. If they're requiring you to buy or sell copies of the publication, that's
a problem for us. Same If they are publishing work without a competitive selection or stated
editorial policy - so if you're concerned about it particular company, look at our guidelines,
check the guidelines you received from the company, and if you are still concerned, call
the NEA, if you're not sure about the publishing house you can call us and we can look into
it for you. But please look at our guidelines first and see if where you published meets
that eligibility criteria. >> We have a question about what is the biggest
mistake applicants have made in the past, in other words, made somebody ineligible or
disqualified them. Please do not put your name on your manuscript anywhere. Do not put
your name, don't put your initials. If you are writing a poem about your own life and
you are referenced as a character in your poem by your first and last name, or even
your first name, please change those names or leave that poem out of your manuscript.
We are really serious about the anonymous review process, so if you have any sort of
mark that identifies you on your manuscript anywhere, unfortunately you do not have a
second chance to submit that manuscript. You will be rendered eligible and the manuscript
will not go to panel review. Please make sure not to do that. We are serious about that,
but it also makes is really sad when it happens.
>> So, it seems like there are a couple of questions that I am condensing into this one:
Should you include as many publications that meet the requirements to establish eligibility,
or include your whole publication history, all your books, your most recent books? Again,
we said this in the PowerPoint presentation. It is really an on-off switch. We really don't
want a resume. We do not want to know everything you published. We want exactly what we need
to establish eligibility. If you have five books out, just give us one title. One book.
We will look at that, check the publication date, and you are in> And that is true for
your journal publications as well.
>> We have a question about the portion of our application that asks for a project description,
and it is a great question because we are funding We are funding individual writers.
We're funding the life and work of a writer. These grants are not project-based grants
so we want to give writers time to work, to research, take time away from other work,
to really focus on their writing. So, the application does ask for a project description.
That section of your application can be very brief. We do not need you to fill up the characters
in that in that box. If you want to give us a brief idea should you be awarded an NEA
grant, that would be wonderful. We want to make sure you use this toward your writing
life. If you have a plan for a particular set of poems, or if you would like to travel
to a particular place in the U.S. or in the world where you'd like do some research, that
is fine. It can be two to three sentences at the most. It is not something that the
panel sees. Remember, your project description, even if it is very compelling, it is not how
the panel is reviewing your application. It's not how they're to decide if they want to
give you a grant. They're never going to see your project description, they will only see
your poems. So just remember, the project description is something short for staff to
vet to make sure you will use the money toward your writing life, but it is not something
the panel sees. >> We have a question about whether you have
to be published in the U.S. to establish your eligibility, or will publishing credits from
other countries be sufficient. From other countries is fine. You can establish your
eligibility through publications that have been published in the U.S. or outside of the
U.S. as long as the publisher of your book or journal or pieces outside of the U.S. meet
the same criteria as the publishers inside of the U.S., that meet the criteria that we
outline in our guidelines.
>> We have a question about whether publication information should be included in on the poems
themselves in your manuscript. No. Please do not indicate in your manuscript whether
or not the work has been published. That is a big problem for us. We want the work to
be typescript and we do not want it to be formatted in a way that would imply that it
has been published or not published. Do not include any publication information about
the poems on your manuscript - again that could be considered as identifying marks.
If somebody looked that up for some reason, they may be able to discover who the author
is, and that is a problem because no longer is it an anonymous process. Please do not
do that. Give us the poems, and the title, and the genre.
>> There's a question about - well, I'll just read it. Would you recommend more than one
poem per page in the sample of work? I feel more examples of the various types of poems
one might write but it might also make the document seem crowded. We have a requirement
that It must be one poem per page. If you have a longer poem, it could spill over onto
other pages. But a standalone poem, it should be one poem. Remember, panelists are reading
a lot of stuff - remember we get 1300 applications and they're reading a lot of stuff so you
don't want to put too much in. >> But there is a question about the project
period, and we do ask for the project period in the grant application. What we want to
see at that stage is just that you understand that the earliest you can access any NEA money
is January 1st of 2015 for this March deadline. So what that means is that your project will
begin as early as January 1st of 2015 and you can begin to access funds at that time
from the NEA, you begin your project, start taking time off of work if you're going to
leave a teaching position or if you plan to travel. You can begin that work then. Just
as Amy said earlier, the project could start as early as January 1, 20 15, and it can extend
for up to two years from that date. So when you're looking at the project period in your
application remember that that first field, the earliest our date is January 1 of 2015,
and it can go up until two years from that time. So, as long as you are in that time
range, it will not be a problem for us. That is just a time that you are able to pull down
money from the NEA should you receive a grant. >> I will try to tackle a couple of questions
here. On is, How much does it matter if the 48 pages of poetry are published by the applicant
or by a university presses and indie presses. That is fine. We love university presses and
indie presses. That is to we fund that the NEA. We also love commercial presses. As long
as it is a viable press that meets our eligibility requirements. All those types if presses are
fine. There is another question here, Is the range of diversity of the authors taken into
consideration when choosing the final awardees. The sole criterion for judging, reviewing,
and granting awards is the artistic excellence of the manuscript. But that said, we do everything
we can possibly do in terms of the review process and everything and getting applications
from different kind of folks to make the whole process as diverse as possible. With the 1300
applications, and we try to encourage applications from all sorts of folks, and when we put together
a panel as we said we make sure the panel of judges is as diverse as possible. And though
they are looking at these applications anonymously, it is really quite amazing to us who have
seen this year after year that though the sole criterion it, what happens in the end,
is the pool of 38 to 40 grantees tends to be diverse just because of the process. You
can see that if you look at our Writers Corner. You will see that it bears out, diverse in
all sorts of ways - gender, geographically, multi-cultural, and all of that.
>> We have a follow-up question to the topic of a project start date. The question is:
If you put in a certain start date for funding, if you do get funding, are you locked into
that date? No, not necessarily. Again, you cannot go earlier than January 1 of 2015,
but if you want to push it back and not start until later in the year or if you ant to extend
up to two years as we said, that is fine with us. You can amend that after the fact.
>> So, there are some questions coming in about spoken word and rap poetry. Like we
said, everything has to be on the page. It that's fine, if it comes in and it's a spoken
word that is on a page. If it is phonetic, if it appears that way, that is fine. They
will be read and reviewed along with all of the other manuscripts that they're reviewing.
Often times on our panel, most often, we have poets who write on the page and are also sympathetic
to rap artists and spoken word artists. But the guidelines right now and the way it is
right now with 1300 applications, we cannot accept CD's or DVD's or performances. Everything
has to be on the page. They will be embraced, whether it's phonetic or formal, whatever,
they will be embraced, but it has to be on the page. You should know we do support spoken
word and rap poetry through our other grants to organizations. We have a whole other category
of supporting events and readings and book festivals, and other audience development
projects that support spoken word and rap poetry, so we are big fans. But for the fellowships,
it has to be written out.
>> There is a question about what the readers and panelists review. We want to reiterate
they are only reviewing the 10 pages of poetry you submit as your manuscript sample. They
do not see your cover letter, your summary of applicant publications, your project description,
or any of the other materials that come in with your application. They are reviewing
everything anonymously, and they only look at those 10 pages of poetry.
>> Yeah. We are trying to keep up with all of the questions coming in. Tag teaming here.
Is the successful applicant required to send a finished manuscript to prove the veracity
of the project? Nope. We will require you, if you get a grant, to submit, once you draw
down some of the funding, we'll require you to send us a progress report, which you can
just tell us that you are writing. And then we will require a final report to let us know
what you did with the funds and how you used it for your writing, but we will not need
to see the finished product.
>>
There is a question about grants going to writers at a certain point in their career,
and a note that sometimes people go on later to win major literary awards, and the question
is does that mean if somebody has already won one or two major awards and they would
be deemed ineligible. And the short answer is no, not necessarily, but if you have won
an NEA fellowship already, you have to wait a certain amount of time, and I believe it
is 10 years. We have this information on our guidelines. But you have to wait a certain amount of time
to applyu again if you area former NEA Fellow. And you can only get two total. For creative writing,
your limited to two. If you have another major award, a Pulitzer or a National Book Award,
that does not affect your eligibility for an NEA grant. SO if you've never received
an NEA fellowship before but have other major awards, that's fine, we won't be crosschecking
your application for those. We have a couple more questions about a publication
date for a certain work and establishing eligibility, so I just want to remind everybody that worked
is eligible to be used toward your summary of applicant publications if it was published
from 2007 to March 12, 2014, so January 1, 2007 to March 1, 2014. If you published a
book in 2009, that would be eligible and you could include that in your summary of applicant
publications. >> So, yeah -- in general, there is a question
where it says I do not see where there is editorial statement on my publisher's website,
but there is a statement about the books and distributors. Would they qualify? I think
the best thing to do if you're wondering whether your publisher qualifies is send us an email
and we can help you. Contact us. I am not sure we will be able to answer questions before
hand. We really need a lot of the material once the application comes in to make a determination
on eligibility, but we can provide guidance. Without knowing what publisher you are referring
to, it's hard for us to help. In general, if you do not see your publisher's established
guidelines or selection criteria, you can always call your publisher. They would have
it, I am assuming, if it is not on the website.
>> There is a question about a panelist or a reader recognizing a particular manuscript,
even if there are no identifying marks on it or a name or anything like that. Of course,
that does happen. Sometimes a panelist or a reader will recognize a manuscript, they
think they know who the writer is, of course they cannot be sure all the time because they
do not have the name. If that happens, we have a very strict policy about conflict of
interest, and this is something all of our readers and panelists are briefed on it for
the begin work for the NEA as a reviewer. So if there is a conflict of interest for
a particular manuscript, if it is recognized, it is moved to a different review committee.
Therefore it will not be reviewed by anybody that is in conflict with it. We are careful
about that, and that is how we handle it for the Fellowships.
>> The question is, Is the grant paid in one lump sum or in small payments? That is up
to you. When we award a grant, we put money into an escrow account, and you draw down
the money. You can draw that down in full or in part.
>> There is a question about translated work into English being accepted, and I'm not sure
if individual is asking this question means if that work is accepted toward establishing
your eligibility, to apply for a fellowship, your publication eligibility, or if it is
accepted as your 10-page manuscript. First, we can talk about the manuscript - if you
are writing in another language, you are welcome to submit a manuscript in another language,
but we ask that an English translation accompanies that manuscript. We also ask that if you are
applying in another language, you contact the NEA - we have some specific guidance on
that in our Need Help? section of the guidelines, so I would also take a look there. In terms
of establishing your eligibility with translations - you have to establish your eligibility with
publications of your own creative work, and you have to be the sole author for that work,
so you would not be able to establish eligibility with a translation.
>> There's a question: Will applying to other grants negatively affect chances of receiving
the Creative Writing poetry grant? No. If you apply for a poetry Fellowship, you can't
also apply for a Translation Fellowship. But I'm assuming you mean apply to other grants
outside of the NEA, and if that is the case, that has nothing to do with the NEA, so apply
away.
>> There is a question about the first readers changing from year-to-year, and the answer
is yes, they do. We have a new group of readers every year. We also have a new group of panelists.
If you are curious about who is serving on NEA panels, please go to arts.gov and see
who served on the past four or five poetry panels that the NEA has put together. Yes,
toward the question about readers, we do get a different group every year, and as Amy mentioned,
we try to find a very diverse range of gender, age, aesthetics, race and ethnicity, all of
those things. We are very careful about that process. A lot of times readers are past NEA
Fellows. It depends. We also try to make sure they are from all over the country. It does
have an impact on the variety of poetic styles and voices that are represented in our grantee
pool, in the 40 Fellows that we put forward. But as Amy mentioned earlier, there is always
great diversity in that group, with the 40. We usually see a huge range in style, form,
and subject matter. It is really amazing because it is an anonymous process. We try, at every
step along the way, to have a diverse reviewing pool so that the manuscripts that are chosen
end up being very diverse. >> There are a couple of questions, there's
one about can you keep your job once you've gotten the grant. Yes, of course! Getting
a grant doesn't mean that you can't get other sources of income. And there's a related question
about whether the Fellowship is taxable income. Yes, yes it is.
THere's a question - yes, we mentioned supporting performance poetry through other grants. What
are the grants you support performance poetry through? I meant that we do indirectly,
because the Creatvie Writing Fellowships and the Translation Fellowships are the only grants
to individuals in literature that we give out. What I was referring to was what else
we do, which is giving grants to 501c3 nonprofit organizations that support performance poetry.
So, for example, we might support literary centers and festivals and reading series and
things around the country, organizations that can apply to us to bring in poets to perform
at their venues around the country. OK. I think we are out of time, and we want
to thank you all again for sticking with us and asking great questions. If any of you
will be at the AWP conference, we will be giving this webinar - this presentation- there,
so we will be there in person answering questions, so come on by and thank you for joining us.