NEA Answers that Helped me through a Dark Night

So, remember all those questions I had about applying for the NEA grant a couple of posts ago?

I sent my list of questions to their help email: accardic@arts.gov
Below are my q&a, the woman at NEA was very helpful and I went back and forth with her a few times. I submitted on Feb 5th and have received the grants.gov confirmation #'s I have to go in and check, and I do hope I got it right. I understand that a chapbook counts for 16 pages and you need 20.

Questions & Answers:

1) On the application page it is stated NOT to put a title, then there is space to write the project and it says to do this in 2 to 3 sentences. I find it difficult to write in three sentences about my project. What is most important to focus on in writing this statement about the work I plan to do?

1. The project description is for NEA purposes only, and will not be weighed in the judging of your application. (The only thing the judging panel sees is your manuscript, the rest of the app is for Staff purposes.) You can say something like: “I will be working on my 3rd collection of poetry which focuses on Irish Heritage. I will use the fellowship money to help fund a research trip to Ireland.”

2) I see in places where a budget is required, but it is not in the How to Prepare and Submit an Application. 3) Where do I put in the amount of grant money I am requesting and any required budget? It is not clear.

2./3. Where do you see budget information? There is no budget for the Fellowship application, it’s possible you’re looking in the wrong place. All Fellowships are for 25k.

4) Questions about the summary publication list:

1) I have a chapbook and it is my first listing. I understand this will count for 16 pages and I only need to account for up to 20, but I have many publications, so is it to my advantage to put more of my publications than the 20?

2) What if I do not have a phone number for the journal? Many do not list phone numbers.

3) If I've been published in the same journal two times, in two separate issues, is it okay to combine these in the same box?

4) What if I only have the information that is on the journal, such as Fall 2006 or Spring 2008? I've tried to look up the journals by ISBN at the Chamber of Commerce but they are not showing up. Is it okay to have what is on the journal and not the exact month?

4.1 You only need to list the minimum. If you are unsure about the validity of some of the publishing companies however, you should include a few extra publications on the list. 25 should be sufficient.

4.2 Just provide the journal’s name, address, web url, etc.

4.3 Please list every poem separately.

4.4 “Spring”, “Fall” etc. is fine.

5) For online publications, do I have to put the website address, or the link to my poem? Some I can get the editors address and phone number, but some I cannot. How crucial is this?

4.5 Web poems should have the name, url of the journal, and specific url to the poem.

I hope this might be helpful to any of you applying.

The mystery of NEA applications

NEA; the renown NEA. Years ago, when I was studying my undergraduate in Creative Writing with Audre Lorde, I interviewed Fay Kicknosway. Audre recommended her to me because our work had some similarities: surrealist qualities. Fay told me she applied to the NEA 16 times before she was awarded. 16 times, and this award is every other year!

More and more I have come to admire resilience.
Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam
returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous
tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side,
it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true.
But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers,
mitochondria, figs -- all this resinous, unretractable earth.
—Jane Hirshfield

So, here I am for my first time applying to the ominous NEA and I am in the dark. What do they want?
What do I want? The easy answer is money to write. But, what are the tricks to applying for a federal grant award?
I've not been successful with any of my grant applications yet. I have to say, yet.

They want publishing information. They want addresses and phone numbers. Some journals have no phone number listed. And with online journals there are hardly even addresses. How serious are they about phone numbers? Will they throw my appl into the recycling container?

So like many send to journals blind, I will send an application blindly to grants.gov and most likely will receive a rejection at the end of this year. For writers rejections are frequent and common. We send out our work, we try to learn the journals and where our work might fit. We send and we send. We get used to rejections. Eventually we might have more work accepted. If we don't quit. I've taken time outs but have always come back. I've had lots of help.

Help: poetry groups.
Help: poetry friends on the same path to share accomplishments & learn from.
Help: a supportive partner.
Help: strong belief in one's own work.
Help: to celebrate each acceptance.
Help: to not take rejection personally.

How about you?

I collect quotes to help me stay inspired. I've included two today for you to enjoy.

There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say, "Yes, I've got dreams, of course I've got dreams." Then they put the box away and bring it out once in a while to look in it, and yep, they're still there. These are great dreams, but they never even get out of the box. It takes an uncommon amount of guts to put your dreams on the line, to hold them up and say, "How good or how bad am I?" That's where courage comes in. —Erma Bombeck