Putting Your Best Foot Forward

Application Tips for Fellowships, Grants, and Awards

Application tips for fellowships, grants, and awards.

IF YOU have ever applied for a writing fellowship, grant, or award you might have found yourself a little daunted by the application process. You might have been overwhelmed by all the pieces that must come together, the word counts that must be minded, the forms that must be filled out just so—all before an ironclad deadline. Although you might pen a stirring poem or an unforgettable story, it can be hard to switch gears, put on your grant-writing hat, and explain why your work matters and why you deserve a cool $10,000 to sit at your desk and write.

To help demystify the process, we contacted administrators of literary fellowships, grants, and awards and asked

them some questions about the application process: What should I put in my writing sample? What goes in a project budget? If a letter of recommendation comes in late, am I totally out of the running?

What follows is a selection of replies from the administrators of eight programs. Each opportunity is different, of course—some are grants given for projects, some are fellowships that require you to teach or help with the sponsor’s programs or publications, and others simply award you time and money to write. Application processes also vary, so not all this advice will be pertinent for every opportunity; it is always important to carefully research a grant or fellowship before you apply. But we hope this will clear some of the mist and assuage several common anxieties you might have while putting together an application.

What generally makes an application successful?

“Applications that answer ‘why’—why this fellowship, why this juncture of the poet’s career.” —Chet’la Sebree, director, Stadler Center

“Cassils, a 2015 Creative Capital award winner and a panel reviewer in the last application cycle, said it best: Applications should specifically answer ‘why our culture needs this contribution.’ Artists should explain why their work is generative, rather than derivative of past work, and is therefore propelling culture ahead—whether it is addressing important issues, responding to crises, or giving us beauty to fight for. People who can best show that they are doing this, and why their work is specifically important to the culture at large, will do well in the application process.” —Marianna Schaffer, director of Artist Initiatives, Creative Capital

“There is no one answer to this. It’s a very competitive process with different panelists reviewing the applications each year. Our best advice for success is to keep applying.” —Amy Stolls, director of Literary Arts, National Endowment for the Arts

“A successful application highlights a distinctive voice and a compelling project. It provides a well-chosen, engaging writing sample, supported by essays that give us a sense of the applicant and how the award will help them succeed. A successful portfolio is one we wish we’d written; our jurors read with interest and curiosity, hoping to be excited by the portfolio, and usually are. But—and unfortunately this doesn’t go without saying—an applicant should read the application carefully and follow our guidelines; we try to make it very clear and simple, but a surprising number of people every year unfortunately disregard the guidelines.” —Caroline and Tony Grant, codirectors, Sustainable Arts Foundation

“Invest most of your time in selecting and revising a strong work sample and then create non-sample materials—for example, your artist statement, project description, impact statement—that contextualize your work and are cohesive.” —Brian McGuigan, program director, Artist Trust

In what order do you read the application materials?

“This varies by team member. I like to start with the project proposal, which most applicants use like a cover letter to provide a high-level view of their work. The writing sample is without a doubt the most important part of the application. Some members of our screening committee read the writing sample first. I always read the letters of recommendation last.” —Nick Taylor, director of the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies, San Jose State University

“We always start by reviewing the submitted portfolio, after which we read the artist statement and plans for the award; we read the applicant’s bio last and give it the least weight. Everybody who applies has a compelling story; every applicant deserves this award, so while we find the bios interesting and love the personal insight into our applicants’ lives, we keep our evaluation focused on the creative work.” —Caroline and Tony Grant, Sustainable Arts Foundation

“The writing sample is what matters, and in almost all cases it is the exclusive item we consider, even for the winners. It’s unusual for us to look at a CV until after we’ve picked that candidate for a fellowship. In rare instances, when the poetry or fiction committee is deadlocked between two potential winners of the last available fellowship, we may lift the blinds on the CVs of those two candidates and call their references to help break the tie. But I’ve been administering this program for almost nine years, and in all that time the CV has been a consideration only once. For the other forty-nine fellows who have passed through our program during that period, the CV has been a formality.” —Sean Bishop, creative writing program administrator, University of Wisconsin–Madison

What is important to see in a curriculum vitae or résumé?

“The most important section on the CV is the list of publications. Although publications are not a prerequisite for the Steinbeck Fellowship, they do demonstrate career momentum.” —Nick Taylor, San Jose State University

“Although we generally like to see some record of publication, we understand that emerging poets may not have many publications and that the fellowship may provide them with the necessary time to work on their craft and publish their work.”—Chet’la Sebree, Stadler Center

Do you prefer a particular tone or style in the non-writing-sample portions of an application?

“Directness, honesty, vulnerability. Be authentic. Write about your work with the same passion you bring to making the work itself.” —Brian McGuigan, Artist Trust

“We are happiest with a straightforward cover letter; it will not be to your advantage to write a whimsical or gimmicky letter.” —Peter Balakian and Jennifer Brice, professors of English, Colgate University

“Applicants should write their artist statement in whatever style best and most clearly expresses their work; that said, this is probably not the place to experiment with prose styles. The purpose of the artist statement in our program is to help

contextualize the applicant’s work: to help us understand what the applicant is trying to achieve with their writing. Ideally the artist statement should support our reading of the writing sample. So the artist statement could—but doesn’t have to— concisely describe the project, show how the project fits into the writer’s career, then briefly map out what will come next.” —Caroline and Tony Grant, Sustainable Arts Foundation

“The project proposal should be written in clear and concise language. The writing sample is where you can get creative.” —Nick Taylor, San Jose State University

“Above all we’re looking for an authentic voice to come through the application. We cannot stress this enough. We ask applicants not to use buzzwords or to write responses to questions that they think an institution like Creative Capital would want to hear.” —Marianna Schaffer, Creative Capital

Tips for the writing sample?

“We’re looking for writing so good— so powerful and precise and lyrical— it stops our hearts. It transports and excites us. We can’t wait to talk about it with our colleagues. If there are typos or other unforced errors in the opening, if the language simply isn’t arresting, the writing sample is not likely to make it to the finalist group.” —Peter Balakian and Jennifer Brice, Colgate University

“Lead with your best work. Selection committees are potentially reviewing several hundred applications across disciplines, and doing this in between their own jobs, art practices, and lives. You want to capture somebody within the first page of the sample and compel them to keep reading. In general I suggest using a battle-tested sample. By that I mean one that somebody besides yourself, or your sweetie, or your mom has said is good. Writers—and I have been guilty of this myself—often use their most recent work in samples, but the real work of writing happens in the revision process, and you want to be sure you’re using a piece or excerpt that has been worked over, not one of your darlings.” —Brian McGuigan, Artist Trust

“We ask for a ten- to fifteen-page writing sample; portfolios that are fewer than ten pages or longer than fifteen will be disqualified without a review—it’s only fair to the thousands of applicants who follow the rules. Also, and at the risk of being obvious: The sample should be clearly formatted per our guidelines and free of errors. In a competitive program like this, applicants really can’t afford to have readers stumble over clerical mistakes or typos.” —Caroline and Tony Grant, Sustainable Arts Foundation

“In poetry the committee sometimes likes to see an awareness of the project in the ten-page manuscript, in addition to just plain excellent writing; we like to see the rough contours of a book in the making.” —Sean Bishop, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Does the writing sample have to be from the project described in my cover letter or project description?

“We always love to see a sample tethered to the project applicants discuss in their cover letters. If, however, an applicant submits work that’s not related to the project, which may be because the poet needs time to work on the proposed project, then we expect that the applicant would articulate why they are including different work.” —Chet’la Sebree, Stadler Center

“No, but it helps, because it gives the committee a glimpse of how the proposed project will read. It also demonstrates that the applicant has the skill to pull off the project they are proposing. Take a hypothetical applicant who is proposing to write a voice-y memoir about her hardscrabble childhood, but the writing sample consists of clippings from her work as a financial reporter for the Wall Street Journal. The committee might wonder if she can make the shift. Here’s my advice: If an excerpt from the work-in-progress is not available, choose similar work.” —Nick Taylor, San Jose State University

If I’m excerpting my writing sample from a longer project, is it better to excerpt the beginning or some other part?

“Writing samples, like all work samples, should excerpt your best

work. Rather than establish the context, the setting, or the characters, which can all be in the project description, the writer should drop us into the heart of the text. The first samples that a reviewer sees might have the biggest impact, and we encourage applicants to order their work samples intentionally.” —Marianna Schaffer, Creative Capital

“I recommend submitting the beginning, so you won’t have to set it up.” —Nick Taylor, San Jose State University

“If you choose to submit a novel excerpt rather than a short story, a contiguous excerpt that contains a more-or-less complete arc of its own is usually—but not always—more successful than bits and pieces of a novel that have been stitched together. As evidenced by our list of former fellows, we don’t prefer short stories over novel excerpts or vice versa, but if a novel excerpt depends heavily on the absent text that precedes or follows it, then it might not hold its own against another applicant’s fully contained short story.” —Sean Bishop, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Any advice for putting together a budget for a project or award?

“Some applicants submit a detailed budget to build a writing shed, others can buy themselves a semester free of teaching with the award, but most use every penny for childcare and can tell us exactly how many hours the $5,000 can buy. We have always said that if buying a dishwasher allows an awardee more time to write, then by all means they should spend some of the money to buy a dishwasher.” —Caroline and Tony Grant, Sustainable Arts Foundation

“Because our work as writers is often just our time, writers tend to include expenses like submission costs, printing, supplies, etc. to bulk up their budgets, but you should be paying yourself first. It is 100 percent totally fine to use a grant only to pay yourself. Yes, you need funding for submission fees and ink cartridges, but before all that you just need money to make the time and space for the work. That’s a completely legit expense.” —Brian McGuigan, Artist Trust

“We have seen writers pitch a project with a very limited budget just because they think that writing doesn’t cost anything. Of course, we know that it does. Writing takes time, and it is labor, labor that writers often aren’t paid for until after a work is published. Funds from a Creative Capital Award could cover a sabbatical for teachers or renting a quiet space to write. There are editors, promotional costs, and travel expenses. Writers should be honest with themselves about how they are getting paid to make their work—artist fees should always be included in the budget.” —Marianna Schaffer, Creative Capital

What happens if my letter of recommendation is late or never arrives?

“We’ll continue to consider the application, following up with the individual about the missing letter; however, we will need it before we can offer a candidate a position.” —Chet’la Sebree, Stadler Center

“We never disqualify applications that are missing a single letter of recommendation. However, if you’re missing more than one, you are at a disadvantage because the committee’s understanding of you will be limited relative to other applicants.” —Nick Taylor, San Jose State University

When would you call my references?

“In that unusual instance where a CV or reference has made the difference between an accepted fellow and a first alternate, references are called or emailed in the final day—or sometimes even the final hour—of the decision process, and they’re asked questions about the candidate’s professionalism, collegiality, and teaching experience. Otherwise we contact references after the informal decision has been made, if we have specific questions about the fellow’s degree eligibility or their potential to teach an advanced creative writing course or a creative writing course outside their primary genre.” —Sean Bishop, University of Wisconsin–Madison

“We rarely, if ever, call references, but it’s good to have them on file.” —Marianna Schaffer, Creative Capital

Any common missteps you see?

“Applications that are missing required parts (and are thus incomplete); manuscripts that have fewer pages than the minimum page requirement (and are thus incomplete); and applications that include information that in some way identifies the applicant. Applicants must read and follow our guidelines. Submit exactly what is required by the guidelines.” —Amy Stolls, National Endowment for the Arts

“‘Art speak’ and jargon are common missteps. Some writers tend to talk about their approach to craft and their writing processes in inaccessible language or by overcomplicating their thoughts and ideas with jargon or obscure and unexplained references. Don’t try to sound ‘smart.’” —Brian McGuigan, Artist Trust

“It happens more than you would think, but often applicants will get so caught up in the big ideas of the project that they will forget to actually describe what the project is: Is it a multimedia performance, a book, a zine? How will audiences interact with their work? Those questions can be just as important as the concepts behind the work, so we recommend spending as much time thinking all that through and describing it.” —Marianna Schaffer, Creative Capital

Do you have many repeat applicants? And if I apply again can I use the same writing sample?

“Yes, a third or more of our successful applicants submit for two to four years before they are awarded a fellowship. And some of those applicants—including at least one of our fellows this year and one last year too—applied using the same story two or three times, with small or large revisions. The WICW teams change every year, which is one of the strengths of our program—it ensures that our tastes move in step with the evolving literary landscape. But no matter how hard we work to guarantee a breadth of aesthetics and interests among the committee members, those individual preferences of the team members do come into play. Which means an application that falls just short of the finalist round one year could very easily be a hands-down favorite the next year.” —Sean Bishop, University of Wisconsin–Madison

“In the classes I lead on applying for grants, I tell participants they are lucky if they receive one out of every three grants or opportunities. Often people think so-and-so receives all the awards, but so-and-so is also applying for all the awards. You have to put yourself out there, be okay with failure, and remain confident in yourself and your work regardless of the validation that comes with receiving awards. If you don’t get the grant, ask for feedback and apply again. There’s one grant I have applied for seven years in a row with no luck. The deadline is coming up, and you better believe I’m applying again.” —Brian McGuigan, Artist Trust