<p>I'm applying for a Davidson Fellowship in Literature. You can get up to a 50,000 dollar scholarship if you win. Is anyone else going to the trouble to assemble a 60-75 page portfolio of their work? It has to be on one theme. Luckily for me, I already had a lot of work done on one theme. Anyone else out there shooting for this very time consuming scholarship?</p>
<p>Yes I am, I’m scared a bit because I’ve never entered in a contest like this. Well I am entering Art and Writing scholarship but that’s small. Hopefully we both win</p>
<p>Question, it has to be under 1 theme?</p>
<p>I think so. Although I called the Davidson Institute, and they said your portfolio could be pretty loosely related to the theme, if you wanted. I don’t know whether or not having a loosely related portfolio will disadvantage you or not, but at least it won’t disqualify you. Do you know your theme?</p>
<p>Well when I write its mostly about death, well most of my poetry is about death and being alone and my stories are kinda like that too. But one of my scripts that I’ve started writing has nothing to do with death, its more about social problems. I don’t know if writing about death is going to depress the DF people. I’m going to email them because I don’t really like the idea of 1 theme because although in most of my stories someone dies or something equivalent like that they all have different morals. I hope you understand what I’m trying to say because I feel like I’m rambling. </p>
<p>I was wondering if you want to help each other. What i mean is just go through it together, we don’t have to show each other our stories but it would be easier to go through this process with someone else. I would tell my friend to do it but she’ll just say no.</p>
<p>I think I understand you. How much can you say about one theme? Not much, unless you really care about it. My theme is basically how pride and the desire to control/have power over other people are related. I have great personal interest in it, so it isn’t as difficult. And I don’t think death would depress the DF people. It would depress the man on the street, but writing about death (if you do it well) will come off as sophisticated to the literary types who will judge this.</p>
<p>Go through it together? If you mean posting about ideas, etc., sure, whenever I have time. You’re a girl, right? I have read enough that I can generally tell by the writer’s (or poster’s) ‘voice’.</p>
<p>Lol yes I am a girl. I generally assume that everyone on CC is a girl for no reason. But yes sometimes by tone of words i discover that a CCer is ironically a boy. And I mean share ideas etc. It’ll just be nice to know someone else who is also doing it.</p>
<p>I think my theme is how when struggles come some people just give up. I just made my table of contest that includes 1 script (that is very personal but a good story) 1 short story 2 short short stories (one I’m entering in writer digest contest) and a few poems. That’s what I have so far but I’m still deciding on what to add. You?</p>
<p>I’m confused about the philosophy theme. On the one hand, it’s called “Philosophy”. On the other, it defines philosophy as “analyses of fundamental assumptions or beliefs relating to human thought or culture”</p>
<p>That sounds more like anthropology than philosophy.</p>
<p>Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language and is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument.</p>
<p>The Davidson Fellows organization grossly mis-defines the field. </p>
<p>If I make an original theory of knowledge, for example, would I put that into the Philosophy section, even though Davidson’s definition excludes it? Or would I put it into Out of the Box, which is not supposed to be related to any of the denoted topics, including philosophy (which traditionally includes problems about knowledge)?</p>
<p>^ I say email them about it. That’s the best way to get your question answered. Good luck :)</p>
<p>I already have the 60 pages of work you have to have for the portfolio. My issue is more whether what I have is good enough, and if it is, whether it is close enough to my theme to include. I have a bunch of personal essays that I spent a lot of time on, a very long story that would be a novel if I had the time to flesh it out, some short stories, and some non-fiction. No poetry (except one that is off topic) and no drama/screenplay. So I need to do one of those. And I need to work on my long story because it is the ‘centerpiece’ of my portfolio.</p>