‘Top Writer’ status could easily be added to your profile if you publish many articles under the same tag — in your case, that would be poetry, I assume. That’s unfortunately has nothing to do with the quality of the articles, they are based on the amount of stories that you write in the same topic(s).
At least that’s what I’ve read here from a writer before.
My stories were “hanging tight” for more than two weeks and then got the message that said “not distributed”. Although, 2 days ago I got this article curated — as my first one.
If you manage to submit your stories to publications (not the biggest ones, you can find more specific ones with a following about 9–10K), and they publish them, usually the curators have a look at it very quickly (1–2 days). Although, that’s still no guarantee for curation but it makes the process faster. That’s my experience so far, but I’ve only just started on Medium about a month ago.
Good luck!
Don’t give up, keep writing! ;)
