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From Stephen Elliott
We’re all familiar with the great MFA debate: Can an MFA program teach you how to write? Is it just a Ponzi scheme? Why should you enroll in one, or not?
Jia Tolentino, a University of Michigan MFA student, zooms out and takes a less het-up look at both sides of the argument.
...morePoets & Writers recently ranked the country’s MFA programs, and as rankings often do, it is being received with some hostility. Their hierarchy of MFA programs is based on the word of mouth of MFA applicants, rather than the US News-style algorithm (which has got its own controversy).
...moreJohn Gallaher is looking for responses in what he’s calling his “Market Research Friday.” Yes, it’s Saturday, but I suspect he’s leaving comments open for a while yet. Here’s what he’s mainly asking for:
“1. Is there an reigning, asserted aesthetic where you feel forced or seduced into writing in a “camp”?
...moreCreative programs are increasingly common and so are their criticisms.
The difficulty with pinpointing creativity to an academic institution or justifying a trend where tuition money and literary prowess are both major contributing factors to success make MFA programs a contentious subject.
...moreLast week in my Poetic Lives Online column, I wrote a little about the immediate reaction to the Poets & Writers MFA program rankings. Well, it’s blown up a bit more in the last week, with the Association of Writing Programs weighing in on the matter.
...moreCan you tell the difference between E. E. Cummings and a YouTube commenter? (It’s really not as hard as it looks.)
Caroline Guinzio has been guest blogging at Unstressed this week, and I enjoyed this piece very much in light of the long interview we recently published with Rebecca Wolff.
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“All of us, all the time, are searching for some order in the world/universe/our lives. We’re searching for guiding principles and explanations. Especially in times of stress, we tend to find sayings, aphorisms, mantras to help guide us.”Barbara Jane Reyes has a good response to the New Yorker article on MFA programs I posted earlier.
At Harriet, Don Share takes on poetry reviews, even though he’s tired of the whole story. I took his post as an opportunity to expound on my own reviewing policies, both as reviewer and editor.
...moreLouis Menand has really been on a roll this year. First the must-read article about how the Village Voice changed journalism, then the article on Donald Barthelme, and now this week, an essay about The Program Era by Mark McGurl, a book dealing with the origins of creative-writing programs, their development over the past half-century, and how they have affected American writing over those decades.
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