The CIA and Creative Writing
Did the Iowa Writers’ Workshop take money from a CIA front? Has it left a profound impact on literature as we know it? The folks over at The Chronicle of…
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mfa programs
24 posts
Creative Writing, Creative Careers
The two central myths are one, that literary citizenship is all about self-promotion, and two, that it’s connected deeply to the “marketplace.” In an interview for Ploughshares, Tasha Golden talks to…
Master of Feeling Ambivalent
There are a lot of people who have very strong feelings about MFA programs, but Blake Butler’s Vice piece “What I Remember from Getting an MFA in Creative Writing,” just sort…
Making Sense of the MFA Debate
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…
Questionable Ranking Systems for MFA Programs
Poets & 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…
What’s It Like at Your MFA Program?
John 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…
MFAs, for Better or for Worse
Creative 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…
The MFA Rankings Wars
Last 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…
Poetic Lives Online: Links by Brian Spears
Can 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…
Don’t Be a Coward: The Rumpus Interview with Philipp Meyer
“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…
Poetic Lives Online: Links by Brian Spears
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…
Louis Menand on Creative-Writing Programs
Louis 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…