[New-Poetry] An Era of Détente for Creative-Writing Programs

[David Graham]

Good points.  There's also the phenomenon of the interview with this  
or that Big Name, who generally takes MFA program money in the form  
of reading honoraria, the occasional residency, and once in a blue  
moon a one-semester gilded visiting professorship where the BN gives  
a couple readings and maybe teaches a workshop.  Then tells the  
interviewer all about the corruption and uselessness of the MFA  
system, and how writers desperately need to get out into Real  
Life. . . .

At least before his prose catapulted him into best-sellerdom, Robert  
Bly used to be one of the worst culprits in this biting-the-hand-that- 
fed-him routine.

Usually doesn't mention his own creative writing degree, either.

More recently August Kleinzahler has been busy trotting out the  
cliches in this regard.



========================================
David Graham
grahamd at ripon.edu

Home Page:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz

Poetry Library:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/DGPoLibrary.html
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On Jul 2, 2009, at 10:36 AM, AlMaginnes at aol.com wrote:

> Interesting take on things. I guess it would have been too much to  
> expect that poetry would be discussed in the review.
>
> A thought--one reason writing programs are kicked around so much  
> might be the attitude of some faculty and students who seem  
> inclined to agree with critics like McGrath. This gives us the ugly  
> spectacle on someone like Neal Bowers who teaches creative writing  
> for thirty years in a university, then, safely retried, writes a  
> nasty essay about creative writing programs and publishes it in  
> Poetry. as Doc Holliday says in Wyatt Earp, "I myself was a den- 
> tist. I was proud to be den-tist. I did not hide the fact that I  
> was a den-tist." maybe we need a little more of that sort of attitude.
>

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