Re: [New-Poetry] An Era of Détente for Creative-Wri ting Programs

[Mark Weiss]

Are you saying all these things would make him a better poet?

A lot of people seem to enjoy their MFA experience, and a lot of 
people fatten at the trough. Neither is particularly problematic. 
It's the bureaucratization of poetry that's the problem, and it's an 
ongoing disaster. Somewbody quoted Richard Hugo. Not to speak ill of 
the dead, but where did he come off teaching people how not to write?

Mark

At 12:09 PM 7/2/2009, you wrote:
>Yes.  While I don't teach in an MFA program, I imagine it's irksome 
>to be lectured on how cushy and safe one's life is by someone who 
>skims off the cream of the university creative writing system while 
>shouldering no institutional commitments or responsibilities--never 
>teaching big sophomore lit classes or freshman comp; never chairing 
>a department or faculty committee; never advising or counseling 
>students; never writing letters of recommendation; never serving on 
>institutional task forces or search committees; and, of course, 
>never organizing the visiting writers' series which provides the 
>blowhard in question the platform for such lofty dismissals.
>
>
>========================================
>David Graham
><mailto:grahamd at ripon.edu>grahamd at ripon.edu
>
>Home Page:
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>Poetry Library:
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>==========================================
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>
>
>
>On Jul 2, 2009, at 10:51 AM, 
><mailto:AlMaginnes at aol.com>AlMaginnes at aol.com wrote:
>
>>True. August Kleinzhaler might find "real life" a lot more real if 
>>he practiced what he preached and didn't take any university or grant money.
>>
>>
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