Re: [New-Poetry] An Era of Détente for Creat ive-Wr i ting Programs

[Mark Weiss]

In person, sure, but I'm not about to insult people in a public forum.

Look, real simple. Some people get MFAs because they want to, with no 
expectations, but most, especially the younger cohort, hope for a 
career. The lucky ones get teaching or publishing careers and pass on 
what they've learned and reward writers whose work meets the criteria 
they've been taught. Almost no one who doesn't have an MFA gets in 
those doors. I know that's an oversimplification, but you get my 
drift. So the field narrows. This is equally true among the avant 
garde or whatever term you prefer. Diversity, risk-taking, tends to get lost.

It's not a question of whether teaching in a university is real life. 
It's one kind of real life.

Melville, speaking through Ishmael, says something like "A whale ship 
was my Harvard College." Worked for him, but nobody wants a literary 
culture in which all writers are sailors.

Whether Hugo or Justice were nice people or good poets or great 
teachers is beside the point. I'm not criticizing them. The problem 
is systemic. It's not limited to literature, natch. Lots of trades 
that used to be un-degreed now require more and more paper. Seems to 
be the way the country's going. But that's just an inconvenience in 
other fields.

There are no MFA programs in most of the world, by the way. I know 
most about Latin America. Literature seems to be thriving there 
despite the lack.



At 10:32 PM 7/2/2009, you wrote:
>Maybe some examples would help.As David pointed out there's plenty 
>of vague criticism of writing programs out there, but very little 
>that is specific or that holds much water on closer inspection.
>
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