Mfa Creative Writing Programs

Too often, detractors of creative writing as an academic field use a small part of what we do to make a sweeping generalization. So how does an MFA program in creative writing work?

Raymond Hammond is editor of the poetry journal New York Quarterly and the related book imprint New York Quarterly Books, as well as being an esteemed poet in his own right. I recently had a wide-ranging conversation with him about the state of affairs in the poetry world.

Poetry contests are about the only remaining way to publish a first poetry book. And that's one way poetry is being killed in this country, reduced to consensus-by-committee, stripped of individual vision.

Behind McGurl's fancy charts and diagrams is the simplistic idea that because the program era exists, it does so because it serves a useful function.