Mfa 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?

Creative writing is a subset of therapy, with the same essential modalities -- except, like everything else in our culture, it comes in a stripped, dumbed down version that partakes little of the rigors of psychotherapy.

The love-hate relationship between creative writing MFA programs and writers has not changed much since Kurt Vonnegut was playfully piqued by the emerging phenomenon of writing programs in the 1960s.

The twenty-five programs listed here fully fund a sizable percentage of incoming students, yet still receive less attention from applicants than they deserve.

Ever since novelist Tom Kealey advised MFA applicants to consider a program's online promotional materials, young writers have been comparing notes about which program websites measure up.

"Is American poetry at a dead-end? Have American poets betrayed the great legacy of modernism? Why or why not?

James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces, is again facing scrutiny for a publishing venture -- a scandal that emphasizes the wide gulf between younger and older literary artists.

Frey's atelier is not all that different from the MFA programs themselves, in that both extract huge amounts of resources from desperate writers in exchange for vivid but undefined promises of success and glory.

For as long as I can remember, I was a monogamous reader. I'd start a book and read it straight through no matter how much time that took. Now I'm a book slut.

There are now too many literary artists, publishers, readings, salons, conferences, creative writing programs, literary magazines, and bohemian coteries for any one person to keep tabs on.

Just as the guild structure was socially conservative--and hence easily superseded when the more progressive market system, flourishing along with the industrial economy, came along--so is the present MFA credentialing system.

A short story is like a toothache and you must drill it and fill it. A novel is more like bridgework.

These programs fully fund 70% or more of students, yet receive less attention from applicants than they deserve.

New York City MFAs are subject to a vicious circle from which some may not escape.

This seems to be a particularly angst-ridden moment for the followers of American poetry. Is it savagely alive, or is it a moribund corpse, having long been administered last rites?

Myth: MFA programs are desperate for tuition dollars, so they'll admit almost anyone. Fact: Portland State's MFA (ranked #52 nationally) is a tougher admit than University of Pennsylvania's undergraduate program.

I emerged a more experienced and dedicated writer, a better teacher, and someone more determined to make it as an author even in the face of savage criticism.

Each Wednesday, Twitter users celebrate writing with the hashtag #writerwednesday, usually used to suggest new writers to follow. We've been expanding...

I hope I never see the day when I've found my voice. How is it possible to ever find your voice? Voice is mystical. It puts the writer on a pedestal. No writer worth his salt ought to want that.

For years, the Best American Poetry series has been on a downward slope (using slope in the most generous sense of the word). For its 2009 edition, it seems to have reached a final resting point.

I thought McNally, because he has experienced the Iowa Writers' Workshop firsthand--and lived to tell the funniest tale ever written about it--would be an ideal subject to interview about a lot of concerns in the writing and publishing industries.