Stories sprinkled liberally with words like “striate”, “strafe”, “rime”, “rinse”. Stories with labored prose – instead of simply saying, “I remembered”, it’s “My brain rolled up into a tube and my childhood rushed through it…”.
Is this good writing? Or self-conscious, imitative pap? Bloodless, technically competent, and dammed by Salman Rushdie. In Eve’s Salmagundi Club today, we’re focusing on a provocative blog post that suggests that the MFA industry (aka creative writing courses) may be leading thousands of would-be writers down the garden path… to nowhere. The facts alone are disturbing: in 1982, there were 79 creative writing programs in the United States; today there are 822 – 150 of which are MFA programs!
Also – Eve brings out attention to a cry for help on the net from a writer that was answered – proving the power of having a big-name author on your side.
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Links: Can writing be taught? Rules for Anchorites
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