That MFing MFA

The Chronicle of Higher Education published a great read on the Iowa Writers' Workshop. I found it engaging because I studied creative writing, but there's a lot more to it than that.

The author goes into the highly esteemed program's roots and how CIA efforts to influence American culture played a role in the rise of creative writing MFAs.

Great stuff.

That and some great writing. Take this very skilled switch to the second person, its jab at workshopping creative work, and its self-deprecation.

Because you yourself attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop before deciding to enter a Ph.D. program. At Iowa, you were disappointed by the reduced form of intellectual engagement you found there and the narrow definition of what counted as "literary." The workshop was like a muffin tin you poured the batter of your dreams into. You entered with something undefined and tantalizingly protean and left with muffins. You really believe this. But you can also see yourself clearly enough: unpublished, ambitious, obscure, ponderous. In short, the kind of person who writes a dissertation.