MFA vs NYC The Two Cultures of American Fiction Free Download
MFA vs NYC: The Two Cultures of American Fiction
Author: Chad Harbach | Language: English | ISBN: B00FIL9BV0 | Format: EPUB
MFA vs NYC: The Two Cultures of American Fiction Description
Writers write—but what do they do for money?
In a widely read essay entitled “MFA vs NYC,” bestselling novelist Chad Harbach (The Art of Fielding) argued that the American literary scene has split into two cultures: New York publishing versus university MFA programs. This book brings together established writers, MFA professors and students, and New York editors, publicists, and agents to talk about these overlapping worlds, and the ways writers make (or fail to make) a living within them. Should you seek an advanced degree, or will workshops smother your style? Do you need to move to New York, or will the high cost of living undo you? What’s worse—having a day job or not having health insurance? How do agents decide what to represent? Will Big Publishing survive? How has the rise of MFA programs affected American fiction? The expert contributors, including George Saunders, Elif Batuman, and Fredric Jameson, consider all these questions and more, with humor and rigor. MFA vs NYC is a must-read for aspiring writers, and for anyone interested in the present and future of American letters.
- Product Details
- Table of Contents
- Reviews
- File Size: 540 KB
- Print Length: 320 pages
- Publisher: n+1 (February 25, 2014)
- Sold by: Macmillan
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00FIL9BV0
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,651 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #29
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Essays & Correspondence > Essays - #30
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Publishing & Books - #93
in Books > Education & Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Publishing & Books
- #29
- #29
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Essays & Correspondence > Essays - #30
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Publishing & Books - #93
in Books > Education & Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Publishing & Books
Once again N+1 delivers. Superbly written and edited.By Joey Marra
Suggested reading for those aspiring to be writers, lit critics, lit agents, or a future publishing mogul.
At times discouraging, this is a fresh affront to the academy and maybe a call to action for change.
These are essays about what the lived life of writers is all about, old territory for some but revelatory for others. As you read these essays, you will annotate them in your head as you go along - it took me quite a while to read this book since I had to frequently set the book in my lap and talk aloud to myself in dialogue with the essayistic points the authors were making.By John Leighton
a few takeaways:
--writing is suffering from an image of "only something the young do." Like most lit mags these days, you need to make allowances for the cutesy references to loving This American Life, being "totally alienated all through high school" (most barftastic theme ever), and all the other "Im a Millennial!" signposts.
--Elif Batumans essay is pretty devastating toward MFA culture and she is hands down the best writer ever associated with this magazine. I went to the tenth issue party and Keiths opening sentence was, "Elif Batuman cant be here tonight, sorry, I know this event sucks now, sorry about that."
--surprised no one mentions John Gardner, the proponent of the "fictional dream."
--writing is commercial and a lifes work all at the same time
--these essays basically cry out for the conservative point of view, that ideologue-driven art has destroyed itself, since neither MFA or NYC siders seem very happy. Word to the wise: if you are ever reading something that resolves itself with a shrug like many of these essays do, remember that there is another point of view out there.
--either you get it, or you dont
Good read that will reconfirm your hopes/fears and thats a good thing.