{"id":21809,"date":"2022-10-28T10:11:20","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T09:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/townhouse\/?p=21809"},"modified":"2022-10-28T10:11:20","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T09:11:20","slug":"citizens-of-literary-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/citizens-of-literary-land\/","title":{"rendered":"Citizens of Literary Land"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s email is inspired by a 3,000 word rant<\/a>, written by author and podcaster Meghan Daum on Substack. The piece was entitled \u201cWho Killed Creative Writing\u201d and among other things, it says this:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past couple of years, I\u2019ve come to see the MFA in writing as the educational equivalent of a draft dodge. If the annual Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) conference is any indication, getting an MFA in writing has little to do with actual writing and nearly everything to do with finding a place in a social clique. This clique, which convenes mostly online, seems less interested in the values or dynamics of any particular program \u2026 than in something called literary citizenship, a term I didn\u2019t hear until probably 2017. Separate from caring about literature, literary citizenship implies adherence to an unspoken moral code, one that pays lip service to equity and inclusion while still making gossip and exclusivity the main event \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Over the past five or six years, the cult of literary citizenship has thrown me into a merciless spiral of revisionist history. I see who shows up to AWP, who wins prizes and judges them, who edits literary journals, who gets tenure-track teaching jobs and fellowships and speaking tours, and I think these are some of the most mediocre people I\u2019m likely to ever encounter. I think these are people who wanted to take on the trappings of university life but couldn\u2019t cut it in real academic programs. I think these are people who were too lazy to go to law school, too insecure to seek mentors on their own, too entitled to just get regular jobs and write at nighttime and on weekends if it really meant so goddamn much to them. Real writers write no matter what.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Now that\u2019s harsh, of course. Too harsh.<\/p>\n

Plenty of fine writers teach on university creative writing programs. Plenty of fine writers travel through them too. And, when she\u2019s not in ranty-mode, I\u2019ll bet Meghan D would acknowledge that too.<\/p>\n

But she has a point, and it\u2019s a relief for someone to make that point loudly and publicly.<\/p>\n

To put that point in my language, not someone else\u2019s, is that there are three overlapping groups of people.<\/p>\n

One group comprises:<\/p>\n