How the MFA swallowed literature - by Erik Hoel

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On the total world-domination of workshopped fiction

There’s a dreaded term: the “writer’s writer.” Someone often beloved by authors but seldom read by the public. A common example is William Gaddis, who himself knew he was a writer’s writer. The last line of his 1955 novel The Recognitions is a sly self-analogy of a piano composer who dies when his playing makes the roof fall in: He was the only person caught in the collapse, and afterward, most of his work was recovered too, and it is still spoken of, when it is noted, with high regard, though seldom played. The title of my own novel, The Revelations, is partially a nod to that scene. One…

How the MFA swallowed literature - by Erik Hoel

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