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The Wednesday Web Browser: Teaching, Learning, Workshopping

by Erika Dreifus on
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Building on the interest generated last week, The New Yorker is running an online poll for those with MFA degrees. Questions include: What do you think of your MFA in creative writing? Was it worth it? Have you pursued a career in writing (freelance counts)? If so, is it the same genre of writing you got your degree in? Go ahead and answer–the poll is anonymous.
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Erin O’Connor provides an excellent take on Rachel Toor’s latest “Page Proof” column, the subject of which is “writing like a doctor” (think mainly “doctor of philosophy”).
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And then, on the McSweeney’s site, there’s Tanya Rey’s “Comments Written by Actual Students Extracted from Workshopped Manuscripts at a Major University.” (Thanks to the One Story blog for the tip.)

Friday Find: New Review of Forgetting English, by Midge Raymond

by Erika Dreifus on
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Longtime Practicing Writing readers know how much I admire Fiction Writers Review. At long last, I am delighted to announce that this practicing writer is now an official contributor to that terrific online publication!

Please read my review of Midge Raymond’s prizewinning story collection, Forgetting English. (It turns out that Raymond’s book happens to be a June selection from Andrew’s Book Club, too–how nice is that?)

Enjoy, and have a wonderful weekend!

Writing About Writing Programs

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

I’ve been feeling pretty unwell this week (but my doctor says I do NOT have swine flu, and for that I am grateful). I nearly missed Louis Menand’s review-essay in The New Yorker, which centers on that old question: Should creative writing be taught?. But my ever-thoughtful mother, knowing that I haven’t been reading with my usual clarity, pointed it out to me. (Thanks, Mom!)

And online, there’s more.

I can’t help wishing Menand had said at least something about low-residency programs–I’ll have to see if the new book he writes about in this piece (Mark McGurl’s The Program Era) focuses on them at all.

In any case, it’ll be interesting to see the letters to the editors on this one….

The Wednesday Web Browser: Getting Paid, Conference Recap, Poetry@Harvard

by Erika Dreifus on
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The Renegade Writer presents The Freelancer’s Guide to Getting Paid.
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Missed the BEA/Writer’s Digest Conference? Check out the link-rich roundup.
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My alma mater‘s been on my mind a lot lately, and I was perusing its Web site when I found this new beta offering: Poetry@Harvard, which offers “a vital nexus of poetry-related courses, library collections, events, organizations, publications and pedagogy at Harvard University.”