Hey Jack,
Yes, I've been reading this brew-ha-ha about MFA programs with some
interest. Though I wasn't writing genre while I was at Iowa, there
have been a number of us to pass through those hallowed doors and turn
to a life in crime fiction.
While I was there, I saw just about anything you could imagine in
workshop. And for admissions, Frank Conroy and a team of "chosen"
students read *in* all of the many applications that came to the Dey
House. Someone was reading the actual writing of everybody who came
along wanting to join, and I think it was the quality of the writing,
the skills or chops, if you will, that determined if he or she got in,
not whether you wanted to make any money or not. When I was there it
seemed a pretty obvious reality that we were hiding out or ducking
"the real world" to hole up in an isolated place and work on our
fiction for as long as the funding would allow. I got much better as a
writer there because of or in spite of the program. Basically it was
an escape I used to hone the craft. I'm glad I did it, though it was a
rough two years there for a buncha reasons that I won't get into.
One thing's for sure: it consistently made clear to us there that none
of us should hope to make any money (whether we weren't supposed to
try is a different matter, I think). At graduation Frank Conroy, the
great long-term head of the program gave me and my peers two things: a
certificate with our name on it... and a blank unemployment form for
Johnson Country, Iowa.
Cheers!
But glad I went!
Seth
Seth Harwood
author of the JACK WAKES UP
Coming May 5, 2009 from Three Rivers Press
Join the nation at sethharwood.com, become a Palms Daddy/Momma!
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