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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Sounding like a writer from X (MFA Program question)

Crestmere

00:53 / 30.09.06

Okay, I'm really curious about this. Because I'd love someone to tell me that there's no real truth to this.

I've read a couple of things regarding this.

The first was a statement somewhere that was something like (and I so don't remember where this was) "Having the polished writing style of an MFA program."

The second was from a MySpace group and was more related to playwriting. But it had something to do with people sounding like a writer from X program.

I took a number of creative writing classes but it was at a school that didn't use an Iowa style workshop method.

So I suppose my questions are:

1. Is there such a thing as an MFA style?
2. Do certain schools have styles they prefer and try to groom people to?

Spaniel

19:33 / 02.10.06

Wouldn't this be better served by Creation?

Crestmere

21:43 / 02.10.06

See, I thought about that.

But I figured since it was related to literary styles, it would make more sense here. Though I suppose an argument could be made for either one.

HCE

22:46 / 02.10.06

I think that schools would themselves claim that they do not try to foster any particular style, but rather try to help writers find their own style.

That said, if somebody told me they went to Iowa, I would expect to find certain things in that person's writing:

*Use of brand names (X was as wide as a McDonald's straw)
*Emphasis on word choice and tone or style over character development and storytelling
*Sex, swearing

I tend to think of it as macho writing. Not the machismo of a Hemingway or Miller, but very sort of self-satisfied.

Dusto

12:53 / 31.10.06

There's a definite stereotype that all MFA programs produce a similar sort of fiction. Usually either "New Yorker style minimalism" or "quiet midwestern." I don't think it's so much that the programs beat this style into their students as that the faculty have certain preferences and so they choose students whose styles are already close to those preferences. That said, I've seen a great diversity of styles come out of MFA programs. I think the worst of the homogeneity is over. Chris Adrian, for instance, whose wonderful book The Children's Hospital just came out through McSweeney's is not a typical Iowa-style writer at all, though he went there.

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