Interesting. I appreciate his candor. But he's not being candid enough. If he was, he'd acknowledge that literature, as he knows it, is culturally irrelevant. If it was, he'd actually be able to make a living through his writing instead of working the English-Department pyramid scheme.

I'm gonna venture a guess that a majority of the critical comments here are from people who deep down inside know that they're part of the untalented many who want so so bad to be considered creative, and they just can't stand it that someone from the inner circle is finally saying what they've been dreading to hear ever since they wasted all that money on that MFA degree.... I attended the school (or one of the schools) that Ryan Boudinot taught at (we called him Boudi), but I never had him as an advisor; with that being said, there were far more students at the school who had little to no talent for writing whatsoever than there were students who had some actual natural knack for the craft. In my opinion, Boudi's biggest mistake was not saying all of these things to those students, while he was still their advisor. But a writer's gotta eat, and all these MFA mills do pay the bills in the end. Oh well.

The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence.

Sir Charles Bukowski

Ryan was very brave in his late commentary about the time suffering his teaching stint. I wonder what Hugo House thinks of his rant, given that it houses old writers still trying, and youngsters who are just sparking? It seems this venue must have been just as abhorrent to him, as was the MFA. Hugo House builds its motto on supporting community writing, helping writers who don't have access to MFA programs. He milked that teat, dry. He is very brave, to burn so many bridges. I am still waiting for him to write something to make me "cry" or laugh or give any insight to humanity. But, hey. I'm sure even in his new admin position, he still has time to write. So, I will wait. Because, if he doesn't have time to pump out something brilliant soon, he'll need to edit that list of "To Do's." So, pull up your panties, boy -- and then, perhaps, your "advice" will have merit. For me anyway. The rest is just a traffic jam. Get out of the way, and just do what you're being paid to do, now. Which, I'm sure isn't quite laid out in this article. It wasn't "brutal honesty"; it was simply some bitter guy's rant that has been ranted about for years and years. Nothing new there.

Talent will out. Low residency MFA's are a racket.

201 - jxs - Hold off on the MFA. Get out of academia for a while. Travel. Work a real job. Meet real people. Live through some good and bad times. Get your heart broken, maybe a break a few yourself. Listen to how people talk and act around each other. Talk to everyone. Bus drivers. Homeless people. Trust fund kids. Managers. Street vendors. Keep writing through it all. THEN when you have some sense of life and how it's lived, then you might want to go into a program, if you even think you still need it.

I forwarded this essay to an old friend of mine, a published writer and poet, who's taught writing at a state university for over 30 years. Her comments: "I pretty much agree with everything he says, especially about the reading. I want to scream at my students who don't even read the assignments for my class much less take on the Russians or even Jane Austen."

Seems to me writers should have, as part of their makeup, thick skin. I'm a 40 something aspiring writer, currently without my MFA, and have no problem with a person who has dedicated his life to the writing craft sharing his hard won opinions. If I can't take someone telling me it might be best to hang it up because I haven't been in the biz since my teen angst years, I shouldn't aim at being published one day. Who knows what future readers or critics might say that would melt my crepe paper sensitivities? It's not like he's slinging mud irresponsibly. I find validity in his advice. It invigorates me and I am thankful for the kick in the pants. Furthermore, Seattle deserves UNESCO City of Literature recognition BECAUSE of Boudinot's article and other abounding freedoms/opportunities that foster the writing craft and trade. There are very few other places where I would be able to jump off this cliff of reinvention toward my literary aspirations.

I taught writing in the US and New Zealand for about 15 years. And this is wrong. It'll hurt the wrong people. A lot of good writers are miserably frightened in their youth. This will convince them that they're just wimps. And that's a shame, because it'll bring us another generation of hard-working, dull, mediocre American writers. We have more than enough of those. This is advice for jocks with keyboards. It reminds me of what a jerk named Vogel told a class full of admirers of Confederacy of Dunces in my hearing: "That guy deserved to die! He gave up! You can't give up!" Yeah, great; except nobody remembers Vogel, and my last batch of students still loved Confederacy of Dunces. Toole believed that jock nonsense too, which is how he died. You have to love the fuckups and weirdos and crazed arrogant half-grown minds you're teaching, and I don't think this guy did, or could. He would have produced a lot of Vogels. And so much of what he says just isn't true. Defoe, for God's sake...Defoe may be the best novelist this language ever produced, and he started at 59. "...Born with talent"? Nonense. Raised with talent, yes; born, no. The worst thing a workshop can do is produce regression to the mean, and I fear this teacher did that as a career, grinding out unsurprising, tough, macho, dull American prose-entrepreneurs year after year. I hate to think who the casualties would have been. John Dolan

See my blog today on the distance traveled between the court painters in sixteenth-century Istanbul, who were not allowed to sign their work, and where we are today with the expectation that everyone has something interesting to say and can say it well: http://www.hollymartins.com/#!From-Topka…ı-Palace-to-the-MFA/c11l9/550ad2ed0cf292acc4b67df7

Pre-emergent doesn't distinguish between a weed seed and a flower seed.

Thank you. This is a wonderful post. I'm glad you had the courage to speak the truth. My son recently started an English course at a local college. The "teacher" spent most of his time aggrandizing himself. Their first assignment was to critique an article he'd written about race and gender equality.

The man had a degree, but his writing was abysmal and I couldn't imagine him being put in charge of teaching.

It's refreshing to see confirmation of what I have long suspected. Well done. Re the crap storm about the joke: people need to lighten up.

This is very blunt but the truth always hurts.

As a writing teacher, myself, I can say that much of this is true. I taught at USC - both the adult ed - who ate up what I said because they wanted to publish, and the Master's group who wanted to write what I call "belly button" writing and hated the idea that I was "selling out" to be commerical. I doubt any of them ever published anything.
However, I do believe that one can learn with persistence.. I wrote 7 novels before my 8th became my first published book. I was able to later go back and revise 4 of those 7 and get them published and was shocked at how much my writing had grown. Even now, with over 30 published books, I continue to take classes and learn - you can learn from everyone.
Again persistence is the key. Talent is wonderful, but if not used right is wasted.

Burned out. Acadermic mantra 'Publish or Perish' trying to teach an inborn talent? lol.

I'm laughing out loud...literally. Why you people are reacting so indignantly cracks me up? Do you see yourself a shitty, no-talent writer? Why so sensitive? Get some stones, .folks... It was a snarky, sarcastic piece with some real merit. If you can't take that, OMG... You'll never make it as a writer.

This is one reason why I have an MBA instead. My writing, my art, whatever you choose to call it, is something that I put my soul into. When I write I stand before the world, nude and exposed, waiting for judgement. I write and rewrite and delete my words time and time again. Years ago I wrote them on paper instead of a keyboard, and tore them to pieces lest anyone read them later.

Trying to convey what is inside is the most painful process, yet when the purge is completed I feel euphoric. It is the greatest high, better than any drug. The judgement of others is what holds me back. My own loathing I can bear, but the thought of a professor ripping something so personal apart, well it is just too terrible to think of.

Instead I wrote papers on business theories, economics, and operations management topics. I earned my high honors, with praise from professors who worried about content, rather than character and plot. Still, at my old age of 53 (far too late to take up writing! past the use-by date!) I long to pour out my soul, and I do sometimes, though I will never have an MFA and no one will ever read my words.

I suspect that many writers, perhaps most writers, are sensitive creatures by nature. To be able to convey emotion in a way that moves people to feel it indicates that the writer has depth of emotion also. It surprised me to find out that the writing industry is so bitterly competitive, angry and impatient. I suppose that is because it all comes down to money, something I do understand from my own education. Somehow I thought it was something more. A shared passion? I guess I was wrong.

"Ryan Boudinot is right, but who cares really. Terrible writers are killing it right now. I wish I could write as bad as EL James. My creditors do too." RobinThickeTears on March 11, 2015

E.L. James got something right commercially, absolutely; but, as someone else in this long list of comments points out, these types of books are not the goal of students in MFA programs, usually; or, perhaps it's that MFA programs are not designed to produce writers of mass market fiction. MFA programs are generally aimed at producing literary talent, rather than commercial talent. Some writers create best-selling books of high literary merit, which are well received by many or even most critics, but those are few. Also, there are writers (Joyce Carol Oates, Flannery O' Connor, Shirley Jackson, et al.) who appeal to genre readers -- in this case, those who like mystery, horror, and crime fiction -- whilst writing literary masterpieces.

It is fashionable now to claim that these are meaningless differences (the literary vs. the genre novel), but I don't agree. I have read some of Boudinot's writing. His short stories are very good, but they are little gems, not likely to appeal to a mass audience who would rather be reading Chuck Wendig's dark fiction. Both have their place, in my opinion, just as E.L. James does. I am not knocking any of them.

I, too, taught graduate students for several years, though in the field of therapy rather than writing. (Having said that, they had to write a lot of case studies and theory papers for the course, and these had to be well written.) I am not sure if it is because my colleagues screened them so carefully (as we had only limited space and many applicants) or because it was a requirement that our prospective students have significant work experience in a related field and a good track record to prove it, but we never had this kind of exasperating problem that Boudinot is describing. Our students took the work seriously, knowing that they were impacting people's lives for better or worse. They acted like professional, responsible adults and were treated as such. They were in no way molly-coddled, as they were all working whilst studying and many had families, too; so, good time management was critical to their success. It was one of the best experiences of my professional career, enjoying mentoring and teaching them, whilst also learning from their particular points-of-view and talents.

It seems to me that Boudinot became exasperated with these graduate students who wanted something for nothing. They'd paid for a course, and wanted to magically become successful writers ... or, to be seen as that, anyway. Why should he not get fed up with that?

Having said that, it sounds as if the problem with this course is the way that it has been set up, and the way that prospective students are screened. I am not suggesting that a student needs to come into a course already having all the skills they need, in which case they would not need the course, but they should show seriousness of intent and a professional attitude. When I was a grad student, we were told by one very tough-minded professor that we should be ashamed for getting a grade of a "B" in grad work. He was often grouchy and dictatorial, but we learned a lot from him. Students now seem to be more concerned with being offended than they are with learning from someone who has something to teach them. I think Boudinot, whatever his faults (such as ill-considered jokes about child abuse) does have something to offer.

I am surprised by another teacher in these comment suggesting that teachers in graduate schools should be happy to introduce students to the world of reading good books. Really, that is what high school and the undergraduate years are for, yes? All very adolescent, to my mind.

Thanks so much for the honorable mention! I have some great new blogs to follow :)

http://www.fairessays.com/contact

I suspect there is a degree of truth in this essay regarding effort and certainly the length of time regarding the effort has an impact on product, but I would mention, that it is interesting to note that as a visual art teacher in a private school, that a huge emphasis is being placed on process and what is known as our grit in cutting edge education. This stems from research that indicates that failure is a massive component to success. Individuals who work in the arts have to be self motivated and undeterred by rejection and failure to improve. Does natural talent exist? Probably. But without passion, substance, education, where does it go? I started learning how to draw at age 19. I can now draw anything I see in a realist manner. I was persistent, undeterred. I don't know why. Maybe at first I just had stars in my eyes and eventually, I began enjoying the process. Where does all this lead anyway? Who knows. Maybe that's not the point.

It occurred to me some time ago that maybe I could combine more than one craft and indeed try to make sense of a history that does indeed include abuse. It is an interesting history, entertaining, Mfa in writing to me seems a luxury in the arts. I wish I could afford it. Wow, to have assigned books and an actual person to bounce ideas off of, not to mention time to read those books. Excellent. I however will have to do without, because the truth is, there are other people reliant on me and my full time job and I do not have 30 k to spare, at least not yet.

Best thing to do is just create it, something masterful in craft and idea, slowly, secretively in spare moments like some illicit affair. Then, send it out and see what comes of it, if anything.

I am now older, and so I would suggest thus to the writer of this article: Artists are like wine, growing finer with age. Experience and wisdom is everything in craft and product.