Comments on: Le Guin tells it like it is

By: Erin Underwood

Erin Underwood — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:51:32 +0000

In this month’s edition of “The Atlantic,” there is a terrific article on MFA programs. It covers all of the general MFA information you’d expect to see and it mentions the emergence of MFAs in popular fiction.

The mention is less then a few lines in a several page feature, but it’s there! I think this is a very positive indication that genre fiction is beginning to get the attention that it so richly deserves in the field of “serious literature.”

The two universities mentioned as opening the door for YA and popular fiction (in the realm of graduate studies) are Stonecoast’s low-residency MFA program and Seton Hill’s low-residency MA program. As a current student at Stonecoast, I am overwhelmed by the high quality of the program, the excellent instructors, and the talent of my fellow students.

I look forward to seeing how popular/genre fiction continues to prosper in the field of “serious literature”. I think Ursula was right, they didn’t bury the corpse nearly deep enough!

By: Katharine Kerr

Katharine Kerr — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:12:38 +0000

Yes, hardly bitter, I’d say, especially since she puts a disclaimer at the bottom.

By: Kate Elliott

Kate Elliott — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 05:52:51 +0000

Ken, I didn’t read it as bitter. I read it as having fun.

By: Ken Houghton

Ken Houghton — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 01:41:28 +0000

Placing Granta, which has published Christopher Priest and Lawrence Norfolk (among others) in its Best British Novelist issues as the peak of the evil empire is revelatory, all right--but it speaks rather poorer of LeGuin than it does the magazine. (I realise this is the minority opinion in the genre, and that I will be duly and appropriately pilloried for it. I can live with that. Apparently Saint Ursula, who regularly appears in The New Yorker, Playboy, and other high-paying markets has decided to make a late career move into being bitter.

By: Erin Underwood

Erin Underwood — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:05:52 +0000

Last week during my residency at Stonecoast, I got to read outloud Ursula Le Guin’s response. It was fantastic~!

There was much laughter!

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 23:22:33 +0000

I’ve been — spreading it around.

By: Beth B

Beth B — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:22:39 +0000

It was also in the latest Ansible, but yes, folks might miss it there, too, so spread the word!

(And I like Granta, but that line had me spitting coffee all over the keyboard.)

By: Katharine Kerr

Katharine Kerr — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 20:51:53 +0000

It was the Jon Carrol column that made me aware of the Le Guin piece’s existence. I figured others who don’t get the Chronicle might miss it, too.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:34:08 +0000

Oh no, he committed genre? How… vulgar.

*shudders delicately*

By: Madeleine Robins

Madeleine Robins — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 02:00:15 +0000

When I read this to the household 17-year-old she asked, “What’s Granta?” When I explained she shook her head. “Why would you want to publish there.” Ah, yout’.