Francine Prose, whom Quillblog likes a lot, has a new book out called Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them. There’s an online-only Q&A with Prose up over at the Atlantic website, and it includes some choice comments on the age-old (well, couple-decades-old) question of whether formalized creative-writing programs do more good or harm. Says Prose: “One of the things I do when I’m teaching a literature class to MFA students—and I much prefer teaching a literature class to a writing workshop—is make up a reading list based on masterpieces that would just wither and die in a workshop setting. Things like Beckett’s First Love or Metamorphosis. The list is endless.”

And on whether she’d recommend the workshop route for budding young writers: “I’ll tell you quite frankly what I would advise: if you’re getting money or some kind of scholarship, I would go without a question, because it gives you two years to write. That’s two years where you don’t have to wait tables; two years to take your work seriously. And if you’re really gifted, it’s pretty hard to lose that in the course of a workshop. On the other hand—and perhaps I shouldn’t say this because so many of my friends, and I myself at many points, have been so dependent on workshops for making a living—if you’re going to spend two years and come out the other end $80,000 in the hole, I’d think a million times before doing it.”

Related links:
Read the Francine Prose Q&A