MFA vs NYC
Chad Harbach explores the conflict between two writing cultures: the war of the New Yorkers vs. the MFA’s.
For the MFA writer, then, publishing a book becomes not a primary way to earn money or even a direct attempt to make money. The book instead serves as a credential. Just as the critic publishes her dissertation in order to secure a job in an ever tightening market, the fiction writer publishes her book of stories, or her novel, to cap off her MFA.