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This is such a fascinating roundup that I am tweeting it in a couple of days. It bears our attention that the Iowa Writers Workshop (which now has its literary translation sister organization) and the Paris Review are still fat and happy organizations. It is an important reminder that there are a myriad of factors, many political, that go into who is deemed "the best" and who wins the big prizes. One cannot help but wonder if such programs continue (I'm sure they do) and who they are supporting now?
Well, I do and on so many levels. One level is this: how many of our literary "heroes" (still mostly men) and what we've been taught about great writing emerge from this program? Anyway, big thanks.
Yes, it opens up so many questions once you learn how these programs and institutions have been funded and to what end. The same thing happened with Abstract Expressionism in the visual arts. This was also supported by the CIA and promoted as a way of achieving political soft power. https://www.thecollector.com/abstract-expressionism-waging-a-cultural-cold-war-2/
Jul 19, 2022·edited Jul 19, 2022Liked by Becky Tuch
Eric Bennett’s “Workshops of Empire” delves into the development of the Workshops, in particular Paul Engle (who mentored Flannery O’Connor at Iowa) and Wallace Stegner (Stanford) who shaped many soldier writers. Loosely (very loosely) these founders believed the postwar development of the writers’ workshops and through teaching the model to future generations of MFA writers and teachers to future students, war could be avoided through international cultural exchange, as in it’s difficult to war with countries that share mutual admiration for the arts. Or at least, this was an initial premise.
“Through these efforts, Engle brought in money from the Rockefeller Foundation, The State Department, and CIA front groups the Farfield Foundation and the Asia Foundation.
These organizations were giving money to Iowa at the same time that the CIA was funding literary magazines worldwide through the Congress for Cultural Freedom.”
This is such a fascinating roundup that I am tweeting it in a couple of days. It bears our attention that the Iowa Writers Workshop (which now has its literary translation sister organization) and the Paris Review are still fat and happy organizations. It is an important reminder that there are a myriad of factors, many political, that go into who is deemed "the best" and who wins the big prizes. One cannot help but wonder if such programs continue (I'm sure they do) and who they are supporting now?
Absolutely--so many factors. I'm glad you find this subject as fascinating as I do!
Well, I do and on so many levels. One level is this: how many of our literary "heroes" (still mostly men) and what we've been taught about great writing emerge from this program? Anyway, big thanks.
Yes, it opens up so many questions once you learn how these programs and institutions have been funded and to what end. The same thing happened with Abstract Expressionism in the visual arts. This was also supported by the CIA and promoted as a way of achieving political soft power. https://www.thecollector.com/abstract-expressionism-waging-a-cultural-cold-war-2/
Eric Bennett’s “Workshops of Empire” delves into the development of the Workshops, in particular Paul Engle (who mentored Flannery O’Connor at Iowa) and Wallace Stegner (Stanford) who shaped many soldier writers. Loosely (very loosely) these founders believed the postwar development of the writers’ workshops and through teaching the model to future generations of MFA writers and teachers to future students, war could be avoided through international cultural exchange, as in it’s difficult to war with countries that share mutual admiration for the arts. Or at least, this was an initial premise.
“Through these efforts, Engle brought in money from the Rockefeller Foundation, The State Department, and CIA front groups the Farfield Foundation and the Asia Foundation.
These organizations were giving money to Iowa at the same time that the CIA was funding literary magazines worldwide through the Congress for Cultural Freedom.”
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/04/how-creative-writing-programs-de-politicized-fiction
Thank you for all this. As soon as I find my next income stream, I will be a paying subscriber - promise!!!
Wow, so very interesting. I had no idea.