‘I want to be ripped to shreds’: writers flock to MFAs - but does it breed elitist literature?

Thousands of budding US novelists enlist in courses each year, hoping to gain credentials that often influence who gets published Thomas Pynchon was known to avoid the press and refuse interviews. There are only two official photographs of the Gravity’s Rainbow author available publicly – one taken at high school, the other during his time in the navy. He is the embodiment of the American image of a great writer: a mysterious recluse who works in a turret alone. These days, the writerly lone…