Dateline IFOA: Why MFAs Rawk and Granta’s 25th

On a day where staying inside was a smart thing to do, what with the torrential downpour that occurred off and on throughout, I ventured back to the Harbourfront Centre for the last day of the festival. Fewer people around, but still enough to keep themselves entertained for what was to come.

I began my afternoon at a roundtable hosted by Daniel Richler featuring Iowa Writers Workshop teachers and alums like Marilynne Robinson, Richard Bausch and Tom Barbash, as well as Giller Prize nominee Wayson Choy, who instructs writing at Humber College. The opening question: “Can writing be taught?” The unsurprising answer, considering the panelists, was yes, and the rest of the hour was spent proving why this is the case. Although the case for MFAs was rather oversold—by Bausch in particular, who kept fawning about how the proliferation of writing programs in the US is a wonderful thing—there were some notable points. The bottom line is that what’s really taught is patience and understanding, and that ultimately, all a teacher can do is help a writer discover his or her own voice. Everything else after that is up to the ability and determination of the writer.

Things became more heated when the topic turned to Jacques Derrida and deconstructionism, as Bausch had some rather harsh words for the late philosopher. Robinson wasn’t quite as critical but she stressed that the trend towards literary theory has had a negative impact on aspiring writers, especially in who and what they read. All in all, it was a very informative and spirited panel, ably moderated by Richler, an old hand at this sort of thing thanks to his stint at Book TV.

During the Q&A, I asked the panel whether teaching young students had had any kind of impact, positive or negative, on their own writing. I’ve never taught writing, but I have taught other subjects and I know doing so has helped me understand the material even better, and I wondered if this effect was noticed by the panel. Though it was rather amusing to see Richler murmur “good question!” as if he’d wished he’d asked it, the answers tended to be noncommittal, although Robinson elicited a laugh when she replied “benign, I hope!” Barbash did relate how so much time immersed in other people’s writing has meant he’s been less productive during those times.

After catching up a bit with Rebecca Caldwell and filling her in on the previous night’s Hollinghurst/Toibin interview, I made my way to the Studio Theatre for an event marking the 25th Anniversary of Granta. The structuring was rather odd: Ian Jack, Granta’s editor, gave a short talk on the history of the magazine (which actually began way back in 1889, but was relauched in the late 70s after dying a finance-related death) after which Zoe Heller read a sarcastically witty excerpt from her latest novel NOTES ON A SCANDAL, and J. Robert Lennon gave a sneak preview of his upcoming collection of 100 short-short stories, PIECES FOR THE LEFT HAND. What was supposed to be a short intermission turned into a full-blown signing session, leaving certain stragglers (like myself) hanging around in an increasingly muggy, overly dark theatre.

Luckily, the second half was worth staying for, as Jack, Heller and Lennon kicked off a discussion about the blurring of fact and fiction, why New Yorker factcheckers are so amusing in an anal-retentive fashion, and managed to withstand a similarly AR-W audience member who had seemingly memorized the entire Granta backlist. I’ve had my mind on Heller’s and Lennon’s novels for some time and this talk pretty much convinced me to read them.

And that, as some say, is that. Next year’s IFOA is supposed to be graphic novel-themed, which should prove very interesting indeed.