an example of what a workshop in a top mfa program was like in 2007:

"An amazing thing happened here yesterday that I'm only going to tell you about because you know me well enough not to think I'm a braggart asshole. So I'm in [esteemed poet's] workshop...

and he's been pretty systematically tearing everyone apart--we spent 1/2 of yesterday's workshop tearing into this firstyear girl's poem, with [esteemed poet] going on and on about how she's not letting the language guide her...

not allowing the poem to exist in the moment of its own creation, forcing a preconceived idea of what it has to be onto it, etc. etc... and then he runs out of steam and says, "let's look at [dude's] poem...And he goes on to basically say that my poem has everything...

that hers lacks, and I'm a rockstar who should impregnate all the women to make beautiful poet babies. It was fucking crazy!!! I was pretty uncomfortable, as the firstyear girl had looked like she was on the verge of tears before [esteemed poet] started using my poem...

to beat her down further...but still tremendously flattered. He still tried to rewrite a good 1/3 of the poem, and some of his suggestions seem dead-on to me--the fucking thing's far from perfect--

but it was still really nice to get some positive feedback, even if it was kind of at someone else's expense."