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Eric Bennett engages critics of his recent essay about the University of Iowa's writing program.
In "How Iowa Flattened Literature" (The Chronicle Review, February 14), Eric Bennett argues that Cold War mentalities shaped the culture of creative writing at the University of Iowa and, through the influence of Iowa, other creative-writing programs. The aesthetic consequence, Bennett holds, is a concentration on style rather than ideas. "Within today's M.F.A. culture, the worst thing an aspiring writer can do is bring to the table a certain ambitiousness of preconception," he writes.
Readers objected to Bennett's highlighting of a single CIA grant to creative writing at Iowa as evidence of a CIA connection, and accused him of overlooking certain intellectually ambitious works of "program fiction."
To the Editor:
Eric Bennett's claim that the CIA covertly funded the University of Iowa's creative-writing programs during the Cold War, and somehow influenced the course of American literature ever afterward--wherever the workshop model pioneered at Iowa has been adopted--is absurd.
Bennett's evidence for his conspiracy theory is a 1967 grant from the Farfield Foundation, which in due course was revealed to be a front for the CIA. Paul Engle, the legendary director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and then the co-founder of the International Writing Program, was a tireless fund raiser, and this modest grant of $7,000 (spread over two years) is just an example of literally thousands of gifts that he secured from individuals, foundations, and corporations.
Bennett admits to having no evidence that Engle was aware of any ties between the Farfield Foundation and the CIA. Indeed, Bennett wrote to me after his article was published to say that "Since the CIA connection was so fleeting and one-off, it struck me as a useful symbol of political significance rather than a substantive, logistical fact."
But far-reaching claims must be supported by evidence. If anything has flattened American culture, it is low standards of scholarship, disdain for facts, and a too-easy embrace of conspiracy theory.
Christopher Merrill Director, International Writing Program University of Iowa Iowa City
From chronicle.com:
Recent Iowa fiction graduate here.
The author of this piece graduated in 2000, before Lan Samantha Chang became director [of the Iowa Writers' Workshop], in 2006. For someone criticizing "today's M.F.A. culture," Bennett...