Brian Joseph Davis, a writer for the Huffington Post, has an encouraging column in support of the oft-challenged MFA program system. He argues that, in addition to providing employment and teacher training to hundreds of new instructors each year, MFA’s have created a “culture of connoisseurship” that has “kept literary fiction alive.”

Of particular interest is the fact that Davis himself does not have an MFA degree. He still aims to support the idea that writers can emerge from all sorts of backgrounds and are not by any means forced to acquire a degree in writing in order to see success or to simply develop their talents/aspirations.

Davis also doesn’t shy away from applying his own, honest criticisms of the MFA establishment. “Schools can’t prepare writers for everything in life,” writes Davis, “but that doesn’t take away what a good program does give writers and readers, or the protected habitat for fiction that it provides.”

Read his full essay here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-joseph-davis/mfa-programs-_b_929183.html