Dylan Hicks: 'Are millennials concerned about selling out any more?'

In his second novel, Amateurs, Hicks pokes fun at the pretensions of that sacred element of America’s literary ecosystem, the MFA program

There’s writing, and then there’s writing culture. In America, that culture ferments in the masters of fine arts writing programs scattered among the overpriced liberal arts colleges that stretch from the eastern seaboard to the northern California coast. Over the past 20 or so years, countless hundreds of aspiring Franzens and Foster Wallaces have enrolled in MFA programs hoping to write a breakout, earth-shattering novel that sets them on the course to literary renown and complimentary trips to writers’ retreats in Caribbean resort towns.

The efficacy of MFA programs has been hotly disputed as of late, as its critics wonder whether it is creating a class of groupthink prose stylists all churning out the same “young white person’s guide to life” novels. The literary quarterly n+1 published an entire book of essays devoted to the topic, while last season’s Girls featured a storyline in which the Lena Dunham character dropped out of an MFA program full of smug, pretentious literary bullies.

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