John Clayton's Blog

I have followed novelist Jim Shepard's career since I took a class from him in 1984, just after the publication of his first novel Flights. The wonderful thing about taking a class from him was that his novels may be accomplished and talented, but in person he's ten times funnier. I learned a lot about self-discipline from realizing how many jokes Jim kept out of his work.

Here's a great, if too-long, interview with Jim (thanks to GalleyCat for the link). Highlights:

I think the MFA programs, and in fact a way to justify the MFA program—which I don’t think need a whole lot of justification: as far as social problems go, they are not really high up on the scale (too many MFA programs). The way to justify them is to say they are not churning out hundreds of writers, they are churning out hundreds of readers every year, and at the very least they are making people better readers. And that is very something useful.

It's shocking to think that a writer you would think was at the top of the contemporary pyramid would say, "Gee, I sent all of my stories in my recent collection to The New Yorker, and they took one of them. So there are 22 stories; I was one for 22."

[When you encounter an artist whose dedication outweighs his talent, can you ever ask this question:] "At what point do you have the right to do this before you are totally pathetic?"

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