I haven’t been privy to the “MFAs create too many bad writers” complaint before. If anything, as a grad student and non-MFA writer, I’d say the accusation I most often hear is that MFA programs *don’t* create writers. The MFA provides a structure that demands a certain degree of productivity, but once a student leaves with a degree there’s no guarantee that he or she will have the discipline & work ethic necessary to keep writing.

Now, that’s true of all degrees. I guess the thing is with MFAs is that I run into a lot of undergraduates who have I-talk-about-my-novel-rather-than-writing-it syndrome, and who look to the MFA as the solution. When are they going to write their novel? Well, after they’ve got their MFA, of course. And while there are a few of them who might genuinely be so anxious about committing literary faux pas that they are putting off writing until they learn their craft well, the truth is the majority of those people *really* wanted to be authors, they’d already be writing.

So if I have any suspicions concerning MFA programs, it’s only in the sense that I’ve run into some people (inside and outside MFA programs) for whom an MFA degree is the equivalent of the New Years’ gym membership purchase. Sure, the degree/gym membership will help you achieve your goal if you use it, but it isn’t going to magically install motivation and discipline.

As for the value of individual programs, well, obviously they vary. And I’ve read a lot of excellent writing in a variety of genres that came from authors with MFAs, so I don’t buy the argument that these programs destroy your ability to write popular fiction, either. (Though I have to say, I’ve found the longer I’ve been in academia the harder I find it to adapt my writing to different audiences.)

If there’s anything I have a concern about in MFA programs is that they can, I think, lead people to imbibe and reinscribe the set of genre conventions belonging to ‘literary’ fiction. Certainly I can think of times that I’ve been reading a novel and been annoyed by the insertion of a self-consciously clever device that seems (to me) more calculated to please a class professor than the average reader. But bad writing, as you point out, is everywhere, and at least authors with MFA degrees do it better than most.

Just sayin’.