A Brief MFA Discussion Round Up

This weekend I spent some time thinking about how much people love talking about MFAs, what they’re good for, who should get one, why they’re terrible, how much they cost, why they’re wonderful and on and on and on. I never imagined that a college degree could generate so much vigorous discussion. I love it.

At The Rumpus, Anelise Chen wrote an essay about the MFA Ponzi Scheme. It’s a great, witty essay that makes good, if not commonsensical points. The comments are pretty intense with all kinds of opinions being shared about the MFA with a great deal of cost/benefit analysis. I love when writers get all math-y. I don’t have much of an opinion on MFAs. I do not have one. I do believe one should never pay for graduate school but that a graduate education is awesome. There are worse things someone could spend their money on, like drugs, though for some, that might be something better to spend their money on.  I don’t judge.

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Roundup / 27 Comments
October 3rd, 2010 / 4:22 pm

GIANT’s Backwards Birthday Party!!!!!!!!!

We’re giving away some free stuff to you, our birthday party guests. We already ate the cake, so we can’t give that back (well, we could…), but we do have books & other stuffs. How this works:

We’re going to award a few random winners, and split up the stuff randomly. To throw your name in the hat, email us at our house (htmlgiant@htmlgiant.com) by October 10th!

If you’d like to add stuff to the prize pool, list it in the comments and we’ll add it below. THE GIFTS:

  • 1/2 rotation in one of the top book cover ad spots for the month of November
  • 1 copy of From Old Notebooks, by Evan Lavender-Smith
  • 1 SIGNED copy of the new Light Boxes, by Shane Jones
  • 1 copy of Everything Here Is The Best Thing Ever, by Justin Taylor
  • 1 copy of AM/PM, by Amelia Gray
  • 1 copy of The Complete Works of Marvin K. Mooney, by Christopher Higgs
  • 1 audiobook version of The Complete Works of Marvin K. Mooney
  • some random back issues of The Believer
  • a couple of new books from HarperPerennial
  • 1 copy of The Evolutionary Revolution, by Lily Hoang
  • 1 copy of Changing, by Lily Hoang
  • a random assortment of random books from Lily Hoang’s bookshelf
  • 1 copy of In the Devil’s Territory, by Kyle Minor
  • 5 collector’s itemish backissues of Frostproof Review #2 (includes Kevin Wilson’s story “Tunneling to the Center of the Earth,” novellas by Christopher Coake and Jennifer Spiegel, excerpt from Mark Svenvold’s book-length poem Empire Burlesque, a Molly Peacock sonnet, and reading lists from Stephen Elliott, Jim Shepard, Lee K. Abbott, Steve Almond, Aimee Bender, a water witcher, a Methodist minister, etc., etc., etc.)
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Contests / 31 Comments
October 3rd, 2010 / 3:04 pm

HTMLGIANT Birthday #2

How many fingers are we now? Two fingers. Any two you want! Thanks for hanging out and being cool and talking about books.

This weekend I ate bbq and read past page 750 in 2666 and had some gin and coffee (not together) and deleted a bunch of words out of a manuscript. What did you do?

Behind the Scenes / 42 Comments
October 3rd, 2010 / 12:38 pm

“Everything you could ever want, even if you don’t know you want it”


A cool new video series from Coldfront and Eye For An Iris Press, Tourist Trap, NYC follows and films poets visiting NYC. These people walk around and talk interestingly about things, and then they read some poems. Sort of like a Take Away Show for people who write/read poems. The first episode features Julie Doxsee, who has graced HTMLGIANT a little in the past. Forthcoming episodes will feature Matt Hart, Nate Pritts, Josh Harmon, Kate Greenstreet, and more. By posting this, of course, I am hoping soon I will be invited to appear on an episode where I’m filmed alone in my apartment, killing silverfish with a tambourine and ruefully/wistfully clicking “Not Attending” on every Facebook invitation I get for another event in “the city.” Jays and cakes! Tourist Trap, NYC is a sweet looking project, so take a look.

Web Hype / 2 Comments
October 2nd, 2010 / 5:23 pm

Good news: Tkacik’s back; Bad news: We’re fucked, says Tkacik

Moe Tkacik–the Moe who hasn’t joined the Tea Party–takes New Yorker staff writer Peter Boyer to the woodshed over his lying profile of the lunatic monstrosity that is The Family. Boyer’s article, an unlikely piece of hack inside-jobbery, basically exists to quell the rumors you may have heard about The Family–that they’re a secretive sect of influence-dealing theocrats, that they’re genocide-friendly, that they’ve got a kind of perpetual hard-on for dictators and fascists, that they hate women, that they are the force behind the Ugandan gay death penalty legislation, and that for one reason or another are probably actively plotting your death right now–all of which are pretty much true. I remember reading the Boyer piece whenever it came out (a week or two ago?) with a growing sense of cognitive dissonance and a slowly rising gorge. Everything about the piece is inexcusable, beginning with the existence of the organization being profiled. It’s heartening–but also induces further rage–to read such an incisive and thorough response, and Moe Tkacik is not only the best person for the job, she’s pretty much the only person who would bother to do it. Lucky us! Speaking of which, this piece appears on Das Krapital, Moe’s new gig as a daily blogger for the Washington City Paper. You should also check out her piece on “Why the Right Hates Freedom“, and basically be reading this blog every day. Expect to hear about it again. Also, check out Jeff Sharlet’s blog.

Author Spotlight / 5 Comments
October 2nd, 2010 / 12:34 pm

A little more about Moe.

An earlier snippet linked to a Pitchfork story about Moe Tucker, drummer from The Velvet Underground, having recently been spotted at an Albany Tea Party rally. Not just spotted, though. Ms. Tucker was interviewed, and in grand ole Tea Party style, she talked about being “furious about the way [the country and its citizens] being led towards socialism.”

The snippet says just this: hearing that Moe Tucker, drummer from one of my favorite bands, and creator of some really great solo work, is now part of a political movement I find—when I am trying to be generous and open-minded—baffling, kind of made a little part of me die. (In ungenerous moments, I say “Hear, hear,” to Matt Taibbi’s assessment of the Tea Parties in Rolling Stone.)

A comment made by someone going by R. Ridge:
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Random / 31 Comments
October 1st, 2010 / 9:03 pm

You’d lose your damn head if it weren’t screwed up.

Click through for "La Cravate" by Alejandro Jodorowsky (based on a play by Thomas Mann)

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Film / 1 Comment
October 1st, 2010 / 6:25 pm

Chapbook Genius


I put a new face on Chapbook Genius and just released a collection of poems by Buck Downs. See the eBook here, where you can read it at Issuu, print it yourself, or get it for your eReader through Smashwords, all free.

Buck Downs is for real. I’ve seen him read a few times, laughing all the way. Seeing his poems on the page is a trick. They gloss brill and don’t wait but you go hallelujah back at them next Thursday all what.

Author Spotlight / 5 Comments
October 1st, 2010 / 4:09 pm
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Nick Antosca on reading Lolita at 12. What was the first book that you felt dirty reading? I’d say mine was either A Confederacy of Dunces around the same age, or maybe The Godfather. Hard question for me because I was watching stuff like Terminator & Skinemax from about 5 on. You?

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A little part of me just died.

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