Studying Writing (3)

An interview with Mary Karr in Paris Review 191 makes the case for writers' programs. She certainly benefited from hers, both from the instructors and from her fellow students. In the same issue, there's an interview with Ha Jin in which he says that if he had to write for money, he'd never have become the writer he is. Mary Karr set out to be a writer, whereas Ha Jin studied to be a translator and then, coming to America, "made a living" until someone read his work and helped him get published (in the Paris Review). His account of how he teaches writing also shows the value of working with a writer like him. If you can find someone like him, go for it.