Via NPR's Monkey See blog, I found this very interesting piece from The Chronicle of Higher Education. I am not quite sure what to make of David Alpaugh's claims here. Personally, I find much of contemporary poetry to be really boring, and as a poet myself, I find that really disheartening. So I agree with Alpaugh's claims that anthologies are basically ruining the idea of independent writing. But as someone who hopes to get her MFA so that she can not only become a better writer but become a better teacher of writing, I think his argument is a little shaky. I don't think there should be any sort of stigma attached to being either an independent writer or a writer/professor. While I think academia certainly holds the reins a little to tightly on the concept of what makes a poem "good," I also think there are writing professors who publish and teach because they are equally interested in both those goals. Hopefully, you can all come to your own conclusions here.
http://chronicle.com/article/The-New-Math-of-Poetry/64249/
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