No blood spilled at Freed reading

After having written a whole parody blog based on the Lynn Freed excoriation of the "creative writing gulag" in the July Harper's, I had to see Freed herself read when she appeared tonight at ACWLP. I missed out on the first part of the reading and when I came in, I blended in at the side. She read from her newly-published memoir-slash-collection of autobiographical essays, then answered questions.

Freed's demeanor and tone is deadpan and rather haughty. Though the pieces she read showed a genuine sense of humor and willingness even to poke fun at herself, her presence is forbidding and lacks all warmth. Freed's dry tone and obvious intelligence hint at a cutting wit which might well be employed (as it was in the Harper's piece) against anyone who says something stupid, so the questions from the audience were consequently timid.

One questioner did refer to Freed's Harper's essay, but asked about "writers conferences." She responded by saying writesr conferences were just fine, because the attendees were not careerists (she didn't use that word) and "went back to their own lives" after the week was over -- quite a bit different from writing programs where people get MFAs "which are quite another matter altogether," she said darkly. No one followed up on that, for better or worse. It was the MFA programs, and their students, which came in for the lion's share of Freed's scorn in the Harper's piece.

Lynn Freed, literary conferences, writers conferences, creative writing gulag