Do you ever feel that MFA programs churn out cookie-cutter writers these days? Discussion on current literature. Trying to put into words a thought I've had for a while now.... current literature just isn't the same (for me), as, for example, mid-century literature. I have lots of authors I love from this period, including Ray Bradbury,Cormac McCarthy, and Flannery O'Connor. I have precious few from this era. I think it has something to do with the standard M.F.A. pipeline most authors seem to come out of nowadays. It seems to strangle original writing - the prose seems far too "instructed", if that makes sense. Anthony Doerr is a big offender here for me. Doerr is a good writer, but his prose comes off to me as the exact median "this is good writing" prose taught to M.F.A. students. Nothing unique to himself. Bradbury OTOH, learned to write by reading, and was far less influenced by what a teacher told him was "good writing" - to me RB is one of the most mesmerizing prose stylists in American Literature.…