5 Responses

1. Kent Johnson

   November 5, 2009

   Ter­rific work, Sr. Baird.

   Has Book­fo­rum given up on poetry reviews, though?

   Reply
2. Elizabeth Benedict

   November 5, 2009

   Thanks for the very thought­ful review of my anthol­ogy, Men­tors, Muses & Mon­sters. I appre­ci­ate the care and dis­cern­ment evi­dent in your review, though I’m not sure that the pieces are as top heavy with “northeast elite university” endorse­ments as you seem to feel. There are 20 essays out of 30 that don’t men­tion the writ­ers going to col­lege or going any­where near the east coast. I think what’s so inter­est­ing about the pieces is how dif­fer­ent each expe­ri­ence is, not that they endorse one method of becom­ing a writer. — Thanks again. - EB

   Reply
3. MIchael Hansen

   November 5, 2009

   Nice work, Mr. Baird. Very nice.

   Reply
4. Robert P. Baird

   November 6, 2009

   Hi Eliz­a­beth,

   Thanks for the note. It’s a good anthol­ogy, and I hope people check it out.

   That para­graph about the struc­tures of lit­er­ary priv­i­lege was, like the one before it, talk­ing about the 15 (or so) rescue nar­ra­tives among the essays. I counted nine of those that talked about north­east­ern col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties, which seems pretty top-​heavy to me. (And that’s not count­ing Neil Gordon’s essay or the two about Iowa.)

   And just to be clear: I’ve got noth­ing against elite uni­ver­si­ties. (I’ve been to two myself.) I just wish that we could all be more frank about the impor­tance they play in our careers.

   –bb

   Reply
5. Robert P. Baird

   November 6, 2009

   Thanks, KJ and MH!

   Reply