Check out the advice Dean Bakopoulos (MFA '02) dispenses in an interview in Hot Metal Bridge and then let us know who you'd add, omit, or underline twice. (I'll start by seconding all his nominations, and adding Dickens, Alice Munro and our own Lorrie Moore.)
HMB: Any advice for writers who are just starting out?
DB: Simple: Read all of Chekhov, Cheever, Grace Paley, Donald Barthelme, and Raymond Carver, in that order. And then you can begin. And when you get stuck you read Marquez, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Fitzgerald, O’Connor, and Salinger. Read the Russians! Please!
And, by all means, don’t buy into the bullshit about MFA programs not being good for writers. They are good for writers and they are one of the last places you can go and hide from the real world (while maintaining your health insurance) and give this game a try.
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