Seth Abramson
Encyclopedia
Seth Abramson is an American poet
, attorney, editor, and freelance journalist.
, Harvard Law School
, and the Iowa Writers' Workshop
. He is currently a doctoral student in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
, and a Senior Editor for the literary magazine Devil's Lake.
Publishers Weekly
notes that Abramson has "picked up a very large following as a blogger and commentator, covering poetry, politics, and higher education, and generating a controversial, U.S. News-style ranking of graduate programs in writing." In recommending Northerners, the poet's second collection of poetry, the magazine called Abramson "serious and ambitious...uncommonly interested in general statements, in hard questions, and harder answers, about how to live." Don Share, Senior Editor for Poetry, has said of Abramson's "What I Have," awarded the 2008 J. Howard and Barbara M.J. Wood Prize by Poetry, "the poem absorbs certain details but doesn't fasten upon them the way poets are tempted to do; it's not adjectival, it's not descriptive, it's not painting a kind of canvas with scenery on it, and yet those details are really fascinating."
A former public defender
, poetry editor, and commentator for Air America Radio
, Abramson was nominated for a Koufax Award
in 2005 and is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post
on the topic of graduate creative writing programs.
since 2005. The Suburban Ecstasies also ranks programs on the basis of their funding, selectivity, student-to-faculty ratio, job placement, fellowship placement, and other data provided by the programs themselves. In 2009 these rankings were adopted by Poets & Writers
. Poets & Writers
now publishes these rankings annually, having expanded them to include (beginning in 2010) an assessment of low-residency MFA programs. The methodology for these rankings was published by Poets & Writers
in 2010.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
has termed the Poets & Writers MFA rankings "the only MFA ranking regime." Writing in Boulevard
and The Huffington Post
, novelist and poet Anis Shivani noted the "great brouhaha" caused by "a journeyman's attempt to rank MFA programs...according to input from potential apprentices as opposed to evaluations by journeymen and masters themselves." Avant-garde literary critic Ron Silliman
claims Abramson's research and writing on MFA programs is part of a larger sea change in American poetics; according to Silliman, "Abramson's take [on poetry in American life] is new and different. And important....[he believes] we are moving away from poetry as a literature--let alone as a canon--toward poetry as a practice..." The Poets & Writers rankings have also been criticized, however. The Association of Writers & Writing Programs
in particular has been highly critical of the rankings' methodology, stating that "the tutelage of an artist is a complex and serious business, and it cannot be reduced to a single spreadsheet column sorted in descending order."
In September 2011, an open letter signed by nearly two hundred professors from undergraduate and graduate creative writing programs was published, calling the rankings "specious" and terming their methodology "unethical" and "quite misleading." A week later, Poets & Writers
responded to the open letter, asserting that it had "adhere[d] to the highest journalistic standards...Our ethical obligation is to be transparent to our readers about the source of the rankings and how they were derived, which we have done consistently and without reservation." Of Abramson, the rankings' primary researcher, the magazine's Editorial Director Mary Gannon said, "[he] has been collecting data about applicants' preferences and about MFA programs for five years, and we stand behind his integrity."
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, attorney, editor, and freelance journalist.
Life
Abramson is a graduate of Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, and the Iowa Writers' Workshop
Iowa Writers' Workshop
The Program in Creative Writing, more commonly known as the Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, is a highly regarded graduate-level creative writing program in the United States...
. He is currently a doctoral student in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
, and a Senior Editor for the literary magazine Devil's Lake.
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
notes that Abramson has "picked up a very large following as a blogger and commentator, covering poetry, politics, and higher education, and generating a controversial, U.S. News-style ranking of graduate programs in writing." In recommending Northerners, the poet's second collection of poetry, the magazine called Abramson "serious and ambitious...uncommonly interested in general statements, in hard questions, and harder answers, about how to live." Don Share, Senior Editor for Poetry, has said of Abramson's "What I Have," awarded the 2008 J. Howard and Barbara M.J. Wood Prize by Poetry, "the poem absorbs certain details but doesn't fasten upon them the way poets are tempted to do; it's not adjectival, it's not descriptive, it's not painting a kind of canvas with scenery on it, and yet those details are really fascinating."
A former public defender
Public defender
The term public defender is primarily used to refer to a criminal defense lawyer appointed to represent people charged with a crime but who cannot afford to hire an attorney in the United States and Brazil. The term is also applied to some ombudsman offices, for example in Jamaica, and is one way...
, poetry editor, and commentator for Air America Radio
Air America Radio
Air America was an American radio network specializing in progressive talk programming...
, Abramson was nominated for a Koufax Award
Koufax
Koufax may refer to:*Sandy Koufax, Major League Baseball Hall of Famer*Koufax awards, competitive awards for blogs*Koufax , an indie rock band*Koufax EP, an extended play...
in 2005 and is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
on the topic of graduate creative writing programs.
MFA Rankings
Abramson authors The Suburban Ecstasies, a website that publishes rankings of creative writing Master of Fine Arts programs on the basis of their popularity among applicants, as determined through surveys conducted on The Creative Writing MFA Blog, a website run by novelist Tom KealeyTom Kealey
Tom Kealey is an American writer and Jones Lecturer in fiction at Stanford University.-Books:* .* Coyotes won the 2005 Joseph Henry Jackson Award from the San Francisco Foundation.-Other publications:...
since 2005. The Suburban Ecstasies also ranks programs on the basis of their funding, selectivity, student-to-faculty ratio, job placement, fellowship placement, and other data provided by the programs themselves. In 2009 these rankings were adopted by Poets & Writers
Poets & Writers
Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organization in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers...
. Poets & Writers
Poets & Writers
Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organization in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers...
now publishes these rankings annually, having expanded them to include (beginning in 2010) an assessment of low-residency MFA programs. The methodology for these rankings was published by Poets & Writers
Poets & Writers
Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organization in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers...
in 2010.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty, staff members and administrators....
has termed the Poets & Writers MFA rankings "the only MFA ranking regime." Writing in Boulevard
Boulevard (magazine)
Boulevard magazine, published by St. Louis University, is an American literary magazine that publishes award-winning prose and poetry. Boulevard has been called "one of the half-dozen best literary journals" by Poet Laureate Daniel Hoffman in The Philadelphia Inquirer.- Overview :Richard Burgin...
and The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
, novelist and poet Anis Shivani noted the "great brouhaha" caused by "a journeyman's attempt to rank MFA programs...according to input from potential apprentices as opposed to evaluations by journeymen and masters themselves." Avant-garde literary critic Ron Silliman
Ron Silliman
Ron Silliman is an American poet. He has written and edited over 30 books, and has had his poetry and criticism translated into 12 languages. He is often associated with language poetry. Between 1979 and 2004, Silliman wrote a single poem, The Alphabet...
claims Abramson's research and writing on MFA programs is part of a larger sea change in American poetics; according to Silliman, "Abramson's take [on poetry in American life] is new and different. And important....[he believes] we are moving away from poetry as a literature--let alone as a canon--toward poetry as a practice..." The Poets & Writers rankings have also been criticized, however. The Association of Writers & Writing Programs
Association of Writers & Writing Programs
The Association of Writers & Writing Programs is a literary organization whose mission is "to foster literary talent and achievement, to advance the art of writing as essential to a good education, and to serve the makers, teachers, students, and readers of contemporary writing."-Members:AWP...
in particular has been highly critical of the rankings' methodology, stating that "the tutelage of an artist is a complex and serious business, and it cannot be reduced to a single spreadsheet column sorted in descending order."
In September 2011, an open letter signed by nearly two hundred professors from undergraduate and graduate creative writing programs was published, calling the rankings "specious" and terming their methodology "unethical" and "quite misleading." A week later, Poets & Writers
Poets & Writers
Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organization in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers...
responded to the open letter, asserting that it had "adhere[d] to the highest journalistic standards...Our ethical obligation is to be transparent to our readers about the source of the rankings and how they were derived, which we have done consistently and without reservation." Of Abramson, the rankings' primary researcher, the magazine's Editorial Director Mary Gannon said, "[he] has been collecting data about applicants' preferences and about MFA programs for five years, and we stand behind his integrity."
Awards
- 2010, Green Rose PrizeNew Issues PressNew Issues Press is a literary press associated with Western Michigan University. It was founded by poet and Western Michigan University professor Herbert S. Scott...
- 2008, J. Howard and Barbara M.J. Wood Prize
- 2008, Best New PoetsBest New PoetsThe Best New Poets series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing fifty poems from poets without a previously published collection...
selection (ed. Mark StrandMark StrandMark Strand is an American poet, essayist, and translator. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990. Since 2005, he has been a professor of English at Columbia University.- Biography :...
)
Books
- The Creative Writing MFA Handbook, 3rd Ed. (Continuum PublishingContinuum International Publishing GroupThe Continuum International Publishing Group is a publisher of books, with its editorial offices in London and New York City. It had been owned by Nova Capital Management since 2005...
, 2012) [co-author] - Northerners (New Issues/Western Michigan University PressNew Issues PressNew Issues Press is a literary press associated with Western Michigan University. It was founded by poet and Western Michigan University professor Herbert S. Scott...
, 2011) - The Suburban Ecstasies (Ghost Road Press, 2009)
- The Creative Writing MFA Handbook, 2nd Ed. (Continuum PublishingContinuum International Publishing GroupThe Continuum International Publishing Group is a publisher of books, with its editorial offices in London and New York City. It had been owned by Nova Capital Management since 2005...
, 2008) [contributing author]
Anthologies
- Two Weeks: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry (Linebreak, 2010)
- Poetry of the Law (University of Iowa PressUniversity of Iowa PressThe University of Iowa Press is a university press that is part of the University of Iowa.Established in 1969, the University of Iowa Press publishes books that fill the needs of scholars and students throughout the world, poetry and short fiction, and works of creative nonfiction...
, 2010) - Best New Poets 2008Best New PoetsThe Best New Poets series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing fifty poems from poets without a previously published collection...
(University of Virginia PressUniversity of Virginia PressThe University of Virginia Press , founded in 1963, is a university press that is part of the University of Virginia.-External links:*...
, 2008) - Digerati (Three Candles Press, 2006)
- Lawyers and Poetry (West Virginia University PressWest Virginia UniversityWest Virginia University is a public research university in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA. Other campuses include: West Virginia University at Parkersburg in Parkersburg; West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery; Potomac State College of West Virginia University in Keyser;...
, 2001) - XConnect (University of Pennsylvania PressUniversity of Pennsylvania PressThe University of Pennsylvania Press is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
, 2000)
Interviews
- Poetry Society of AmericaPoetry Society of AmericaThe Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists including Witter Bynner. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the have included such renowned writers as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent...
(March 12, 2010) http://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/poetry/crossroads/qa_american_poetry/page_20/ - Sycamore ReviewSycamore reviewSycamore Review is a major American literary journal based at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. It is well-known for its fiction, poetry, essays, and interviews with such established writers as Michael Chabon, Nick Hornby and Michael Martone...
(September 30, 2009) http://www.sycamorereview.com/2009/09/an-interview-with-seth-abramson/
Selected Poems
- "Ruin", The Academy of American Poets (Spring 2011)
- "A Man and Boy or Two Boys or a Horseman", Georgetown Review (Spring 2010)
- "Bronx Flyweight in Drag"; four others, Notre Dame Review (Fall 2008)
- "Provincetown Fourth"; "What I Have"; "Nebraska"; two others, Poetry (Spring 2008)
Selected essays
- "2012 MFA Rankings: The Methodology Article," Poets & Writers, August 15, 2011
- "On the New Face of the Creative Writing MFA," The Huffington Post, October 28, 2010
- "The Top 25 Underrated Creative Writing MFA Programs," The Huffington Post, October 8, 2010
- "Decline of the New York City MFA," The Huffington Post, September 22, 2010
- "Six Myths About the Creative Writing MFA," The Huffington Post, September 7, 2010
External links
- The Suburban Ecstasies Blog (Author), featuring a comprehensive ranking system for the Master of Fine ArtsMaster of Fine ArtsA Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
degree in Creative WritingCreative writingCreative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
.