And now it’s a book. Chad Harbach’s essay from n+1 about “the two cultures of American fiction”—the MFA mill and the NYC establishment—has grown into a collection of 19 essays, including pieces by George Saunders, Emily Gould, and Elif Batuman, all of them addressing the question of how, exactly, a person becomes a writer in this day and age.

One lesson of MFA vs NYC is that writers are almost always broke. Luckily for broke writers, 9 of the book’s essays are currently available online. So if you don’t want to buy MFA vs NYC—perhaps because you’re writing a novel about Moldavian zookeepers—here is half of it for free.

“MFA vs NYC” by Chad Harbach

“A Mini-Manifesto” by George Saunders

“The Fictional Future” by David Foster Wallace

“How To Be Popular” by Melissa Flashman

“People Wear Khakis” by Lorin Stein with Astri von Arbin Ahlander

“Money (2006)” by Keith Gessen

“The Invisible Vocation” by Elif Batuman

“Dirty Little Secret” by Fredric Jameson

“Reality Publishing” by Darryl Lorenzo Wellington

And some extra tidbits.

A few of these pieces were edited—shortened and/or given a different title–for the book. We’re using the titles from the book itself.

UPDATE:

Three more essays have been published online. Thanks to Michael Bourne at The Millions for pointing them out.

“The Pyramid Scheme” by Eric Bennett

“Into the Woods” by Emily Gould

“Seduce the Whole World” by Carla Blumenkranz

– Brian Hurley