‘I want to be ripped to shreds’: writers flock to MFAs - but does it breed elitist literature?

Thomas Pynchon was known to avoid the press and refuse interviews.

There are only two official photographs of the Gravity’s Rainbow author available publicly – one taken at high school, the other during his time in the navy.

He is the embodiment of the American image of a great writer: a mysterious recluse who works in a turret alone.

These days, the writerly lone wolf is more a myth than it is a reality.

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