Riffs: James Gordon Bennett, professor of Creative Writing at LSU

“It’s a question, of course, as old as the books. And perhaps second only to ‘How do you get an agent?’ as the novice writer’s most fervently asked question. My experience has been that ‘great writers’ are almost always first-born, breast-fed, insufferably self-absorbed, thin-skinned, and opposed to the Controlled Substances Act. They are also autodidacts. Never prodigies. Hence, they take it for granted that the ‘right tools’ can only be acquired. Many wind up as disgruntled professors of creative writing. This I believe.”