I only read the front 60%—this book is going to be most helpful to people who have experience with or context for the MFA workshop format. The book's project is to recontextualize what we think of when we think about craft, and how we think of it, and it did so by addressing both the craft itself and how craft is pedagogically shaped. I extrapolated helpful information from the MFA-specific sections I did read: some questions about centering the audience versus centering the writer—threads that are woven throughout the book—remained helpful, and I enjoyed reading what I did. The author's perspective is needed and incisive, and this book will provide sanity to many writers struggling in the MFA environment in particular. But, not being an MFA writer myself, I derived the most helpful material from rethinking particularly notions of setting, character, and most especially audience in the book's front half. I did not feel the need to read syllabi or similar reflections.

Reading this book was a weird experience because I usually feel strongly about craft advice one way or the other, but much of the time I just felt unsettled by this advice, which likely was the aim. The book gave me mental health advice and taught me to be a better reader, and I made this face most of the time :\ . Likely that's good and it means the book did a great job. In a few years I hope to read the first half again, ideally not in a state of creative crisis, and see if this advice resonates better when I understand my own audience better.