In Defense of Genre Fiction

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“I believe in the power of fiction…” was how I started my 2022–2023 MFA statements of purpose. There was really no follow-up, so even if anyone had gotten to my SOPs, it would have turned out pretty bad anyway. What I mean to say, though, is that I believe in the power of fiction to reach the unreachable. bell hooks said, in “Theory As Liberatory Practice” that “any theory that cannot be shared in everyday conversation cannot be used to educate the public.” When I read this phrase, I exclaimed (maybe aloud, maybe in my mind): “You explained my thinking to me!” The true power of genre fiction lies is not only for the interested to build bridges to the marginalized, but, more importantly, to create a bridge where one would otherwise not exist.

My application materials last application cycle, I quipped with my partner, were not for the male gaze. To be fair, my aggressively crude, surreal, feminist themes tend to be a little unpalatable to those who are still enmeshed in patriarchal, neurotypical, and/or otherwise colonized mindsets. In Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses the argument is made that “(We) are…