Summary

In "A Talk to the Association of Graduate School of Deans in the Humanities," Patchett tells her audience "some things about [her] work" they "can probably relate to" (190). She describes the response to her book Commonwealth, and the inspiration for the novel. She discusses the ways in which her upbringing inspired her decisions to attend college and "not to go to graduate school" (191). Not long after finishing undergrad, however, Patchett applied and was accepted "into the Iowa Writers' Workshop" (191). She describes the program, her classes, and her experiences teaching literature. At the time, the program "fostered the Cult of Insanity which has played such a big part in the mythology of being a writer" (195). She considers the negative and positive aspects of this culture. She realizes that although she did not...