[ A] history of Americas most famous creative-writing program . . . [ that] opens with the boozing, brawling John Berrymanhe of the blow-torch approach to teachingreceiving a punch from a student.Hermione Hoby, New Yorker
'I read this in two or three days because I just couldnt stop ... If youve ever been interested in MFA programs or even just Iowas infamous workshop, this is a must-read.' - Jaime Herndon, Book Riot
This book provides readers with a rich history of how the nations most important writing program has had an outsized impact on American literary and commercial culture.David Haven Blake, College of New Jersey
David Dowlings A Delicate Aggression is irresistible reading. It is a fascinating window into the intimate workings of evolving talent and cross-hatching of competition and support in literary communities.Shirley Goek-Lin Lim, University of California, Santa Barbara
A fascinating look at the way writers are taught how to teach themselves how to write. I spent six years in a similar workshop and can still hear their voices in my head.Steve Berry, author of The Malta Exchange
Here lie the Workshops secrets, its lore, its pride and exclusions, its intimacies and competitions, its innovations of the business of letters, its unapologetic and promising talents.Annie Liontas, author of Let Me Explain You
David Dowlings A Delicate Aggression isnt just a meticulously researched and elegantly wrought history of the Iowa Writers Workshop. It is also an essential and acute portrait of American literature since World War I. And beyond that it is a compelling portrait gallery of some of this countrys most interesting literary personalities, an insiders travel guide to Iowa City, and a compelling and propulsive read.Nickolas Butler, author of Shotgun Lovesongs
