For all the hate MFAs get online, I’d be interested in seeing any data on whether or not a significant number of top-selling authors (or even people who get positive critical attention) have MFAs.

Knausgaard doesn’t have one. Rooney doesn’t, either, and neither does Zadie Smith or Szalay. Three of the six National Book Award winners from the 2020s don’t have MFAs. (Everett’s Wikipedia page says he has an ‘MA in fiction,’ which I counted as an MFA for these purposes.)

My hypothesis: MFAs don’t impact literary culture as much as their critics would like to believe.