In a widely read essay entitled “MFA vs NYC,” bestselling novelist Chad Harbach  argued that the American literary scene has split into two cultures: New York publishing versus university MFA programs. The book MFA vs NYC: The Two Cultures of American Fiction brings together established writers, MFA professors and students, and New York editors, publicists, and agents to talk about these overlapping worlds, and the ways writers make (or fail to make) a living within them. This panel discussion assembles a handful of contributors to discuss the book and the subject at large. 

Elif Batuman's The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them was published in 2010. From 2010–2013, Elif was Writer in Residence at Koc University in Istanbul, where she taught a nonfiction writing workshop. She is currently a fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.

Eric Bennett's book on creative writing programs and the cold war is forthcoming from University of Iowa Press. His fiction has appeared in A Public Space. He lives in Rhode Island and teaches at Providence College.

Alexander Chee is the author of the novels Edinburgh and The Queen of the Night, which is forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. He is currently the visiting writer at the University of Texas-Austin's New Writers' Project and is based in New York. 

Chad Harbach is the author of The Art of Fielding and the editor of MFA vs NYC: The Two Cultures of American Fiction. He is also a cofounder and coeditor of n+1.

Moderated by Luis Jaramillo, Interim Director, School of Writing.

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