Eleven students were sitting around a table at Barnard College the other day expressly to learn how to write fiction, and their teacher, the novelist Maxine Swann, told them, I cannot teach you to write.”
The students did not flinch. They knew that despite such a modest demurral, Barnard has helped an exceptionally large group of women become distinguished contemporary writers. Barnard’s alumnae include Mary Gordon, Jhumpa Lahiri, Anna Quindlen, Edwidge Danticat, Erica Jong, Rosellen Brown, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Tama Janowitz and Ntozake Shange, as well as older alumnae, like Zora Neale Hurston, who have entered the literary canon. NYTimes reports.
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