In 1936, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa became the first U.S. program to award graduate credit for fiction and poetry, challenging a university culture built on philology and criticism, and confronting the long-standing belief that creative “genius” could not be taught in a classroom.

Many writers still view a traditional book deal like a golden ticket, a safe harbor that guarantees money, readers, and a marketing machine at their back. Traditional publishing carries an aura of safety and inevitability that no longer matches the way the industry actually performs. Self-publishing is still framed as the riskier path, while a contract with a major house is assumed to offer security and stability.

Journalism has entered a phase in which every direction is a live-fire zone. In 2024, at least 124 journalists and media workers were killed in 18 countries, the highest toll since the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) began keeping records, and 361 were behind bars on December 1, the second-highest prison census on record.