for AmCon:<\/p>\n
When Leslie Jamison realized she had to quit drinking, she was also giving up on everything she\u2019d ever been taught about literature. By the time Jamison took her last drink (so far), she had been taught by the Iowa Writers\u2019 Workshop, and by most of her mentors and professors, a credo totally opposite from what she was learning in her 12-Step recovery. Lit culture prized originality, but AA scorned \u201cterminal uniqueness,\u201d the false belief that you alone cannot not be helped by what had helped so many before you. Jamison found herself forced to turn from experiment to tradition; from the lone genius to the chorus of the anonymous; from \u201cmake it new\u201d to clich\u00e9; from art for art\u2019s sake to useful, lifesaving writing; from linear progression and clear endings to the humility of \u201cone day at a time\u201d and \u201cmy last drink\u2014so far.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
more<\/a> (and yes, I was amused to learn that my obsessive rejection<\/a> of \u201corigin stories\u201d for addiction is a recognizable trope of alcoholics\u2019 writing)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
for AmCon: When Leslie Jamison realized she had to quit drinking, she was also giving up on everything she\u2019d ever been taught about literature. By the time Jamison took her last drink (so far), she had been taught by the Iowa Writers\u2019 Workshop, and by most of her mentors and professors, a credo totally opposite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,177],"tags":[290,34,52,55,19],"class_list":["post-11380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-too-much-is-never-enough","tag-all-of-life-is-a-choice-of-genre","tag-humiliation","tag-if-whiskey-were-a-woman-id-be-married-for-sure","tag-prayers-to-ven-matt-talbot","tag-suspicion-of-traditions-so-new-wave"],"yoast_head":"\n
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