“The same problem holds true for creative writing: in 2016 there were 3,000 MFA graduates and 119 tenure-track positions.”
Franzen’s Freedom in 2010 was the last literary novel in Publishers Weekly’s top ten. The share of Americans who read literature fell from 56.9% in 1982 to 38% in 2022. In 2016 there were 3,000 MFA graduates for 119 tenure-track jobs. Magazine ad money went to Google and Facebook, and the paying outlets for writers went with it.