I teach undergraduate and graduate writers. I read a lot of applicant writing samples, as writers apply to enter our grad program. Etc. More and more, I have seen the percentage of fantasy and fantasy/horror material greatly increase. It seems as the years pass, I am now getting about 25% of student writers who only want to write in a specific genre. Zombies are huge. Vampires too. Tons of Sci Fi.
None of this is done very well, but so? They are student writers; they are learning and improving. Questions:
1.) Why do I care if students write in a genre outside literary? Does genre fiction have a stigma?
2.) Those out there that read student or peer writing, have you seen the same increase?
3.) Is Kurt Vonnegut a Sci Fi writer? Is Mary Shelley horror? Back to question one…