Writers’ association not the answer

RE: Hamilton needs a centralized writers’ association (July 7)

As a prolific and passionate writer in Hamilton, I will join you in strengthening the local literary scene, Laura Furster. However, I don’t think the answer is the sort of “professionalization” (associations, boards of directors, grant applications, MFAs, “networking”, etc.) that so often renders the arts and letters boring and sterile today. Rather, I think we should return to the old method: get day jobs, sit up nights writing and rewriting, and get together with other writers over drinks to read our works until we finally develop the sort of voice that nails the reader to the page. It’s our creativity, not careerism, that makes Hamilton radiant. Rufus F. Hickok, Hamilton