Often, writing teachers are has-beens, having tumbled down from the heights of their careers into career-flatlining jobs.

But, apparently, even programs as well-established as the Iowa Writers' Workshop want writers on-the-rise, perhaps hoping that writers who still make writing their first priority are better at teaching students how to do the same.

From the NY Times' profile of Lan Samantha Chang, the new director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop:

The novelist Marilynne Robinson, who was on the seven-member search committee said, "We felt we couldn't go wrong choosing any of the candidates." The others were Jim Shepard, Ben Marcus and Richard Bausch.

But she noted of Ms. Chang that "her career is on the upswing, which makes her a valuable presence as an active writer."