Brian Platzer: Don’t Go Into Debt for an MFA
In this interview, author Brian Platzer discusses the real-life teacher and mentor who inspired his new novel, The Optimists.
Brian Platzer was the education columnist for The Atlantic and has written frequently for the New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, and many other publications. He currently teaches and lives with his family in Brooklyn and Paris. Follow him on X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky.
In this interview, Brian discusses the real-life teacher and mentor who inspired his new novel, The Optimists, how writing this book helped lessen a recurrent nightmare, and more.
Name: Brian Platzer
Literary agent: Trena Keating
Book title: The Optimists
Publisher: Little, Brown
Release date: February 24, 2026
Genre/category: Literary Fiction
Previous titles: Bed-Stuy is Burning;The Body Politic;Taking the Stress out of Homework
Elevator pitch: A beloved teacher tells the life story of his most extraordinary student.
What prompted you to write this book?
John Rodrick Keating, the narrator of my novel, is a real man who really was my seventh and eighth grade English teacher, and then my mentor and friend when I began teaching. He became a reverend to officiate my wedding, a week after which he had a massive stroke, and for the rest of his life—more than a decade—never spoke, read, or wrote again. He'd been a brilliant man. He'd spoken, read, and written in multiple languages fluently; read at least a book per week; and had lived a fascinating life that was primarily dedicated to his students.
As I spent time with him, him nodding in his wheelchair and me reading to him and telling him about our former students, I became obsessed with what was really going on in his brain. What he was really thinking about. I longed for the existence of some way for him to communicate. So, I started writing this novel with that invention in mind—I fictionalized a way he'd be able to write.
At the same time, I was rereading my favorite novel, Maugham's Razor Edge, in which a narrator tells the story of the most extraordinary person he'd ever met, though he only interacts with that person across long intervals of time. I borrowed that structure, made Mr. Keating the narrator, and had him tell the story of Clara's (a fictional student's) life. More than in Maugham’s novel, my narrator, Mr. Keating, cannot help but make his story as much about him as about Clara.
I myself have been teaching eighth grade now for nearly two decades and have long wanted to animate the lives of my students and colleagues. Getting to live in Mr. Keating's mind for the years it took to write was an added privilege.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
It took about a decade from when I started hoping to find a way into Mr. Keating’s mind to have a polished manuscript. Initially, I just wanted him to be a narrator, but as I continued to write, I found myself increasingly focused on his own life.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
The first draft of The Optimists was far more meta-fictional and self-referential. I was in the preface as myself, telling the story of how Rod Keating’s manuscript came into my hands, and I included footnotes tying the book to real-life events. My agent, Trena Keating, and my editor, Gaby Mongelli, helped me see that the story was stronger on its own, stripped of the multiple layers which had become barriers to entry.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
One side-effect of the medications I take for a neurological disorder I suffer from is that I have very vivid nightmares every night. I have an average of three nightmares I remember each night. Of the 20 or so nightmares I have each week, half are one-offs, worlds I enter a single time. The 10 that remain occur in a few distinct worlds. In one, I can't find my wife. In another, I try to save my children's lives. And in a third, Mr. Keating is there at school, teaching and talking like normal. When I run up to him and ask him what he's doing back alive, able to speak and teach, he gives me a wry smile as though I'd been silly to think anything could keep him out of the classroom. I've had this dream at least once a week for over a decade. That’s more than 500 times. Writing The Optimists has helped make the dreams where Mr. Keating appears less frequent and less scary.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I want people to experience how important students and teachers can be to one another.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
- Find a non-writing way to pay essential bills.
- Don’t go into debt for an MFA.
- Force yourself to write a certain number of words or sit writing for a certain number of minutes for as many days each week as possible.
