Leaving the Grove

Book excerpt: "Leaving the Grove is the first book-length work devoted to the phenomenon of "quit lit"-farewells to academia by those at all levels (graduate student through tenured professor) who have elected to resign their posts or stop looking for one. Part I anthologizes classics of the genre along with some original contributions, while Part II comprises secondary essays exploring quit lit from various critical and historical perspectives. The volume as a whole uses quit lit as a lens through which to examine the academic labor system, precarity, graduate education, and the future of the professoriate. Among the contributors are Rebecca Schuman, Karen Kelsky, Alexandra Lord, Kelly J. Baker, Melissa Dalgleish, Erin Bartram, Katie Rose Guest Pryal, L. Maren Wood, and Leonard Cassuto"--