MA Creative Writing: Innovation and Experiment

On our course in Creative Writing you will develop work at the cutting-edge of new and evolving practices so that it really stands out, making it unique and distinctively attractive to the current market. You will do this by playing to your strengths while engaging with fundamental issues in the theory of literature. As a result you will produce highly original and exciting creative writing in prose, poetry or script, hybrid, visual or experimental forms, while further developing your personal practice through critical reflection.

This programme will be of interest to writers of prose, poetry, scripts and other forms. You will not be required to commit to any one form, and will have the opportunity to move between or mix forms if you wish.

You will:

• Learn from internationally published and performed award-winning writers in a vibrant environment that nurtures your creative development.
• Develop innovative approaches to creative writing that makes your work cutting-edge, while playing to your strength and interests.
• Invest your writing with rigour and depth, interacting with theoretical ideas to provide a unique preparation for a creative writing phd.

WHAT WILL I BE DOING?

Your own creative activity is the main driver for learning on this course. It is supported by regular workshops, lectures and seminars, personal tutorials, masterclasses with visiting writers and other activities such as event attendance.

Students on the full-time and part-time routes will study together and have additional opportunities to share and discuss work via the university’s virtual learning environment.

CAREER LINKS

CAREER PROSPECTS

Many of our graduates participate actively in literary culture through organising and entering literary competitions, setting up and editing anthologies, publishing work elsewhere, and taking up internships with publishers of poetry and fiction or in arts administration.

Whether our students are writers of experimental prose, poetry or script, mixed-media creators, visual text makers or performance artists, we prepare Creative Writing MA graduates for a life in the creative industries, offering instruction on production and project funding bids, PhD applications, and journal writing.

The course benefits from a programme of visiting writers to the English Subject Group. In addition, at least two workshops per academic year are convened by key figures in innovative writing. Past visitors have included: Lucy Burnett, Robert Sheppard, Phil Davenport, Allen Fisher, Camille Martin, Carrie Etter, Philip Kuhn, Tony Trehy and Christine Kennedy.

Other industry links are Carcanet Press who offer one week’s internship in their marketing department, Arts Council England, International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Knives Forks and Spoons Poetry Press, Portico Library and Working Class Movement Library.