MA Creative Writing: The University of Manchester

Course description

The MA in Creative Writing has recently expanded to become one of the UK's leading creative writing programmes. Available as a one-year, full-time programme or part-time over two years, it is taught by six permanent tutors and open to just thirty six students - giving it one of the highest staff-student ratios in the UK.

Fiction writers may choose to focus on writing a novel or on writing short stories.

All students will have the opportunity to attend one of the six week masterclasses taught by Professor Martin Amis.

Module details

In semester one, students may choose to take two workshops - one in fiction writing and one in poetry - or they may take one workshop and one seminar - typical seminars will be "The Art of Short Fiction" and "Poetics".

In semester two students wishing to focus on poetry writing will take a poetry workshop and a seminar on Contemporary Poetry; students wishing to focus on fiction writing will take a fiction writing workshop and a seminar in Contemporary Fiction.

Career opportunities

Some of our students will go on (sometimes several years after completing their studies) to become published writers but most will not. The primary purpose of the Creative Writing MA in Manchester is therefore not to produce published writers but to help writers fulfil their potential and to help them understand and enjoy the literary traditions within which they are working. Graduates may go on to work in publishing, journalism, Arts administration, or (perhaps via a PhD programme) into university teaching.

Entry requirements

Academic entry qualification overview: A First or Upper Second class honours degree or its overseas equivalent, in English or a closely related area.

English language: Students whose first language is not English are required to take either the IELTS or TOEFL test. On the IELTS test applicants are normally expected to score a minimum of 7.0 overall; on the TOEFL test a minimum score of 600 (paper test) or 250 (computer test) is expected.