Creative Writing

Our MLitt provides a year-long, non-teaching alternative to the American originating MFA award. 

www.creativewriting.stir.ac.uk

The MLitt Creative Writing offers the opportunity to produce a body of work – poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction – over the course of a creative and stimulating year. The degree combines intensive writers’ workshops,  technique-focused option modules, and one-to-one tuition by the distinguished writers on staff and external mentors.

Course objectives

The course is designed to develop the talents of creative individuals, allowing them to focus in-depth on a project while offering them creative encounters with a range of genres and working practices, drawing on Stirling’s rich expertise in contemporary literature, publishing, film, media, and journalism.

The Mlitt Creative Writing can also act as a step toward doctorial study, for example a PhD in Creative Writing.

Entrance requirements

An upper second class or better single or combined Honours degree in a relevant subject or subjects from a UK university or an equivalent qualification. Applicants with other qualifications or other appropriate experience may be admitted on the recommendation of the Course Director.

English language requirements

If English is not your first language, you must provide evidence of your proficiency such as a minimum IELTS score of 6 (minimum 5.5 in each skill), or TOEFL: Listening 21, Reading 22, Speaking 23, Writing 21.

Funding

information on possible sources of funding

Modes of study

Full-time: one year
Part-time: 27 months

Course start date

September

Application procedure

Use the online enquiry service to find out more or to request a prospectus.

If you are ready to apply you can fill out an online application form now.

For more information, contact Professor Kathleen Jamie (poetry) or Dr. Paula Morris (fiction) in English Studies. For general enquiries and information on application deadlines, contact Alison Scott.

Structure and content

The teaching year at Stirling is divided into two semesters, which run from mid-September to late December, and from mid-February to the end of May.

In both the autumn and spring semesters, all full-time students take the core module, the Writer’s Workshop. In this core module, students read and discuss peer work and present their own creative work for discussion. Part-time students will take the Writer’s Workshop in the autumn semester of their first year and spring semester of their second year.

Students will also take two option modules, drawn from a changing list. Options may be genre-based (poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, screenwriting); explore approaches – for example, environmental writing, or writing for young adults; or investigate practical skills like editing fiction and scripts. Details of the modules for the next academic year will be posted on the creative writing web site.

Full-time students will take one option per semester; part-time students will take one in the spring semester of their first year and one in the autumn semester of their second year.

In addition, all students will take a module over both semesters (in the spring semesters for part-time students) on Research Methods. This two-semester module is offered to all post-graduate students in the Arts and Humanities, and will include seminars – in publishing, creative pedagogy, archival research, and professional writing, among others – specifically tailored to creative writing students.

Delivery and assessment

Assessment for the workshops will depend on the literary form chosen (prose or poetry) but will be based on reading journals and/or working notebooks, book reviews and in some cases completed pieces of work.

Assessment for each option module will likewise vary but may include a critical essay,  a journal, a revised collection of writing exercises, presentations, or a short project.

The most significant piece of work in the programme is the creative dissertation, due at the end of the summer. This will be 20,000 words of prose or a collection of 15-20 poems. Students work towards this dissertation all year, not simply in the summer, and will have the opportunity to workshop elements of the dissertation throughout both semesters. A dissertation may be a portfolio of shorter texts – stories, personal essays, poems – or part of a novel. It’s expected to be revised and polished original work, written and presented to professional standards.

Those who do not embark on the dissertation may be awarded a Diploma. The work of the best students completing the course  may be deemed worthy of an MLitt with Distinction.

Preparation

Contact Alison Scott for information on your timetable and reading lists

Why study Creative Writing at Stirling?

Course Director

Professor Kathleen Jamie

RAE rating

Over half of our submissions in the latest Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) were found to be ‘Internationally Excellent’ or ‘World-leading’.

English Studies is joint first in the UK in the National Student Survey 2011.

Staff of note

For more information, contact Professor Kathleen Jamie (poetry) or Dr. Paula Morris (fiction). For general enquiries and information on application deadlines, contact Alison Scott.

Find out more

http://www.creativewriting.stir.ac.uk/

Career opportunities

The Creative Writing MLitt provides an opportunity to produce and revise creative work, a step on the road towards becoming a published writer.  Skills developed through modules in creative writing pedagogy, research skills, and publishing are useful in careers in education and business.

Completing a Master’s degree is also a route to doctoral study (for example, a PhD in Creative Writing) encouraged by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Advanced education in the Arts, the practical experience of self-management and the production of a dissertation are significant transferable skills for many careers.