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  • Creative Writing (MA)

Contact our course team

Department of English
tel: 020 7079 0689
email: office@eng.bbk.ac.uk

Admissions tutors

Professor Russell Celyn Jones

  • Duration
      • Two years part-time or one year full-time.
  • Attendance
      • One evening a week part-time; two evenings a week full-time.
      • October–September.
  • Location
      • Central London.
  • Entry requirements
      • A good honours degree (this requirement may be waived if students can demonstrate exceptional talent).
      • You must submit a portfolio of work (5000 words) and a personal statement in which you discuss your current writing, present ideas for future projects and place your work in the context of contemporary writing.
      • Students are selected on the basis of their portfolio and statement, an interview and their degree.
      • If English is not your first language, an IELTS score of 7.0 or equivalent is required.
  • Teaching
    • Each session is generally two hours, and there are further regular one-to-one tutorials throughout the year.
  • Assessment

    • Short creative pieces and a critical essay (40 per cent). A dissertation in one of the following genres: either a novella, novel or collection of short stories, with a preface of 3000 words (60 per cent).

  • Fees (2009/2010)
      • Part-time (home/EU students): £3552 pa
      • Part-time (overseas students): £6168 pa
      • Full-time (home/EU students): £6690 pa
      • Full-time (overseas students): £12,336 pa
  • Funding

    • Applicants with a strong academic background may apply for AHRC awards (UK and EU-based applicants only).

  • When to apply
      • You should apply as early as possible.
      • The closing application date for those wishing to be considered for Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) studentships is normally 1 February and, for other applications, normally 1 May.
  • Make your application
  • Supplementary information

Creative Writing (MA) - 2010/2011 entry


Why study this course at Birkbeck?

  • Aims to develop at a professional level the craft of fiction.
  • Practical courses on publishing, producing and editing creative work offer contact with professionals, such as publishers and literary agents.
  • In addition to working with the established writers who teach the degree, there are masterclasses with internationally acclaimed writers in the summer term.

This programme seeks to develop your confidence, sensitivity and discernment in the analysis of your own and fellow students’ work, along with greater critical understanding of contemporary literary developments and the place of your own writing within them. It also trains you to a professional level in editing your own and others' creative work and provides a practical understanding of publishing and producing imaginative work within the creative industries. It allows you to complete, under substantial expert supervision, a creative project of a high literary quality.

What will I be studying?

The programme includes seminars and workshops in fiction and also seminars in contemporary literature.

Core modules:

  • Writing and Reading Seminar
  • The Writing Workshop
  • Contemporary Literature 1: Life Writing Workshop
  • Contemporary Literature 2: Genre and Narrative.

Option modules may include:

  • Children's Literature
  • Contemporary British Poetry
  • Currents in Contemporary Writing: Encounters with the Real
  • Introduction to Screenwriting
  • Life Writing: Theory and Practice
  • Publishing
  • Reading Time in the Twentieth Century
  • Transformations in Gender and Sexuality: Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood, Jeanette Winterson

Find out more about these modules.

Study resources

An annual creative writing magazine, theMechanics' Institute Review, edited from Birkbeck and featuring writing from the course as a showcase for the degree, with wide distribution beyond Birkbeck to literary agents, publishers, etc.

Make your application

You can apply online from the link below.

What can I go on to do?

If you are interested in further research, we offer an MPhil/PhD in English.

Creative writing graduates also go on to careers in writing, screenwriting, journalism, editing or publishing.

Last modified: 08 Feb 2010 16.22

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