Creative Writing (MA) - 2013/2014 entry

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 develop, under expert supervision, a creative writing project of your choice.

• Aims to develop the craft of fiction at a professional level.
• 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, you will have contact with industry professionals who offer a series of platform discussions in the summer term.
• Find out what our students say about our courses.

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: you choose either Genre and Narrative or Poetry Workshop, or Writing for Young Adults Workshop.

Option modules may include:

• Introduction to Playwriting 
• Introduction to Screenwriting
• Publishing.

You can also select your spring option from any of those offered by the other MA programmes in the Department of English and Humanities.

Find out more in our departmental handbook.

An annual creative writing magazine, the Mechanics' Institute Review, edited by Birkbeck MA Creative Writing students and featuring writing from the course as a showcase for the degree, with wide distribution beyond Birkbeck to literary agents, publishers, etc. In addition we have our own website, The Writers' Hub.

Find out more about our range of world-class research resources.

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

Graduates go on to careers in writing, screenwriting, journalism, editing and publishing.

The Birkbeck Writers' Hub is an interactive web portal, which provides a platform for high-quality new writing, a forum for the exchange of ideas, a library of resources for writers and a site for the dissemination of knowledge and good practice from the Birkbeck Writing Programme.

• Please submit a portfolio of writing of around 5000 words with your application form. This can be a couple of short stories or a section of a novel with a synopsis (or a combination of the two). Please note that this MA is fiction-focused, with some provision for life writing, poetry, playwriting and screenwriting, however the portfolio should be in the genre of fiction.
• Applicants must also submit a personal statement (approximately 1000 words), in which you discuss your current writing, present ideas for future projects and place your work in the context of contemporary writing. The portfolio and personal statement can be pasted into the online application form, or emailed directly to a.taylor@bbk.ac.uk

• We begin considering applications in January, and applicants are encouraged to apply by 1 June, as the programme is very popular.
• Selected candidates will be invited to interview (interviews are held throughout the spring and early summer).