Creative Writing

Each year the Centre also plays host to visiting Writer Fellows, who in recent years have included Claire Keegan and Colette Bryce. Distinguished alumni of the programme include Chris Binchy and Sean O’Reilly. Nicole Flattery and Lisa Harding have emerged as exciting new talents in the past few years.

The M.Phil. in Creative Writing programme is designed for students who are seriously committed to writing, are practising, or are prospective authors, and who wish to develop their writing within the framework of a university course and in the context of an Irish literary milieu. It involves the close and critical examination of the student’s work in group workshops and under guided personal tuition. At Trinity you will also join a diverse, supportive and dynamic community of students, scholars, and writers in a world-leading English department right at the heart of one of the world’s great literary cities.

Is This Course For Me?
This course is intended for students who are seriously committed to writing, are practising, or are prospective authors, and who wish to develop their writing within the framework of a university course and in the context of an Irish literary milieu.

Course Structure
The M.Phil. in Creative Writing is designed as a one-year, full-time course. Teaching is delivered through lectures, group workshops and personal tuition. Much of this takes place in the Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing, which offers a supportive and sociable working environment for the School of English’s creative writers. Students are expected to continue developing their own individual work throughout the year. The course is assessed by means of various essays and portfolios, culminating in working towards a final dissertation portfolio of 15-16,000 words.

Course Content
The centrepiece of the Creative Writing M.Phil. is the three-hour weekly workshop. This is where you bring work and get to listen to others. The idea of it is daunting, but reality is hardworking, inclusive and dynamic. For the first term, students are encouraged to range across form and genre, to break habits and open new vistas. This is where students start to see the core of their portfolio emerge, although most don't see the portfolio taking shape until the following Spring. The Structure in Fiction and Poetry module works through the shapes and uses, the interior dynamics of writing. Writing for a Living addresses the demands of reviewing and essay writing. Both modules are structured and intellectually rigorous but at heart involve writers talking about writing and bringing the class into the orbit of their own experience.

In the second semester, the weekly Briena Staunton lectures brings a series of established writers in to talk about the practice of writing. A visiting Writer Fellow also leads a workshop, offering students a further chance to engage with a working writer in close-up.

The creation of a final portfolio is the formal endpoint of the M.Phil., but it is equally important for us to see writers emerge in rich, artistically textured, and diverse surroundings. That is the enduring satisfaction.

Applicants are expected to hold a university degree or equivalent qualification (at least an upper second, or equivalent, GPA of at least 3.3). In addition, applicants must submit a portfolio of recent creative work. The portfolio of sample work should include no more than 3,000 words of prose (short stories, excerpt/s from a novel or drama) or six to eight poems.

1 year full-time

Next Intake September 2024

Closing Date 28th March 2024

Career Opportunities
Graduates have pursued careers in a range of areas including journalism, scriptwriting, copywriting, advertising, publishing, editing, the arts and culture sector, broadcasting, librarianship, education and research. Many alumni have also gone on to become successful writers.