Creative Writing

MFA Creative Writing
Graduate Taught (level 9 nfq, credits 90)

- Develop your own writing skills under experienced tuition and supervision

- Structural and line editing of the work in progress is a core component and class groups in this module are from two to four students

- Taught by experienced, published staff of international reputation

Who should apply?
Full Time option suitable for:
Domestic(EEA) applicants: Yes
International (Non EEA) applicants currently residing outside of the EEA Region. Yes

This course is suited to students who have already acquired the skills associated with a course in creative writing and have a work in progress to which they now wish to devote the greater part of an academic year with a a view to offering that work for publication.

Course Description
The lectures, seminars, workshops and supervision meetings aim to provide committed writers with taught classes on theories and practices of writing, presentation and editing techniques, creative reading of selected texts, and supervision of a major writing project. Among the important issues addressed on an ongoing basis are voice and structure. Every effort is made to ensure that a student progresses on these as well as many other fronts.

UCD is associated with some of Ireland's greatest writers:
UCD has long been associated with some of Ireland's greatest writers, including James Joyce, Flann O'Brien, Mary Lavin, Anthony Cronin, Maeve Binchy, John McGahern, Neil Jordan, Conor McPherson, Colm Tóibín, Hugo Hamilton, Joseph O'Connor, Emma Donoghue and many others. The distinguished playwright, Frank McGuinness, is Professor of Creative Writing, and internationally acclaimed novelist, Colm Tóibín is Adjunct Professor.

Vision and Values Statement
A fundamental tenet of the Creative Writing Programme at UCD is a belief in the value of learning from writers who have mastered their craft. Accordingly, the emphasis is on learning to read like writers. Students who embark on this course will already have acquired many of the skills associated with a programme such as the MA in Creative Writing. They will have a full work in progress and will be given close individual supervision in the progress and completion of that work, with a view to offering it for publication at the end of the course. There are two streams in the MFA, fiction and poetry, with six or less students in each, so the learning environment while upbeat and in every sense enabling, is necessarily quite concentrated.

Stage 1 - Core
Creative Writing Workshop IICRWT40150
Reading Like A WriterCRWT40260
Line Editing ICRWT40280
Line Editing IICRWT40290
Final ProjectCRWT40300

This course is suited to students who have already acquired the skills associated with a full programme in creative writing [MA, M Phil Creative Writing, BFA, BA Creative Writing Major/Joint Major] or equivalent and have a work in progress to which they now wish to devote the greater part of an academic year with a view to offering that work for publication. Applicants whose first language is not English must also demonstrate English language proficiency of IELTS 7.5 (no band less than 7.0 in each element), or equivalent.

MFA Creative Writing FT (Z197)
Duration 1 Years Attend Full Time Deadline Rolling*

* Courses will remain open until such time as all places have been filled, therefore early application is advised

1 year full-time.

Careers & Employability
Many graduates of the MFA in Creative Writing establish successful writing lives, several securing publishing contracts. MFA student Colin Barrett (2015) won the Guardian First Fiction Prize with Young Skins then went on to win both the Frank O'Conner International short story award and the Rooney Prize for Literature. 2015, has also seen the publication of novels by four of our recent graduates; Susan Stairs, The Boy Between; Paula McGrath, Generation; Andrea Carter, Death at Whitewater Church; Henrietta McKervey, What Becomes Of Us. Henrietta won both the Hennessy First Fiction Award and the UCD Maeve Binchy Travel Award in 2014. The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Prize 2011 was awarded to graduate, Helena Nolan, while in 2013, graduate Jessica Traynor won the Hennessy Emerging Poet Award and the Hennessy Writer of the Year Award in 2013.