MFA Creative Writing
Graduate Taught (level 9 nfq, credits 90)
MFA Creative Writing provides close supervision and direction of a novel / a collection of short stories or a collection of poetry already in draft form or well underway prior to the commencement of the course.
-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
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
Programme outcomes
-On successful completion of the programme, students will have expertise in close editing and overall structuring a work of fiction / a collection of poetry.
-An in-depth knowledge of successful works in the field / genre in which they are working.
-An ability to select , negotiate, adapt and implement
approaches / techniques appropriate to the work in progress.
-Mastery of pacing, narrative coherence and ending.
-Insight into the different sources and methods of research, with particular emphasis on the assimilation of same into the work in progress.
-Competence in preparing a manuscript, a synopsis and a biog. for presentation to a literary agent / publisher.
-Participated in a weekly visiting writer's programme, contributed to an anthology and attend a selection of the literary events and festivals for which the city is renowned.
-Optional: a broad overview of the pedagogic principals underlying the teaching of creative writing, together with an ability to construct a programme based on same and suited to the developmental stage of students in question [b] An opportunity to teach an undergraduate elective in Creative Writing.