Creative Writing

Director: John Burnside (jb44@st-andrews.ac.uk)
Other teachers: Robert Crawford, Meaghan Delahunt, Kathleen Jamie, and Don Paterson

Entrance Requirements: normally a good degree with Honours from a UK university or its equivalent, though places on the programme are sometimes found for applicants demonstrating exceptional talent.

Programme Duration: one year

Aim of Programme: to provide intensive critical and creative study in three major forms of literature (poetry, the novel and the short story), and to encourage the development of students' original work, whether in prose or verse. Students should be adept at academic study as well as their own writing, and will be taught by published fiction writers and poets, who are familiar with the problems, pressures and pleasures of writing.

Programme: Students take either EN5004 Writing Poetry I or EN5006 Writing Fiction I in the first semester, and either EN5005 Writing Poetry II or EN5007 Writing Fiction II in the second semester. All students take EN5101 Research Skills for Creative Writing. MLitt students spend the summer months writing a dissertation, which may be part of a novel-in-progress, some short stories or a collection of poems.

Please note that the MLitt in Creative Writing is extremely popular and that there are many more applicants than can be admitted. It is therefore advisable to apply for this course as early as possible.