Course Details
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Brief Description
This programme is available full-time over one academic year or part-time over two years. It enables students to develop their Creative Writing skills through consideration of the work of established writers; through study of the many aspects of a piece of successful Creative Writing; through assignments that foster strategies for revision of work; and through an understanding of the requirements of the redrafting, submission and publication processes
The University of Limerick offers a Master of Arts in Creative Writing. Our Chair of Creative Writing is Joseph O’Connor (author of ten novels including Ghost Light, the million-selling Star of the Sea, Shadowplay, winner of the Novel of the Year Award at the 2019 Irish Book Awards, shortlisted for the UK's prestigious Costa Novel Award, 2020, My Father’s House and The Ghosts of Rome). Our outstanding teachers include multiple award-winning, twice Booker-Prize-longlisted Donal Ryan, (author of The Spinning Heart, From a Low and Quiet Sea, Strange Flowers and Heart, Be at Peace), Irish Book Award nominees Prof Sarah Moore Fitzgerald (The Apple Tart of Hope and A Strange Kind of Brave) and Prof Eoin Devereux, and our acclaimed Meskell UL Fifty Poet in Residence, Dr Emily Cullen. Adjunct Professor Kit deWaal (My Name is Leon) is an important advisory member of the team and offers occasional masterclasses on our MA.
Our Creative Writing students enjoy teaching-visits and readings from outstanding contemporary authors. Visitors to UL Creative Writing have included Louise O’Neill, Claire Keegan, Melatu Uche Okorie, Colin Barrett, Roddy Doyle, Anna Carey, Paul Lynch, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Sarah Davis-Goff, John Boyne, Fiona Scarlett and Sarah Gilmartin, Louise Kennedy, Kevin Barry, Mary O’Malley, Sara Baume, Liz Nugent, Marian Keyes, Sinead Gleeson, Niamh Mulvey, Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ford and Laureates for Irish Fiction Anne Enright, Sebastian Barry and Colm Toibín.
For dissertation, recent students have offered work across a range of creative genres, from memoir to short stories, chapters of novels, collections of poems and song lyrics. Our Creative Writing student cohort is always diverse and has attracted students from the United States, Puerto Rico, Australia, Brazil, India, South Africa and the UK as well as wider Europe and Ireland. Mature students are always a very welcome part of our MA class.
Local literary attractions include the Limerick Literary Weekend in Honour of Kate O’Brien; the Doolin Writers’ Weekend, the Eigse Michael Hartnett Poetry Arts and Literary Festival; Cuisle, the Limerick International Poetry Festival, the Ennis Book Clubs Festival, the world-famous Listowel Writers' Week in north County Kerry, and our own UL Creative Writing Festival, programmed by Prof Joseph O’Connor.
In addition to our very high-level teaching and our excellent Faculty, a unique aspect of our MA in Creative Writing programme is that it provides students with practical experience in working with community groups, learning marketable skills and applying them to projects that will be impactful in community settings. This is facilitated through our Creative Writers in the Community modules offered in Autumn and Spring semesters. Normally, you’ll form a partnership (with one other student) or a team (with several other students) and will research, develop, design (semester 1) and implement and deliver (semester 2) a community project in collaboration with community groups under the guidance of Faculty. Projects might include working with students in primary or secondary school settings, engaging with writing festivals, writing organisations and other groups, organising and hosting open mic events or completing a feasibility study.
Full time Programme: Full timer students do all four modules in semester 1 and all five modules in semester 2
| Semester 1 (Autumn ) | Semester 2 (Spring) | Summer |
Core: EH6051 Creative Writing 1: 3-hour weekly workshop (9 credits) EH6061 Project Development for Creative Writers (6 credits). 2 to 3 hours weekly. Two Writing and Reading Weeks in which no classes take place. EH6091: Creative Writers in the Community 1: Planning and Preparation, (3 credits). Module runs Weeks 6 – 12 inclusive.
Electives (choose one): All three hours weekly, all 9 credits each. EH6021 Gender and Sexuality in Irish Writing EH6031 Literature, Film, and Human Rights EH6072 Situating Irish Gothic EH6011 Literary Modernism | Core: EH6082 Creative Writing 2: 3-hour weekly workshop (9 credits) EH6112 Individual Creative Writing Project / Dissertation Rehearsal (6 credits). Mainly one-to-one meetings, some group gatherings. EH6152: Creative Writers in the Community 2: Engaging and Implementing. (3 credits). Module runs Weeks 1-6 inclusive. EH6132 Principles of Storytelling and Writerly Reading (6 credits) 2 hours weekly
Electives (choose one): All three hours weekly, all 9 credits each. EH6012 Politics and American Literature EH6022 Postcolonial Theory and Literature EH6032 Issues in Modern and Contemporary Poetry EH6042 Feminist Literary Theory EH6062 Irish Americas in Literature and Culture | Core: EH6013 Creative Writing Dissertation (30 credits).
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| Total Credits: 27 | Total Credits: 33 | Total Credits: 30 |
Part time Programme:
THE PART-TIME (TWO-YEAR OPTION) (E.U. STUDENTS ONLY)
Full-time students on the MA in Creative Writing take four modules in the Autumn semester, five in the Spring semester, and write their dissertations that summer.
Part-time students (who for Visa reasons must be EU citizens) take the modules as follows:
a. Year 1 Autumn semester: Creative Writing 1 plus an elective
b. Year 1 Spring semester: Creative Writing 2 plus an elective
c. Year 1 Summer - free
d. Year 2 Autumn semester: Project Development for Creative Writers, plus Creative Writers in the Community
e. Year 2 Spring semester: Individual Creative Writing Project, plus Principles of Storytelling, plus Creative Writers in the Community
f. Year 2 Summer - Dissertation
Further information on modules can be found on our book of modules site.
How to Apply
Applications are open for the MA in Creative Writing for Academic Year 2023/4. We do not operate a deadline; instead we close applications when the class is full. Generally we accept a maximum of 24 applicants. Many applicants for our Creative Writing MA have a first or second class Level 8 honours degree (NFQ or other internationally recognised equivalent) but application is open to everyone, including applicants who do not have a primary degree but have what might be considered equivalent experience, perhaps in the arts, publishing, bookselling, writing, creativity or some related activity. Please note, we always receive more applications than we have places to offer.
Applicants must accompany their formal online application with a 3,000 word sample of their creative writing (this can be one single piece or several pieces totalling 3,000 words) and a one-page letter setting out why they would like to work with us on our MA programme as opposed to the many other Creative Writing MA programmes now available.
Previous experience of Creative Writing workshops is helpful.
The Application Portfolio is assessed by a small committee of staff, who judge submissions on their originality, technique, and readability. Please note that we are not in a position to offer feedback to applicants who are not offered a place.
Applicants must satisfy the English Language Requirements of the University.
Applications should be submitted online.
Portfolio
Admission will also be based upon a piece or pieces of creative work up to 3000 words submitted by the student as part of the application process. This might be a novel extract, a short story, a set of poems or a screenplay. This creative work will be assessed by a small committee of staff, who will judge submissions on their originality, technique, and intellectual rigour.
Supporting Statement:
Please include the following in your supporting statement submission:
- Why you chose the MA Creative Writing programme at UL as opposed to other Creative Writing programmes on offer?
- Indicate familiarity with Faculty teaching on the programme and their publishing record
- Indicate familiarity with the MA programme structure
- Personal motivations for doing the programme
WHAT TO INCLUDE WITH YOUR APPLICATION:
- Qualification transcripts and certificates
- A copy of your birth certificate or passport
- A copy of your CV
- Portfolio
- Supporting Statement
- If your qualifications have been obtained in a country where English is an official language this will suffice.
- If this is not available, the following additional documents must be provided:
- English translation of your qualification(s)/transcripts AND
- English language competency certificate
- Please click here for Further Information on English Language Requirements
EU - Full Time €8,400 - Part Time €4,300 per annum*
Non- EU - Full Timer € 18,800 - Part Time €10,100 per annum*
*Please note year 2 fees are subject to change
Further information on fees and payment of fees is available from the Student Fees Office website. All fee related queries should be directed to the Student Fees Office (Phone: +353 61 213 007 or email student.fees.office@ul.ie.)
Recent graduates of our Creative Writing MA have been published nationally and internationally and have won or been short-listed for major literary prizes, including the prestigious Hennessy New Writer of the Year Award, the RTE Francis McManus Award, the Listowel Writers’ Week Bryan MacMahon Short Story Award, the Arts Council Next Generation Award and the Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair Award
Pippa Slattery, MA Creative Writing 2020/21
“My confidence in my writing has also developed immensely. Because of the MA, I now feel like I’m on my way to becoming an author, not just a writer.”
William Keohane
“If you love writing, I would encourage you to pursue it. This MA is the perfect way to do that.”
