BATH SPA UNIVERSITY

creative writingThis course will help andencourage you to bring a novelor book of poems as near topublishable quality as possible.The programme, located in theSchool of Humanities and CulturalIndustries, has become establishedas one of the leading courses of its kind.Course structure and contentThe course is modular and is currentlyoffered for full-time study only.The MA in Creative Writing is concerned with imaginative writing,which includes novels, short stories,poetry and non-fiction. The emphasisis upon encouragement, to help youto find and pursue a direction in yourwriting, and to understand theprocess of offering a manuscript for publication.Because of the reputation ofthe MA in Creative Writing, we areable to recruit excellent studentswho, every year, form an excitingand mutually supportive communityof writers. Frequent visits by otherwriters, literary agents, publishers,broadcasters and other professionalsconnected with writing ensure thatstudents are given plentiful adviceabout how to place work and makedecisions about their careers aswriters.The course is not for the writerwhose only interest is in their ownwork, but rather for the writer whocan benefit from working closely withfellow students and with tutors, manyof whom are practising and publishedwriters.In recent years, several current orformer students have been awardedexcellent contracts for novels; Twowere long-listed for the Man BookerPrize, three for the Orange Prize,one for the Costa Prize and one forthe Guardian First Book Award. Onereceived the Betty Trask Prize; anotherthe Manchester Book Award; anothera W.H. Smith New Talent Award. Onereached the best-seller lists. Studentpoets have had their poetry acceptedfor publication in numerous literaryjournals, including Ambit, Magma,London Magazine, Poetry Wales, PN Review and The Reader, amongothers, and have been placed in suchcompetitions as the Bridport, theFrogmore, Mslexia, and Writers Inc.Greene and Heaton Ltd, a leadingliterary agency, awards an annualprize for the best novel or novel inprogress by a student on the course.It is implicit in the coursephilosophy that critical readingaids the development of writers.Workshops, in which you lookconstructively at each other’s writing,and context modules, to study theways in which writers meet certainchallenges, are integral parts of thecourse.ModulesThe full MA programme consists oftwo writing workshops, two contextmodules and the Manuscript (a doublemodule):Workshop OneYou can either start with a generalwriting workshop in which youexperiment with a range of forms, ora specialist workshop in prose fictionor poetry.Workshop TwoThis is a specialist workshop inprose fiction or poetry.Context ModulesThese modules examine genres andlook at ways in which writers meetchallenges from the public world.At least five of the following areoffered each term:- Writing and the EnvironmentalCrisis- Suspense Fiction- Contemporary American Writing- The Writer and Place- Modernism and Postmodernism- Writing and Gender- The Short Story- Writing and Politics- Reviewing and Journalism- Narrative Non-Fiction- Genres of Television Drama- The Love Story- Writing for Young PeopleThe ManuscriptFor this module each student bringsa manuscript as near to publishablequality as possible. You are assigneda specialist tutor.Teaching methods and resourcesStudents take two three-hourseminars a week for the workshopand context modules. The Manuscriptis completed between June andSeptember. Students meet tutorsregularly during this period. Aresidential writing weekend is anessential part of the course.87