Program Overview

About the course

The University of Hertfordshire MA in Creative Writing offers you the opportunity to develop your creative, critical and professional writing skills in a stimulating and supportive environment.

Through writing workshops and intensive tutorial-based supervision our teaching staff - all established authors themselves - will help you improve your own writing as you explore the advanced craft, theory and techniques of poetry, prose and drama.

Whether you have an unfinished novel you’re passionate about or want to learn how to write powerful dialogue or create memorable characters, this MA Creative Writing offers a range of modules that give you both literary context and practical professional guidance.

In all modules you will be taught by lecturers who are themselves professional practitioners and who bridge the gap between creative and academic approaches to their fields. These include two award-winning playwrights, Simon Vinnicombe, whose work has been produced at the National Theatre, Old Vic and around the world, and Drew Pautz, who is additionally a screenwriter and director whose work has also been performed at the National Theatre. As a feature film screenwriter he has worked with UK and European production companies.

What will I study?

This MA is practice-based, delivered mainly through writing workshops, led by experienced creative writing professionals. Regular tutorials with your individual supervisor supplement these workshop sessions.

A guest lecture series invites writers, editors, agents, poets and dramatists to share their professional insights, while students also have the opportunity to work closely with Out of Joint, the UK’s leading touring theatre company.

The University’s two Poetry Fellows, Mark Waldron and Jane Yeh, offer masterclasses, workshops and give regular readings as part of the University’s Poetry Hub, founded in 2017 to encourage the development of poetry at the University and beyond. The Hub offers an annual Single Poem Prize, judged by the Fellows.

There is also an active, student-run Creative Writing Society, adding to the vibrant and creative environment in which you’ll be working.

Available as a one-year full time course or a two-year part-time course, the full-time MA is taught in two three-hour classes a week, currently during the daytime.

Careers

This MA will give you the opportunity to create a body of work alongside the skills and confidence to continue to the next stage of your life as a writer. You’ll gain practical knowledge and transferable skills, such as critical and analytical thinking, which can be applied to a range of professions, including publishing and the media, teaching, advertising and marketing. Some of our graduates go on to higher levels of studying, engaging in research in their chosen area or to pursue a Creative Writing PhD.