Program Overview

MFA Creative Writing

The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University is a two-year full-time or three-year part-time program that allows students to explore and practice techniques and styles of modern and contemporary writing. The program is designed to help students develop their own full-length book or script, with the guidance of distinguished, practicing writers.

Course Overview

The MFA program blends writing workshops with reading modules, option modules, and a dissertation. Students will specialize in one of the following routes: Novel (including Short Fiction), Poetry, Writing for Children & Young Adults, Scriptwriting (for stage, screen or radio), or Creative Non-Fiction. The program is available to complete in two years full-time or three years part-time, with intakes in September and January each year.

Features and Benefits

• One of the most successful programs of its kind in the UK today, with over 100 students and graduates publishing first books and having work produced.
• Flexible learning, with classes for core Workshop and Reading modules taking place in the evenings (6-8pm UK time) during the autumn or spring semesters.
• Live online teaching, with the course available to be completed entirely online.
• Option modules, with all students taking a 30-credit option module and choosing from a range of Creative Writing modules or modules from MA English Studies and MA Publishing courses.
• Full-length manuscript, with MFA students submitting a full-length manuscript: a completed novel or short story collection, poetry collection, book for children or young adults, feature-length script or book of creative non-fiction.
• Academic expertise, with the program taught by high-profile writers and critics, under the direction of Professor Carol Ann Duffy DBE.

Year 1

• Classes for core Workshop and Reading units take place in the evenings (6-8pm UK time) during the autumn and spring semesters.
• Full-time students take all of these units in a single year and usually have classes two evenings per week.
• Part-time students spread these units over two years (running order may vary depending on specialist route) and usually have classes one evening per week.
• All students take 30 credits of option units, which run in the spring semester; delivery models and scheduling vary depending on choice and availability.

Core Modules

• Creative Dissertation: This module will build on and progress material produced during the Workshop modules.
• Reading Unit 1: This route-specific module looks at the forms, themes, styles and techniques used by a range of writers in literature.
• The Workshop: Workshops are led by established practitioners in the specialist literary field, giving student writers a committed editorial readership of professionals and peers.

Option Modules

• Green Writing: This module will explore how creative writers can engage with ecological emergency during a time of crisis.
• Reading Unit 2: This route-specific module looks at the forms, themes, styles and techniques used by a range of writers in literature.
• Remaking Games: Creativity, Play and Communication: This module explores the theory and practice of hacking and making games as a research method and mode of creative practice.
• Teaching Creative Writing: This module introduces techniques for developing and delivering creative writing workshops in a range of settings.
• Writing About Relationships: This course module explores writing about love and partnership and is designed to help you gain confidence, avoid cliché and improve the quality of your prose style as you write about human relationships and intimacy.

Year 2

• Year two of our MFA includes the development of a manuscript for a full-length book or script within your specialist route, completed through independent study with one-to-one support from a Manuscript Mentor.
• The year also includes a series of seminars and Q&A sessions with experts from the publishing, literary and arts industries in the spring semester.

Core Modules

• The Industry: You will learn and acquire practical information about various aspects of the publishing, literary, arts and related industries through seminars and Q&A sessions with guest speakers.
• Manuscript (90 credits): On this practice-driven module, you will complete a full-length manuscript for a book or script within your chosen MFA route.

Study and Assessment

• Full-time: 34% lectures, seminars or similar; 0% placement; 66% independent study.
• Part-time: 34% lectures, seminars or similar; 0% placement; 66% independent study.
• Full-time: 100% coursework; 0% practical; 0% examination.
• Part-time: 100% coursework; 0% practical; 0% examination.

Placements

• The Manchester Writing School is one of the UK's leading schools of creative writing, based in a world-class English department at the heart of Manchester, a UNESCO City of Literature.
• Our School plays a leading role in establishing Manchester as a city of writers with a commitment to finding diverse new voices and creating opportunities for writer development, enabling new writing and building audiences for the next generation of talent.

Entry Requirements

• Application is by submission of an online form including a personal statement and a sample of your own creative work.
• Your application should be tailored to one of our specialist routes: Novel, Poetry, Writing for Children & YA, Scriptwriting or Creative Non-Fiction.
• We have intakes into the programme in September and January each year.
• For application deadlines, and links to apply, please see the 'How to Apply section'.

Fees and Funding

• UK and Channel Island students: Full-time fee: £17,090 (Year 1 £10,254, Year 2 £6,836).
• EU and non-EU international students: Full-time fee: £33,340 (Year 1 £20,004, Year 2 £13,336).
• Part-time fee: £1709 per 30 credits studied.
• Distance learning fee: £1709 per 30 credits studied.

Careers Support and Prospects

• 93.7% of our UK-domiciled, full-time, postgraduate taught graduates are employed or in further study 15 months after graduation.
• Our School has a strong Manchester presence, with links to many of the city’s major cultural and arts organisations, and also a global reach with students and alumni based across the UK and continental Europe, and in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Australasia.
• On completion of this course you may decide to pursue PhD study, or to develop a career in bookselling, agenting, publishing, editing, producing or directing for screen, stage or radio, or in teaching creative writing.