Postgraduate Studentships - Search for funding opportunities.
Postgraduate Studentships - Search for funding opportunities.
The University of Limerick offers a Master of Arts in Creative Writing, taught by internationally successful authors including our Chair of Creative Writing, Professor Joseph O’Connor (author of the million-selling Star of the Sea), Donal Ryan (The Spinning Heart) and Giles Foden, (The Last King of Scotland). This one-year programme enables students to develop their skills in creative writing through careful consideration of the work of established writers; through study of the elements of a piece of creative writing; through assignments that enable students to master strategies for revision of their work; and through an understanding of the requirements of the submission and publication process. Through coursework students consider the role of plot, characterization, dialogue, and point-of-view in crafting compelling fiction and drama.
Students experience teaching-visits from leading contemporary authors. The 2014/15 class enjoyed sessions with Colum McCann, Claire Keegan, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Paul Lynch, Colin Barrett and science-fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson.
Students gain practical experience through working on our literary journal The Ogham Stone and in the preparation of their dissertation portfolios. Ireland was the homeland of some of the twentieth century’s most accomplished writers, and the city of Limerick has a rich history in creative writing, memorialized in the Frank McCourt museum, and celebrated annually with several literary festivals – the Limerick Literary Weekend; the Eigse Michael Hartnett Poetry Arts and Literary Festival; and Cuisle, the Limerick International Poetry Festival.
Applicants must normally have a first or second class Level 8 honours degree (NFQ or other internationally recognised equivalent) in a relevant or appropriate subject, or equivalent prior learning or experience that is recognised by the University as meeting this requirement. This might include creative work in writing or the arts.
Applicants must also satisfy the English Language Requirements of the University. The University reserves the right to shortlist and interview applicants as deemed necessary.
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.
English Language Requirements
Applicants whose first language is not English must provide evidence of either prior successful completion of a degree qualification taught through the medium of English or meet one of the criteria below (no longer than two years prior to application):
Acceptable English Language qualifications include the following:
Two Scholarships are available to pay the fees of an Irish Student:
The Thomas and Ellen O’Connor Scholarship
The Riverdream Scholarship
Autumn Semester
Applied Writing and Editing Skills
Creating Writing I
Principles of Professional and Technical Communication and Information Design
Electives (choose 1):
Literary Modernism
Gender and Sexuality in Irish Writing
Literature, Film and Human Rights
Literature of Migration
Comparative Literature: Cultural Constructions of the Past
Spring Semester
Research Methods in Creative Writing
Creative Writing II
Electives (Choose 1)
Elements of Narrative and Drama
Issues in Modern and Contemporary Poetry
Politics and American Literature
Post-Colonial Theory and Literature
Feminist Literary Theroy
Textual Constructions of Cultural Identity
Utopian Theory and Texts
Summer Semester
Disseration in Creative Writing
The dissertation will consist of original creative work that demonstrates the student’s mastery of the taught elements of the programme. The dissertation may consist of one genre (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama) or may combine two. The dissertation strand for each genre is as follows: 30 poems or 30 pages of poetry; 15,000
words of fiction; 15,00 words of nonfiction; one complete script of no more than 90 pages and no fewer than 60. A multi-genre porfolio of creative work may be submitted.
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