Course summary
Join a vibrant community of award-winning writers at the Manchester Writing School, home to over 100 published students and graduates. Our MA Creative Writing programme invites you to develop your voice, on campus in a UNESCO City of Literature, or as part of our global online community from anywhere in the world. Specialise in Novel, Poetry, Scriptwriting, Writing for Children and Young Adults, or Creative Non-Fiction, and work alongside internationally renowned writers, poets and scriptwriters. You'll refine your craft through immersive workshops and critical reading, culminating in a substantial piece of creative work from a proposed longer work in progress. Whether full-time or part-time, on campus or online, our course offers the flexibility to suit your life, and the inspiration to transform your writing. With regular events, publishing opportunities, and a global network of peers, you’ll be supported at every stage of your creative journey. You can also choose to pursue our MFA Creative Writing masters, in which you’ll work on and submit a full-length manuscript. Features and Benefits
- One of the most successful Creative Writing programmes in the UK. More than 100 students and graduates have achieved excellent career milestones including: publishing first books; features in journals and magazines; writing awards and prizes; setting up small presses; working in the publishing industry.
- Academic expertise – you’ll be taught by high-profile published writers and critics, under the direction of Professor Carol Ann Duffy DBE.
- Home to Manchester Poetry Library - Manchester Poetry Library is the North West's first public poetry library. It holds over 12,000 books and recordings available to explore in the online catalogue, in person and by attending the annual programme of events.
- Research power – our English department was ranked 8th out of 92 UK universities for the power of our research (REF21). You can get involved in events and activities through our research groups, which include expertise in poetry, place writing, and games studies.
- Flexible learning - classes for core Workshop and Reading modules take place in the evenings (usually 6-8pm UK time) during the autumn or spring semesters. Full-time students usually have classes two evenings per week, and part-time students one evening per week.
- Manchester City of Literature - Manchester has been designated an international UNESCO City of Literature in recognition of its thriving live literature scene. Manchester Writing School is home to ground-breaking outreach activities, international writing competitions, a series of city-wide literary events, innovative publishing projects, and Mother Tongue Other Tongue. These activities provide you with many opportunities to get involved and develop your experience in a number of exciting directions.
- Live online teaching - the course can be completed entirely online, with core Workshop and Reading module teaching for distance learning students via weekly online classes in Microsoft Teams, and some option modules also available online (availability varies each year).
- Option modules - all students take a 30 credit option module and can choose from a range of Creative Writing modules, or modules from our MA English Studies and MA Publishing courses.
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. You can apply online here: mmu.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/apply/postgraduate-taught-course. Please indicate at the top of your personal statement which specialist route you are applying for. You should use the rest of the statement to tell us a bit about yourself, give a good overview of your reading and writing interests, and a sense of what has led you to apply for our course and any ideas you have for what you’d like to write with us. Personal statements should be approximately 500 words long. For the creative sample, applicants to the Novel, Children's & YA and Creative Non-Fiction routes should submit up to 2,000 words of prose; poetry applicants should submit up to 15 poems; and scriptwriting applicants should submit up to 15 minutes running time of script. The work submitted can be a complete piece, or an extract, or a number of extracts from a longer work or works, but must all be within the chosen specialist route. We have intakes into the programme in September and January each year. For application deadlines, please see the 'How to Apply section'. In each application assessed we will be looking for evidence of: A very high standard of written English Control of form, style and technique Substantial reading of contemporary work within the relevant field Commitment to the craft of writing and willingness to engage with the editorial process of receiving feedback and redrafting work-in-progress Experience of the development of writing skills through workshops, supervision, mentoring or previous study Applicants whose first language is not English are required to produce evidence of English Language proficiency. Overseas applicants will require IELTS with an overall score of 6.5, with no sub-component below 5.5, or an equivalent accepted English qualification. Accepted English qualifications can be viewed here. If your application meets these criteria, a tutor may contact you to arrange a telephone or face-to-face interview at a mutually convenient time.
Fees and funding
Tuition fees
No fee information has been provided for this course
Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .
Additional fee information
For further information: https://www2.mmu.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/
Provider information
Manchester Metropolitan University
All Saints Building
All Saints
Manchester
M15 6BH