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Postgraduate Taught Courses

Creative and Critical Writing 

Postgraduate Certificate/Postgraduate Diploma/MA

On the MA in Creative and Critical Writing, you will work with practising and published writers to hone your craft and concentrate on your specific genre.

Our staff will help you develop your own distinctive voice and advise on possible avenues to publication. In addition, modules with a more academic focus offer you the opportunity to engage with literary theory and academic studies of influential writers’ work.

This highly successful MA in Creative and Critical Writing was one of the first to offer modules dedicated to the theory and practice of teaching creative writing and the theoretical and practical analysis of the creative process. These options complement the creative and critical strands of the degree and offer you the opportunity to become a writer prepared for the modern professional arenas in which you may find yourself.

There are opportunities to attend The Cheltenham International Literature Festival, Ledbury Poetry Festival, The Hay Festival, and opportunities for internships on Iota poetry journal, one of the best respected journals in the UK, which is edited by staff and postgraduate students from the creative writing programme. There are monthly public open readings, and a vibrant cultural life in Cheltenham and the surrounding county. You can visit the former residence of the Dymock poets (Robert Frost, Edward Thomas and others) and Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-Upon-Avon and also Oxford are less than an hour away.

Our students have gone on to careers as published writers, editors, arts administrators and teachers of creative writing. Come and be part of our success story.

Some of our modules

  • Analysing the Creative Process
  • Teaching Creative Writing
  • Theme, Issue and Stylistic Development
  • Triggering and Developing the Creative Process
  • Theory Studies
  • Employment Focused Research Project

Benefits

  • taught by practicing published writers
  • offers a combination of creative and academic perspectives
  • offers study of creativity and the teaching of creative writing

Career paths

  • writer - many of our students have gone on to successfully publish in journals and several in book form
  • editor - a number of our graduates now work in publishing and on journals in an editorial role
  • teacher of creative writing - several of our students have gone on to teach

Entry Requirements

Your entry will be by portfolio assessment, but a standard of writing is expected that is equivalent to an honours degree.

Mode of attendance

Full-time and part-time with day and evening attendance

Location

Francis Close Hall Campus, Cheltenham

Enquiries and Applications

Guidance & Recruitment Office
Waterworth Building
The Park, Cheltenham
Gloucestershire GL50 4BS
Tel: 01242 714500
Fax: 01242 714827
Email: postgrad@glos.ac.uk

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Profile: Angela France

Angela France

"Cheltenham is a lovely town with a great range of cultural and social opportunities."

MA Creative and Critical Writing
I attended the open day because I was interested in the Creative Writing course; I was already getting some success with publishing but had been studying on my own and felt the need for some input to develop further.  My concerns were to do with my ability to cope with the academic requirements as I don’t have a first degree (or even ‘A’ levels!).  Talking to the Course Leader convinced me that the focus would be on enabling me to explore and develop my own poetry, not to make my writing a clone of the tutor’s. He also convinced me that my experience and track record equipped me to tackle the academic side of the course and fantastic marks in the first year have confirmed this.  I doubt that I would have enrolled at all if I hadn’t had the opportunity to discuss the course and my concerns with the Course Leader at the open day.
Cheltenham is a lovely town with a great range of cultural and social opportunities.
The elements I like best about the course are being in an environment where poetry is important and can be discussed, tutors who are skilled, experienced writers, and workshops that are rigorous, exciting, and focussed.
I think I’ve improved my craft and my confidence whilst I’ve been here, developed skills in academic writing and been able to take advantage of opportunities and contacts to get essays published.
In fact I already had a good track record of being published in leading journals and had a collection published in 2000.  However, with hindsight I believe that the collection was premature and the one due to come out from publishers Ragged Raven is much more likely to do well. It is possible that I would have got a publishing contract at some time but I do believe that the forthcoming collection is due mainly to the opportunity I’ve had here to improve my writing and use networks established through the university.
I’ve also had a paper published in the ‘Writing in Education’ journal, presented a paper at the Bangor ‘Great Writing’ conference and am due to present a paper at the ‘Playful Paradox’ postgraduate conference in Bedford – I don’t believe any of these would have happened if I hadn’t been on the course.
I’m loving every minute of my studies and don’t even want to stop for holidays!  I’m delighted that I’ve been accepted to go on to a PhD and hope to eventually work full time in writing, probably in combination with teaching and leading workshops.

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Fees - 2012/13 Academic Year
Home and EU Students  
MA Full Course Fee£4740
Master's stage£1240
Postgraduate Diploma stage£1750
Postgraduate Certificate stage£1750
Graduate Diploma (Full time and Part time)£8250
Fees information for international students

Contacts

Course Leader
Dr Nigel McLoughlin
Tel: 01242 714694
Email: nmcloughlin@glos.ac.uk

 

University of Gloucestershire, The Park, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL50 2RH. Telephone +44 (0)844 8010001.