MLitt Creative Writing at University of Strathclyde

Study with us

• work closely with experienced, published writers who know the industry to develop your writing practice
• benefit from workshops with peers and tutors while developing your ideas
• work on an extended creative project developed on a one-on-one basis with your tutor
• prepare for the practical side of literary development
• experiment with new and hybrid forms
• work in a dynamic, artistic city full of history and possibility

The Convener of the MLitt in Creative Writing is the award-winning novelist, short story writer, editor and biographer Rodge Glass, author of Bring Me the Head of Ryan Giggs, Stories for the EasyJet Generation and Alasdair Gray: A Secretary’s Biography.

Why this course?

The MLitt in Creative Writing is an inspiring year-long course that combines the features of a research-based and taught Masters.

The course is an intense and inspiring environment in which to take your writing to the next level. You'll find yourself in a creative community focussed on the art and craft and business of writing. Through core writing classes with working writers, and skills-focused workshops with creative industry professionals, you'll hone your craft and develop a major project with which you will begin your life in writing.

The emphasis will be on creative risk-taking, never without an eye on the marketplace. The year culminates in a dissertation which will give you the indispensable opportunity to work on a one-to-one basis with a professionally experienced tutor.

Strathclyde staff can offer specialist tuition in a wide range of genres including:

• contemporary fiction & non-fiction
• historical fiction & fiction for young adults
• screenwriting
• poetry

What you’ll study

The course consists of six 20-credit classes a dissertation worth 60 credits. Four of the classes will be creative writing-specific, and two will be electives that may be chosen from an approved list of other Masters-level courses offered by the University.

In keeping with our commitment to provide specialised support, the content of the Creative Writing Workshops in semester 1 and 2 partly depends on the nature of the creative projects you wish to develop. Whatever genre and form you choose to work in, tutors will suggest a programme of relevant reading and prompts for discussion and analysis.

In the world of writing, as students and teachers alike, we are always asking 'how can it be done?' How do we go about finding ideas that stand out? What is our personal connection to the material? What is our writing voice — and, once we’ve found it, how do we develop it? How do we go about planning our novels, or structuring our screenplays? What is the best way to collect our assembled poems or short stories?

Our MLitt workshops provide a supportive framework in which these – and many other – questions can be considered in practical and artistically rigorous ways.

Careers

Graduates from creative writing subjects at the University of Strathclyde have gone into writing, publishing, teaching, journalism and may other professions. Some graduates have also gone on to further their skills by undertaking a PhD. Other have chosen to become self-employed as tutors.

Writers who have taken masters and/or doctoral qualifications in creative writing at Strathclyde include Louise Welsh, Rachel Sieffert, Beatrice Colin and Colette Paul.