| Swansea’s
Creative and Media Writing MA
course has from the outset attracted many times more
applicants than we have had places to offer. Students
have gone on to publish work in several fields and genres.
Since its launch in 2003 by dramatist Alan Plater, the
groundbreaking Creative and Media Writing MA at Swansea
has gone from strength to strength, offering a wide
spectrum of skills for those eager to become professional
writers. The Creative Writing section is based in the
Department of English and has strong links with Media
and Communication Studies. In 2006, course director
and fiction tutor, Dr Stevie Davies,
and poetry tutor, Nigel Jenkins, were
joined by novelist and critic, Dr Fflur Dafydd,
and by the internationally renowned playwright and radio
dramatist, D.J. Britton. The MA in
Creative and Media Writing, inaugurated in 2003, is
a skills-based degree which offers students a comprehensive
introduction to fiction, poetry, screenwriting, feature-writing
and drama. In 2005 the degree of BA in English with
Creative Writing was also inaugurated. The establishment
in 2005 of a PhD via the path of Creative Writing has
created a flourishing literary community.
Is
this course for you? We try to identify applicants who
can demonstrate, in short portfolios of writing samples,
that they have what we think of as a seed-corn talent,
together with the determination, passion and patience
to develop it. With some, such as those who have already
been published by mainstream publishers, their claim
to acceptance is obvious; others, perhaps, have published
nothing and written little, and yet that promising ‘something’
is there on the page, and we can offer places on the
course, in the belief that guidance, encouragement and
group work will lead to a more mature engagement with
the art and craft of writing.
Swansea
University’s Creative Writing MA offers its student
writers an apprenticeship, with the precious time to
dedicate themselves to learning a craft. Our MA also
offers knowledge of and some access to the professional
world of publishing: we invite agents and publishers
to speak to the group, and have close links with London
publishers and agents, as well as with Welsh presses;
with the Welsh Academy, the Arts Council of Wales and
the Welsh Books Council.
We
also offer a degree scheme in BA English Literature
with Creative Writing, which offers a similarly friendly
and supportive working environment, and gives undergraduate
writers the opportunity to dedicate roughly a third
of their degree to the development of their writing.
Assessment is assessed entirely through by coursework,
rather than examination, and the modules on the BA in
English with Creative Writing are taught in two-hour
weekly workshops, through a fluid mingling of tutor-led
discussion and workshop-based exercises.
For
further information on these degree schemes please visit
Swansea University’s English Department website
at www.swan.ac.uk/english
or contact course director Dr. Stevie Davies at stephanie.davies@swansea.ac.uk
Recommendations:
Lisa
Glass (www.lisaglass.co.uk)
|
I
had hardly written at all before joining the
excellent Creative Writing Master’s degree
course at Swansea University. The course gave
me the confidence to consider writing as a career.
The idea that degrees in Creative Writing push
only literary fiction certainly does not fit
with my experience. There was a great mix of
other students and our class included children’s
writers, journalists, crime writers, poets and
erotic fiction writers. Shortly after completing
the course I sent out chapters of a novel that
I had started writing in the class. I signed
with a literary agency, finished the book and
was offered a publishing contract by an independent
press. The Master’s degree allowed me
to try out different sorts of writing and receive
honest feedback. The critiquing sessions were
extremely useful, and they were always conducted
in a respectful manner. The course gave me valuable
insights into the book industry, as well as
the opportunity to meet published writers and
a literary agent. Most of all I felt that the
course helped me to overcome my assumption that
writing was reserved for affluent, well-connected
Londoners; with the guidance of Stevie and Nigel,
I realised that writing novels was my passion,
and that publication of my work was possible.
|
Lara
Clough
I
was lucky enough to already have a book well
on the way to being published by Honno (Welsh
Womens’ Press) when I joined the course.
This received a Guardian review in Dec 06 which
was a real highlight for me. The MA course offered
the chance to explore such a range of writing;
stage, radio, poetry as well as prose and this
was a real attraction for me. In addition the
fact that we were working with such experienced,
high calibre and friendly tutors, all practising
in their chosen fields made it a course I was
keen to apply for. The aims and assessments,
although hard work, were attainable, they weren’t
expecting a fully fledged novel and nothing
else, I liked the variety. Radio and stage writing
was new for me, going up to Bush House to see
a Radio 4 production being rehearsed and recorded
was a highlight, as well as the chance of a
10 minute slot of rehearsed readings of our
stage plays at the Dylan Thomas Centre in the
June.
Leading on directly from the course I received
mentoring and support with playwright Kaite
O’Reilly and director Gilly Adams at the
Aberystwyth Arts Centre. My play Landscape of
Love was one of four performed in front of 50
people in their first ‘Travelling Light’
mini-festival in Feb 08. I am also at present
receiving mentoring from dramaturg Sarah Dickenson
for my play Something Real , this was an opportunity
offered to me after entering the WRITELIVE competition
run by SCRIPT, the West Midlands agency for
Dramatic Writing. I also received a Welsh Academi
bursary in Jan 08 to write my second novel Cold
Cod Carl . This I hope will be published in
the near future.
If you are a writer who relishes varied opportunities
to write in different mediums, enjoys the group
workshop experience and wants to broaden your
portfolio of writing this is the course for
you. It was also great fun! |
David
Oprava
(www.davidoprava.com)
The
MA in Creative and Media Writing at Swansea
University is not just a course, a school, or
a degree. It is an emotional and mental experience.
I came to Swansea for two reasons. I needed
to write and I needed the feedback and guidance
that would empower me to write well. The combination
of an excellent faculty and inspired, adventurous
students churned my loose and helter-skelter
forms of writing into more concise, critical
channels that ultimately led to my own published
book of verse. I have no doubt that had I not
done the course, I wouldn’t have gained
the superb critical curbing that I imagine all
writers need at some point in their maturation.
I felt challenged and was thus motivated to
excel, to stretch myself and to develop new
techniques and styles that complimented my own
writing nature. Never told how to do
something, I was allowed to be myself within
the framework of gentle learning and constructive
feedback. In addition, unlike many other MA
and MFA programs, I was asked to write not just
poetry, but prose, drama, screen, all manners
of expression outside my chosen field. In fact,
the course was so beneficial, I have stayed
on to do a PhD. This course and its experiences
have made all the difference. |
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