Studying the MLitt in Creative Writing (Prose and Poetry)
Creative writing has thrived at St Andrews since Douglas Dunn set up the MLitt degree in 1993. Since then, many alumni have gone on to publish prize-winning literary fiction and poetry, in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, while staff have won a wide range of national and international awards and prizes.
The aim of the programme is to provide intensive critical and creative study in either poetry or prose (in a variety of forms) with an emphasis on the study of recent and contemporary writing, and to encourage the development of students' original work.
Applicants should be adept at academic study as well as their own writing, and will be taught by published poets and writers of fiction who are thoroughly familiar with all the problems, pressures and pleasures of writing.
Students may choose to convert their degree to the MFA and study for a second year (assuming that they have achieved satisfactory progress in the MLitt coursework).
Semester 1
Students undertake a compulsory module in Research Skills for Creative Writers, which emphasises their professional development as writers, and will contain practical advice on research, library resources, editing, publishing, agencies, literary journalism and making a living.
Students will also take core modules in either poetry or prose:
Poetry
Poetry in St Andrews has a long and noble tradition, stretching back to the medieval Scots makars. Students will be encouraged to engage with this most subversive of literary forms, one which has long been central to the work of the School.
The diversity of teaching approaches reflects the School’s belief that poetry is a passionate art, one in which individualism should be especially prized: it should not be taught in a one-size-fits-all way.
In the core modules, resident poets teach the composition of poetry through:
- technical seminars
- group workshops where students learn to hone their critical and editorial skills
- one-to-one tutorials, which will encourage students to find ways of working that best suit their individual temperament and talent.
Teaching staff pride themselves on not always agreeing with each other, subscribing to the belief that good art does not necessarily mean critical consensus. However, all believe in an apprenticeship which acknowledges the central importance of reading, of the poet’s understanding of their own place within poetry’s long tradition, and of meticulous and energetic practice.
The School seeks to reflect the broad church of contemporary poetry from the traditional to the experimental, and has no ‘house style’.
Teaching staff believe that the academic and the creative are entirely compatible, and students are encouraged to take advantage of the research environment of the School and pursue any discipline or methodology they may find useful, from the literary-critical and the linguistic to the neuroscientific.
Teaching staff also see poetry as a public art. Poets are encouraged to ‘anticipate the condition of publication’, and see their work through the eyes of a reader – and indeed actively seek those readers out, through both publication and performance.
Prose
The prose writing strand of the MLitt in Creative Writing offers grounding and support in a range of prose composition skills, including:
- short stories
- novels
- journalistic and feature writing
- various forms of creative non-fiction, including life-writing-based explorations of place, history and the nature of art.
Teaching staff pride themselves in providing a research and writing climate that allows students to pursue their chosen branch of this rich craft – and their philosophical, political and artistic ideas – to the fullest.
In practice, the programme offers a disciplined framework for development without pushing students into forms, genres or methods of composition that feel unnatural. Most of all, a serious, professional, playful and generous critical environment is encouraged, in which students test ideas, first lines of dialogue, fresh intimations of character or drama with peers.
Semester 2
In Semester 2, students will continue with a second core module in their chosen genre, taking either poetry or prose, where the topics raised in Semester 1 will be explored in greater technical depth. Greater focus will be brought to bear on the creative and compositional approaches that will shape the student’s dissertation project.
Dissertation
The MLitt concludes with the submission of a dissertation, which takes the form of an extended piece of original writing. If their performance has been satisfactory in the taught component of the course, students will submit this creative dissertation over the summer; it will consist of either 15,000 words of prose or around 20 pages of poetry. One-to-one supervision will be also available during this period.
Contact
School of English
University of St Andrews
Castle House
The Scores
St Andrews
KY16 9AL
Phone: +44 (0)1334 46 2668
Email: pgeng@st-andrews.ac.uk
Why choose St Andrews?
The School of English at St Andrews is ranked as the best English department in Scotland (according to the Guardian University Guide 2020).
The School does not make any formal distinction between academic and creative staff; many staff publish both academic and creative work, and also teach in both contexts. This means that creative writing has found a natural home in the University as an academic discipline, and the School encourages students to use its research environment as a means of pursuing their dedication to their craft.
The School of English also believes that knowledge is best imparted by those working in the same discipline and at the highest level: all the School's writers have national and international reputations, and are regarded as leaders in their individual fields. All are dedicated teachers with a passion for their art.
In addition, the ancient town of St Andrews – with its pristine beaches, castles and historic buildings, its constantly changing seascapes and cloudscapes – is simply a beautiful and inspiring place for any writer to work.
Academic staff
The staff teaching on the programme will vary in any one year, but will always include some of the following:
Student testimonials
'The support you will receive from the School of English is absolutely incredible. They are a group of people who care for and know, on a person-to-person basis, each individual student. There is a palpable sense of community amongst the students – it is a pleasure to study amongst such welcoming, intelligent, and passionate individuals. The School of English is unfailingly receptive to feedback and is extremely proactive about communicating with students on matters both academic and extracurricular, such as conferences, guest speakers, and writing submissions.'
- Sara (Toronto, Canada) 2020
'It's difficult to explain the impact the St Andrews creative writing program had on my writing. Partly because that impact was so large, but also because the concept of "my writing", and what it was and why I did it, was so radically challenged, broken down and rebuilt by the course. It sounds paradoxical, but the course simultaneously created a protected space within which to focus on writing and robustly challenged that writing with all the important questions that any writer must consider before defining themselves as such.’
- Richard Osmond, author of Useful Verses (Picador, 2017) and Rock, Paper, Scissors (Picador, 2019); winner of the Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize, shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Prize
The St Andrews Creative Writing Masters programme is life-changing. In close-knit, intimate group workshops and one-to-one tutorials, some of the country’s most acclaimed writers will go through your work word by word, offering thoughtful and incisive feedback. It’s often thrilling, sometimes nerve-wracking, and always enriching. Thanks to St Andrews, I now write for a living. Visiting lecturers’ talks on literary journalism and the relationship between poetry and radio inspired me to explore these avenues: since graduating, I have reviewed poetry for newspapers and BBC Radio 4. St Andrews will make you a sharper writer and a more attentive reader, and will give you the skills you need to get your writing out into the world.
- Tristram Fane Saunders, Poetry Critic, The Telegraph; author of Woodsong (2019), winner of the New Poets Prize
Studying creative writing at St Andrews was life-changing. I fell deeply in love with the School of English, which is both caring in its demeanour and rigorous in its teaching. I will always be grateful to the tutors who pushed, supported and encouraged me. What little craft I have was learnt from them. More than that, they gave me the space to come home to myself as a writer and a human being, to find what I love and what I had lived through, and to write it out. I owe the department everything.
- Fiona Benson, author of Bright Travellers (Cape, 2014) and Vertigo and Ghost, (Cape, 2019); winner of the Eric Gregory Award, Faber New Poets Award, Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize, Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Forward Prize for Best Collection
'The opportunity offered by the University of St Andrews to enrol in its Creative Writing Programmes is not to be missed. My writing life has benefited immeasurably from the quality of teaching and supervision provided by the tutors, all of whom are highly acclaimed writers. I will always be grateful for their generosity and expertise; they knew exactly how to encourage me to push my work further and were genuinely interested in doing so. Students will have a rare chance to work with some brilliant minds and to benefit from a support network of dedicated university staff.
- Rachael Boast, author of Sidereal, (Picador, 2011) Pilgrim's Flower, (Picador, 2013) and Void Studies, (Picador, 2016); winner of the Forward Prize for best first collection; (2012) Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry Prize for best first collection; shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize
'This Creative Writing course was where things changed – my writing, my appreciation of what poetry was and could be. I started the course with no real understanding of my identity as a poet – but was supported and challenged to the point where I understood what I aspired towards in my own writing. It is a course that, more than any I've known, hones your skill and prepares you for the life of poetry.
- Niall Campbell, author of Moontide, (Bloodaxe, 2011), First Nights: Poems (Princeton University Press, 2017), Noctuary, (Bloodaxe, 2019); winner of the Eric Gregory Award, Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, the Edwin Morgan Poetry Prize, Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award, shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize for best first collection