UEA Creative Writing Course

The University of East Anglia's Creative Writing Course was founded by Sir Malcolm Bradbury and Sir Angus Wilson in 1970. The M.A. has been regarded among the most prestigious in the United Kingdom.[1][2][3]

The course allows specialisation in the following strands: Prose, Creative Non-Fiction, Poetry, Scriptwriting (which is Skillset accredited) and Crime Fiction. In 2024, a new strand, MA Creative Writing, which allows students to work across different literary forms, was launched.[4] Each strand results in an M.A. qualification upon successful completion of the course. Course Directors have included Andrew Cowan, Tessa McWatt, Tiffany Atkinson, Steve Waters, Kathryn Hughes, Lavinia Greenlaw, and Henry Sutton. Writers teaching on the course in recent years have included Amit Chaudhuri, Trezza Azzopardi, Giles Foden, Tobias Jones, James Lasdun, Jean McNeil and George Szirtes.

Writers such as Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter, Rose Tremain, Andrew Motion, W. G. Sebald, Michèle Roberts and Patricia Duncker have also taught on the course.

Writers-in-residence have included Alan Burns[5] and Margaret Atwood. Ali Smith has been a Writing Fellow and Visiting Professor on the programme.[6] From 2021 to 2022, Tsitsi Dangarembga was the inaugural International Chair of Creative Writing.[7]

Notable alumni

Nobel Prize winners

Booker Prize winners

Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Kazuo Ishiguro
Booker Prize winner Ian McEwan
Booker Prize winner Anne Enright

Costa Book Award winners

Costa Book Award winner Adam Foulds

Women's Prize for Fiction winners

Betty Trask Award & Prize winners

James Tait Black Memorial Prize winners

Other alumni

Historical novelist Tracy Chevalier
Novelist John Boyne

References

  1. ^ Barnett, Laura (16 November 2011). "Is the UEA creative writing course still the best?". The Guardian.
  2. ^ "Creative writing graduates will 'never make a living as novelists', says Self | the Bookseller".
  3. ^ "The write stuff - Prospect Magazine".
  4. ^ "University of East Anglia to deliver a new Creative Writing MA course for the new creative economy". University of East Anglia. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  5. ^ Ian McEwan (1995). "Class Work".
  6. ^ "Ali Smith receives honorary degree". www.newwriting.net. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  7. ^ "International Chair of Creative Writing". University of East Anglia. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  8. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 2017 - Biobibliographical Notes". www.nobelprize.org. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  9. ^ Boyne, John (5 October 2017). "Kazuo Ishiguro deserves Nobel prize but others deserve it more". The Irish Times. Ishiguro will make a fine laureate and, from one graduate of the University of East Anglia's creative writing programme to another, it's hats off.