The Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) MA at UEA is the longest-running in the UK and has enjoyed unparalleled success in terms of the publications and prizes achieved by its alumni, as may be gleaned from the News, Alumni and Interview pages of our website. This continuing success means we are fortunate in being able to attract a great many strong applicants, which allows us to select our students not only for their ability, but for their potential to learn and to contribute to the learning of their fellow students. The greatest asset of the UEA MA is the cohesiveness and calibre of the students who come on the course.

How is the Prose Fiction MA structured? One year or two? How many terms?

The MA lasts for one year, full-time, and is organized over two semesters of 12 weeks, followed by a dissertation period of 6 weeks. The Autumn semester lasts from September to December, and the Spring semester from January to April. The dissertation period ends in June. The final piece of work is submitted in September at the start of the next academic year. The MA can be taken part-time over two years. Typically you would attend one workshop and one optional module in your first year, the same in your second year, and submit your dissertation at the end of your second year.

How many classes must a student attend?

Students enroll for two modules per semester. One of these - in both semesters - is the compulsory Prose Fiction workshop, which takes place on Tuesday afternoons and lasts for three hours. The other module in each semester is chosen from a range of options available to all Masters students in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing, for instance ‘Postcolonial Writing’, ‘Novel History’, ‘Publishing: A Practical Approach’, ‘Poetics, Writing, Language’, ‘European Gothic’, ‘The Modernist Novel’, ‘The Writing of Crime/Thriller Fiction’ etc. Each of these modules requires attendance at a three-hour seminar. Typically they are timetabled for Mondays, Wednesdays or Thursdays.

Do students also attend lectures?

All MA students are required to attend the Research Methodology series of lectures, which takes place in the latter half of the Spring semester. Most of our Creative Writing tutors give a lecture on their own working methods. We also encourage Creative Writing students to attend the undergraduate lecture series as these can help extend students’ awareness of the wider historical and conceptual context of their own writing.

Will I receive individual tutorials?

You should expect to attend a follow-up tutorial with your class tutor each time your work is discussed in the workshop. In the Summer dissertation period you will then be assigned a supervisor for a series of four individual tutorials to discuss the dissertation that you’ll write independently over the summer vacation.

How is the Prose Fiction workshop organised?

There are currently two workshop groups of 12 students (in future years this may become three workshop groups of 10 students). Each group is assigned a tutor for the Autumn semester, and a different tutor for the Spring semester. Teaching styles vary, but typically three students each week will have their work discussed by the group. The work (2,000 - 5,000 words) is circulated a week in advance, and annotated copies are returned to the student at the end of the session. The emphasis is always on constructive criticism, and the expectation is that the group will gain as much from the discussion as the individual whose work is being discussed. Students should expect their writing to be workshopped six times over the course of the two semesters.

Who are the tutors at UEA?

Our tutors are always published novelists of some reputation. Since the MA’s inception these have included Malcolm Bradbury, Angela Carter, Patricia Duncker, Lavinia Greenlaw, Andrew Motion, Michele Roberts, WG Sebald and Rose Tremain. The Prose Fiction MA is currently taught by Trezza Azzopardi, Amit Chaudhuri, Andrew Cowan, Henry Sutton and Giles Foden.

Can I submit additional work to my tutors?

Including workshops, dissertation tutorials and the double-marking of assignments, a student’s work will be read and commented upon by faculty members around sixteen times over the course of the MA. Given the tutors’ other teaching commitments, it isn’t possible to read additional MA writing.

Can I submit examples of my poetry and creative non-fiction to the workshop or for assessment?

No, our concern as Prose Fiction tutors is with the development of your abilities as a writer of prose fiction, though we would encourage you to circulate such work informally among your fellow students.

Can I attend poetry and scriptwriting classes while doing my MA?

The Creative Writing MA is organised into four distinct strands - Prose Fiction, Poetry, Scriptwriting, and Biography and Creative Non-Fiction - and each strand has its own workshop which is closed to students from other programmes. There are however a number of optional modules that are practice-based and open to students from other programmes, for instance: ‘Adaptation and Interpretation’, ‘Theory and Practice of Fiction’, ‘The Art of Short Fiction’, ‘Autobiography’, etc.

How often is work assessed, and how does this count towards the final degree?

Students are required to submit 5,000 words of original fiction at the end of the Autumn semester, and another 5,000 words at the end of the Spring semester. They must also submit a 5,000 word essay or similar for each of their two optional modules. The marks awarded for these four pieces of work account for 50% of the final grade. The dissertation is another 15,000 words of original fiction and is submitted in September. This accounts for the other 50% of the final grade. All assessed work is marked and commented upon by two members of Creative Writing faculty, and the mark is agreed between them.

I’ve already taken a BA in Literature and Creative Writing, and attended other writing workshops. What can the MA offer that I haven’t already done?

The MA in Creative Writing should be a significant step up from anything you will have done previously, not least because you will be in the company of so many other exceptionally promising writers. As tutors we will look to test your assumptions as well as your abilities and there should be no grounds for complacency. We would expect all our students to want to extend their knowledge and understanding and improve on anything they have written before.

I don’t have a first degree in English Literature or Creative Writing. Would I be suitable for the MA?

Our first consideration is always the quality and potential of the writing sample submitted with your application. We accept students with a wide variety of academic backgrounds - and some with none - though most do tend to have a good first degree in English Literature. Whatever your academic background, however, we would expect you to demonstrate in your personal statement, and subsequently in your interview, that you have read widely and deeply, and have begun to develop a critical vocabulary for discussing your writing (and that of others) and have the sensitivity and awareness to learn effectively and contribute to the learning of others.

Should I have a clear idea of my writing project before beginning the course?

Some students do have a definite idea of their ‘project’ before joining the course, but most do not. The MA should be viewed as a time of experimentation and play, an opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them. Too rigid an idea of what you want to achieve might make it difficult for you to adapt your work in the light of feedback.

Who should I approach for references - a former tutor, my current employer, a lifelong friend? I know a published author who can vouch for my writing.

Academic referees would be the most useful to us as they can give an opinion on your suitability for graduate study. Employers can sometimes also offer useful information about your abilities and attributes. The testimony of a personal friend is rarely helpful. We will make our own assessment of your writing, but it can sometimes be helpful to read the opinion of a tutor, editor or writer who can comment on your ability to develop in response to feedback.

I want to get a general feel for the university, and of the course, before making my application. Can I meet one of the Creative Writing faculty to discuss this?

Because of our teaching and other commitments, we are unable to meet potential applicants individually. We do however hold an Open Day in the Spring semester, when both the course director and several current students will be available to answer questions. Further information about this year’s Open Day can be obtained from the Postgraduate Admissions Office: pgt.hum.admiss@uea.ac.uk (or telephone 01603 592154).

How many students do you accept each year?

We receive a great number of applications for the Prose Fiction MA and aim to interview approximately 60 candidates a year. From these we select around 24 students. In future years this may rise to 30.

What is the average age of your students, and what sort of backgrounds do they have?

The average age of an MA student would be late-20s, though some are much older, while others will have progressed straight from their BA. In the past few years we have accepted several practising artists, and two former air force pilots, as well as teachers, journalists, social workers, full-time parents, a carpenter, a fashion buyer, a police officer, a nurse... Our students arrive from all over the UK, as well as the USA, Canada, Ireland and, in recent years, Australia, China, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, India, Italy, Lesotho, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Romania, Sweden… A very high standard of written and spoken English is of course expected of all our students.

Will the Creative Writing MA help me find an agent and publisher?

Our commitment is primarily to your writing, and we cannot promise outcomes in terms of publishing deals. The principal aim of the Prose Fiction MA is to help you develop a deeper understanding of the craft and context of producing literary fiction, and by the end of the course we would expect you to have become more adept and more self-aware in your own practice. We do however have excellent links with agents and publishers, many of whom visit the campus to talk to students in the Spring semester. Our annual anthology of student writing is distributed widely. David Higham Associates sponsors a generous bursary, and the Curtis Brown agency awards an annual prize to the best student. Following graduation we pair each of our students with a literary agent for a six month mentoring period, which includes feedback on writing and guidance on future directions.

Do you offer a correspondence or online course?

There are currently no plans to offer a correspondence or online course in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing. However, the School of Education and Lifelong Learning does offer two online modules in creative writing at Diploma level.

Will I be able to teach undergraduates while completing my Masters degree?

Opportunities to teach undergraduates are limited to PhD students in the second and third years of their doctoral studies. However, opportunities do sometimes arise for MA students to participate in schools-based initiatives, both locally and further afield.