MA CREATIVE WRITING POETRY (PART TIME)

You’ve been writing poetry for so long that it’s become a vital part of your life. You may have tried one-off workshops or short courses but find that they are no longer enough. So now is the time to take it further! 

This MA is your chance to immerse yourself in writing and reading, and discover more about your imaginative, artistic and intellectual capabilities as a poet. You’ll work intensively on your writing practice with expert guidance and support. And you’ll be part of a group that’s of a consistently high standard, which offers (and expects in return) rigorous feedback and discussion. 

An academic context allows you to develop yourself through learning more about poetry across time and place, about form and technique, concept and theory, cause and effect. It’s a chance to read the kinds of poetry you’ve never come across before, and to discover the potential of poetry beyond the forms and approaches you already know. 

About

In our MA Creative Writing (Poetry) we aim to support you in writing poetry of a publishable standard, and to create an encouraging but rigorous environment. You’ll join UEA’s renowned creative writing community in Norwich, a beautiful and historic UNESCO City of Literature. 

During the one-year (or two-year part-time) course of intensive reading, writing, exploration and risk-taking, you’ll develop a body of work close in length to a first collection. Through your two Poetry Workshops, you’ll be encouraged to test, extend and refine your poetic technique – an experience that is often exciting and sometimes uncomfortable, but always rewarding. With this in mind, we also give you the chance to learn more about publishing procedures and opportunities, readings, literary awards and more. In the Describing Poetry module that accompanies the first Poetry Workshop, you will be introduced to some of the key thinking about poetry throughout literary history, and encouraged to explore creative-critical approaches to your work. You’ll also choose an optional module from a wide range of creative and critical modules across the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. You’ll benefit from the ways in which the study of poetry enhances analytical, conceptual and verbal skills, as well as refine your powers of precision, argument and logic. 

Within UEA’s world-famous writing community, you’ll have the opportunity to meet some of the UK’s leading poets and poetry editors, and to benefit from their insight and expertise. Our annual anthology is professionally published and distributed to a key list of poetry houses and other contacts. 

UEA also hosts an annual Poetry Festival, part of which is an event showcasing the MA poets’ work. You’ll have the opportunity to attend a masterclass and to discuss your writing one-to-one with the Poetry Festival Fellow. UEA is also part of a thriving network of regional poetry activity, which offers plenty of opportunities to gain performance experience and to get involved in publication.

After the Course

Our poetry graduates go on to enjoy all kinds of careers, especially in the literary arts. Several have received scholarships for further work at PhD level, many work in publishing (e.g. at Granta and the London Review of Books), and many publish their poetry to high acclaim. 

Recent examples include Mona Arshi (MA Poetry 2010) winning the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2015, Sam Buchan-Watts (MA Poetry 2014) being named a Faber & Faber New Poet in 2015, Sohini Basak (MA Poetry 2016) winning the Eyewear Publishing Beverly Series Poetry Prize, Sean Wai Keung (MA Poetry 2016) winning the inaugural Rialto Open Pamphlet Competition 2016, and Anna Cathenka and Alice Willitts being shortlisted for the Ivan Juritz Prize 2018.

Career destinations

A degree at UEA will prepare you for a wide variety of careers. We've been ranked 1st for Job Prospects by StudentCrowd in 2022.

Examples of careers you could enter include:

• Publishing 
• Editing 
• Freelance writing 
• Arts management 
• Teaching 
• Advertising