Writing (MA)

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Course Overview
Key Facts
Course Outline
Why Choose This Course?
Course Fees
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Course Overview

The MA in Writing is a one-year, full-time course. It covers a range of genres and forms, and it interacts with our other postgraduate offerings in Literature and Publishing, Drama and Theatre, and Film. The course thus builds on our strengths in the teaching of writing for page and stage, screen, journalism and other media. The course is open to applicants from any disciplinary background (within and beyond Arts) and welcomes all types of writing interests. A ‘Qualifier’ option is available for potential applicants who do not have a university degree but have a suitable publications record or sufficient experience in a related creative field.

A weekly ‘Writers Seminar’ features writers, publishers, agents and other visitors from the writing professions. Galway’s Cúirt literary festival is the focus in April. Students attend events and complete a related assessment.

Other scholarships available
Find out about our Postgraduate Scholarships here.

Applications and Selections

NOTE: this programme is now full for entry 2022, and is no longer accepting applications.

Who Teaches this Course

Carey, Dan—Graduate of McGill University, Trinity College Dublin, and Oxford University where he took his D.Phil. His book on Locke, Shaftesbury, and Hutcheson: Contesting Diversity in the Enlightenment and Beyond appeared with Cambridge University Press in 2006, and he is currently completing a cultural history of travel in the Renaissance for Columbia University Press. He has published in a range of interdisciplinary journals on literature, the history of philosophy, history of science, anthropology, and travel. His teaching interests include Renaissance literature, Shakespeare, Renaissance drama, the eighteenth century, and Romanticism.

Kenny, John—English Department, NUI Galway. Author of a study of John Banville for Irish Academic Press (2008). Regularly reviews contemporary Irish fiction for the TLS and Irish Times. Director of the John McGahern Summer School. Director of the BA Connect (Writing). Teaches Reviewing and Discovering the Archives.

Lonergan, Patrick—English Department, NUI Galway. Reviews Editor of I rish Theatre Magazine, webmaster for the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures (IASIL), programmes editor for the Dublin Theatre Festival 2005 and 2006, and theatre critic for publications including The Irish Times. Author of Theatre and Globalization: Irish Drama in the Celtic Tiger Era. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. Winner - Theatre Book Prize 2008. Editor of three other books on Irish theatre. Teaches Reviewing and Theatre as a Creative Industry.

McCormack, Mike—Author of Getting it in the Head (1995), for which he won the Rooney Prize; Crowe's Requiem (1998); and Notes from a Coma (2005). Teaches course in fiction-writing.

O 'Malley, Mary—Author of Consideration of Silk (1990); Where the Rocks Float (1993); The Knife in the Wave (1997); and The Boning Hall (Carcanet Press, 2002). She received a Hennessy Award in 1990. She is a member of Aosdana. Co-teaches poetry workshop with Mickey Gorman.

Pilkington, Lionel—English Department, NUI Galway. Author of Theatre and the State in 20thC Ireland: Cultivating the People (2001) and many articles, including "Theatre History and the Beginnings of the Irish National Theatre Project", in Theatre Stuff: Critical Essays on Contemporary Irish Theatre (2000) and "Irish Theater Historiography and Political Resistance", Staging Resistance: Essays on Political Theater (1998). Currently writing a monograph entitled Theatricality, Agency and Irish Cultural Politics, 1900–2000. Teaches Discovering the Archives and Theatre and Modernity in the Irish Revival.

Requirements and Assessment

There is continuous assessment of regular writing assignments and end-of-semester projects. The Final Portfolio, consisting of revisions and further development of writings done for courses during the year, is submitted in mid-August and accounts for one third of the overall assessment.

Key Facts

Entry Requirements

A university degree (minimum standard 2.2, or US GPA 3.0) or the equivalent in education and professional experience. Students will be accepted on the basis of their degree result, a sample of recent writing (3,000 words maximum), and a personal statement of interest (500 words maximum). Those who wish to explore possibilities for entry through the ‘Qualifier’ option should contact the Course Director.

Additional Requirements

Duration

1 year, full-time

Next start date

September 2022

A Level Grades ()

Average intake

QQI/FET FETAC Entry Routes

Closing Date

NOTE: this programme is now full for entry 2022, and is no longer accepting applications.

NFQ level

Mode of study

ECTS weighting

Award

CAO

Course code

1WR1

Course Outline

Core course:

In each semester, all students will take a Writers' Seminar. This will meet once a week for three hours through the semester. Its scope will include fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose, dramatic and non-dramatic writing, journals and journalism. Normally, there will be a different visiting writer at each seminar meeting. Only students from the MA in Writing may enrol for credit in this seminar. Assessment is based on weekly journal writings.

Optional courses:

Students must take six modules in total. The Writers' Seminar is compulsory, students may then take any five of the following modules—two from one semester and three from the other:

Poetry Workshop. Students produce drafts sometimes in response to prompts or assignments from the workshop leader(s). These drafts are sometimes circulated for class discussion, with a view to improvement. By the end of the semester, students produce a number of complete poems and the class publishes a chapbook.

Fiction Workshop. Students examine elements of craft in published writers selected by the workshop leader. They also produce short pieces of fiction, sometimes in response to a prompt or assignment. Drafts may be discussed in class, or in conference with the teacher. By the end of the semester, students submit a set number of words of fictional narrative.

Non-Fiction Workshop. For a month students complete weekly writing assignments in elements of narrative (description, dialogue, etc.), then an essay or book proposal, which is next week by week undertaken in steps. Class meetings are devoted primarily to discussion of works-in-progress.

Feature-writing and Crime-reporting. Students practice the craft of feature-writing, book reviewing, and reporting. By the end of the semester, each student submits one major investigative piece of journalism.

Students from the MA in Writing may also take a number of courses offered on the MA in Drama & Theatre Studies (MADT) and the MA in Literature & Publishing (MALP) programmes:

Reviewing Irish Theatre: MA in Drama and Theatre Studies (MADT)
Playwright's workshop (places limited) (MADT)
Discovering the Archives (MADT)
Irish Playwrights since the 60s (MADT)
Theatre as a Creative Industry (MADT)
Book History (places limited) (MALP)
Playwright's Workshop II: Adaptation (places limited) (MADT)
Contemporary Publishing
Copy Editing and Proofreading
Theatre and Globalization
Textual Studies (MALP)
Interpreting History
Studies in Oral History
Imaginative Responses 2

Curriculum Information

Curriculum information relates to the current academic year (in most cases).
Course and module offerings and details may be subject to change.

Glossary of Terms

Credits: You must earn a defined number of credits (aka ECTS) to complete each year of your course. You do this by taking all of its required modules as well as the correct number of optional modules to obtain that year's total number of credits.
Module: An examinable portion of a subject or course, for which you attend lectures and/or tutorials and carry out assignments. E.g. Algebra and Calculus could be modules within the subject Mathematics. Each module has a unique module code eg. MA140.
Subject: Some courses allow you to choose subjects, where related modules are grouped together. Subjects have their own required number of credits, so you must take all that subject's required modules and may also need to obtain the remainder of the subject's total credits by choosing from its available optional modules.
Optional: A module you may choose to study.
Required: A module that you must study if you choose this course (or subject).
Required Core Subject: A subject you must study because it's integral to that course.
Semester: Most courses have 2 semesters (aka terms) per year, so a three-year course will have six semesters in total. For clarity, this page will refer to the first semester of year 2 as 'Semester 3'.

Year 1 (90 Credits)

Why Choose This Course?

Career Opportunities

Graduates have gone on to work in the areas of teaching, journalism, publishing, editing, public relations and marketing. Graduates have also progressed to various doctoral programmes in the humanities—and it is now also possible to undertake a practice-led PhD in English at NUI Galway. Many graduates have concentrated on their development as independent writers, and over 45 books have been published by writers from this MA.

Who’s Suited to This Course

Learning Outcomes

Work Placement

Study Abroad

Related Student Organisations

Course Fees

Fees: EU

€6,980 p.a. 2022/23

Fees: Tuition

€6,840 p.a. 2022/23

Fees: Student levy

€140 p.a. 2022/23

Fees: Non EU

€16,940 p.a. 2022/23

Student levy €140 - payable by all students and is not covered by SUSI. Further detail here.

Find out More

Dr Mike McCormack
E: mike.mccormack@nuigalway.ie
www.nuigalway.ie/english/

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What Our Students Say

Gerry Hanberry | Published 3rd collection of poetry, At Grattan Road

The MA in Writing at NUI, Galway has, without doubt, contributed enormously to the development of many writers, including myself, who have subsequently gone on to become established and published in their own chosen areas. The course has also greatly enriched the cultural life of the city. One example of this enrichment would be the large attendances at the many regular literary events held both on campus and in the locality. Established writers have been attracted to the area by the opportunity to study and write in genres other than their own and less experienced writers have been given the confidence and expertise to progress. The list of publications and literary prizes of MA in Writing graduates lengthens every year. An academic year spent studying on this course is a wonderful and valuable experience.

Jennifer McCarrick |

This is a great course of aspiring writers who want to be challenged, assessed, and improved in their work.

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Postgraduate Taught Prospectus 2022 PDF (14.3MB)

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