Martin Amis and Ian McEwan at a Public Literature Event at the Martin Harris Centre
(Feb 2011)
Visit our Events page for details on this season's Literature Live events.
New Writing Courses at Manchester
The Centre for New Writing offers an impressive portfolio of taught MA and PhD research programmes on creative and contemporary writing. These successful programmes provide regular assessment and a committed, supportive readership among fellow students and tutors, in subjects including:
- Contemporary Fiction and The Novel
- Contemporary Poetry and Poetics
- Contemporary American Short Fiction
- Contemporary Irish Fiction
- Gender and Genre
- Postcolonial Narratives
- plus weekly workshops in the novel, poetry and short fiction.
Why study here?
- Our Professor of Creative Writing is world-leading author Jeanette Winterson whose masterclasses are open to all our postgraduate students
- Our teaching staff also includes Booker-nominated novelist M.J. Hyland, the multi-award winning Geoff Ryman (fiction) and Vona Groarke (poetry), critical writer Kaye Mitchell and course directors John McAuliffe (poetry) and Ian McGuire (fiction)
- Students are guaranteed at least six one-to-one conferences with staff over the year, and our writers in residence hold further open sessions each week to meet students and discuss their work
- We run two series of high-profile events alongside our postgraduate courses:
- Literature Live, comprising exclusive student workshops, public readings and interviews with leading writers. The series has featured writers including Paul Muldoon, Will Self, August Kleinzahler, Hanif Kurieshi, Andrew Motion, Rose Tremain and Sarah Waters, and in 2011/12 will include AM Homes, Ali Smith, Paul Farley, Michael Hofmann, Jackie Kay and others
- Many of our alumni have already had the work they produced here published, including poets Sophie Hannah, Evan Jones, Rebecca Perry and Ian Pople and novelists Susan Barker (Sayonara Bar), Sallie Day (The Palace of Strange Girls), Chris Killen (The Bird Room) and Jonathan Trigell, whose Boy A was voted the 'Book to Talk About' in a 2008 World Book Day poll and is now a Channel 4 film
- MA students have also established the magazine Wufniks, and also The Manchester Anthology, which publish short fiction, reviews and writing challenges from the likes of Zadie Smith and Irvine Welsh
- Manchester is a city brimming with new writing activity, including the Manchester Literature Festivals, regular poetry events at Speakeasy and The Other Room, and writing and publishing hub Commonword
Please visit the links in the left-hand column for information about our courses, and the School of Arts, Languages & Cultures website for more information on how to apply.
If you would like to chat to others about our courses, and be updated about key developments, visit our Facebook page.