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:
- The Art of Fiction and The Novella
- Writing vs. Autobiography and The Short Story
- 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 novelist Martin Amis, 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 names including Paul Muldoon, Will Self, August Kleinzahler, Hanif Kurieshi, Andrew Motion, Rose Tremain and Sarah Waters, and in 2008/9 will include Jorie Graham, Andrew O'Hagan, Colm Toibin, Ciaran Carson and A.L. Kennedy
- Martin Amis Public Events, which see a panel of leading writers and thinkers discuss key topics relating to literature
- Many of our alumni have already had the work they produced here published, including poets Sophie Hannah 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
- 2007/8's MA students have also established the magazine Wufniks, which publishes 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, First Move and Queer Up North Festivals, Transmission magazine, regular poetry events at Speakeasy and Manchester Libraries, 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, Histories & 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.