UNB's celebrated English graduate programs offer both creative writing and academic streams of study, helping students reach both their creative and critical potential. The academic MA and PhD programs now also include the opportunity to earn a degree in Gender and Sexuality in Literature. Students feel particularly welcome because of our small class sizes. They gain personal support and invaluable feedback from nationally-acclaimed professors and have opportunities to work with them on research and creative projects and on departmental publications, including Canada's longest continuously published literary journal, The Fiddlehead, and on the student-run, national literary journal, QWERTY.
Our cozy, quiet campus is the perfect workshopping environment for creative writers wanting to develop a book-length manuscript. Our PhD in Creative Writing is one of very few offered in Canada. In the academic streams, students examine important works of literature, undertake original research, and build their critical vocabularies. Their research is supported by excellent library resources. Graduate students in English acquire strong research, writing, editing and communication skills and develop connections with other academics, writers and publications across Canada. Doctoral students also gain exceptional applied teaching experience through the Teaching Apprenticeship Program.
Our graduates go on to become professional writers, editors, journalists, marketers, teachers, professors and researchers, amongst other things.
Creative genres
- Poetry, Fiction, & Creative Non-fiction
- Screenwriting & Playwriting
Research areas
- Canadian Literature, including Atlantic Canadian
- American Literature
- Early Modern, Eighteenth-Century, Romantic, and Nineteenth-Century British Literature
- Postcolonial Literature
- Indigenous Literatures of Turtle Island
- Gender and Sexuality Studies
- Cultural Studies, Film and Popular Culture
- Ecoliterature
Current faculty research
- Creative Writing: Len Falkenstein, Triny Finlay, Rob Gray, David Huebert, Lisa Jodoin, Robert Moore, Sue Sinclair
- American Literature: David Huebert, Stephen Schryer
- Canadian Literature: John Ball, David Creelman, Rob Gray, Triny Finlay, Sue Sinclair
- British Literature: Elizabeth Effinger (Romantics, Nineteenth Century), Miriam Jones (Eighteenth Century), Sarah Maier, Lisa Robertson (Nineteenth Century), Edith Snook (Early Modern, Atlantic World)
- Postcolonial Literature: John Ball
- Indigenous Literatures of Turtle Island: Lisa Jodoin
- Gender and Sexuality Studies: Elizabeth Effinger, Triny Finlay, Lisa Robertson, Edith Snook
- Cultural Studies, Film, and Popular Culture: John Ball, Elizabeth Effinger, R.W. Gray, Stephen Schryer, Edith Snook
- Ecoliterature: Elizabeth Effinger, David Huebert, Sue Sinclair
Current graduate courses
For a complete listing of our graduate course offerings please review our extensive list.
Equity Statement
The Department of English is committed to fostering equity, diversity, and inclusion within our community. With graduate admissions, curriculum, and hiring, we strive to develop a learning environment that reflects and affirms the complexity of the broader community that we serve.
We recognize the settler-colonial roots of our institution and are committed to an ongoing process of addressing the embedded colonial power structures in our classrooms and infrastructure.
We welcome and encourage applications from diverse and equity-deserving groups, including (but not limited to) those who have been historically disadvantaged because of race, religion, sexual identity, gender identity and expression, age, disability, and/or socio-economic condition. As a department, we recognize that many people face barriers in post-secondary education that may negatively impact opportunities to succeed. We are committed to thoughtfully considering the full context of an applicant's life experiences and evaluating their application equitably.
