MA Creative Writing Poetry

Course Overview

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 they are no longer enough. Now it’s time to take it further! Our Creative Writing Poetry MA is your chance to immerse yourself in reading and writing poetry in UEA’s world-leading Creative Writing department. Your tutors will be committed to helping you to become the best and most exciting writer you can be. Over the year you’ll discover more about your imaginative, artistic and intellectual potential as a poet. In your Poetry Workshops, you’ll work intensively on your writing practice with expert guidance and support from tutors and peers. You’ll develop your poetic ambition by learning more about poetry across time and place, about form and technique, practice and theory. You’ll read the kinds of poetry you’ve never come across before and discover a world of poetry beyond the forms and approaches you already know. We aim to support you in writing poetry of a publishable standard, and to create an encouraging, exciting and rigorous environment. 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.

Within UEA’s internationally-famous writing community and as part of the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing (follow us on Instagram!), you’ll have the opportunity to meet some of the UK’s leading poets and poetry editors and 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 is also part of a thriving network of regional poetry activities, which offers plenty of opportunities to gain performance experience and to get involved in publication. UEA also hosts an annual Poetry Festival, an event showcasing the MA poets’ work. You’ll have the chance to attend a masterclass and 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. During the one-year course of intensive reading, writing, exploration and risk-taking, you’ll develop a body of work close in length to a first collection. As a graduate of our MA in Poetry, you might join the ranks of our alumni who have published their work to high acclaim, such as Mona Arshi, Sam Buchan-Watts and Sohini Basak. After completing the course, a variety of careers in the literary arts and creative industries will be open to you.

This course is open to

UK and International fee-paying students. Choose UK or International above to see relevant information. The entry point is in September each year.

Typical International Entry Requirements

Degree classification

UK Bachelors degree - 2.1 or equivalent

Degree Subject

Any subject

Additional Entry Requirements

Candidates are required to submit a portfolio of writing for assessment with their application - up to 20 pages of poetry

English Foreign Language

Applications from students whose first language is not English are welcome. We require evidence of proficiency in English (including writing, speaking, listening and reading): 

IELTS:  7 overall (minimum  7  in Writing, 6 in Speaking, Reading and Listening) 

We also accept a number of other English language tests. Review our English Language Equivalencies for a list of example qualifications that we may accept to meet this requirement.

Test dates should be within two years of the course start date.

 If you do not meet the English language requirements for this course, INTO UEA offer a variety of English language programmes which are designed to help you develop the required English skills.

Admissions Policy

Our Admissions Policy applies to the admissions of all postgraduate applicants.

Employability

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.

Example of careers that you could enter include:

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

Discover more on our Careers webpages.