Creative Writing

UCD offers two graduate courses in creative writing, an MA and MFA.

The MFA programme is a more advanced degree than the MA, and in some instances can follow on from the MA. MFA students will be part of a smaller cohort which offers very close supervision of a work in progress for the duration of an academic year. It is best suited to students who are working to complete a full-manuscript and have already undertaken courses in craft and/or related fields.



Develop your own writing skills under experienced tuition and supervision



Structural and line editing of the work in progress is a core component and class groups in this module are from two to four students



Taught by experienced, published staff of international reputation

Stage 1 - Core

Creative Writing Workshop IICRWT40150

Reading Like A WriterCRWT40260

Line Editing ICRWT40280

Line Editing IICRWT40290

Final ProjectCRWT40300

This course is suited to students who have already acquired the skills associated with a full programme in creative writing [MA, M Phil Creative Writing, BFA, BA Creative Writing Major/Joint Major] or equivalent and have a work in progress to which they now wish to devote the greater part of an academic year with a view to offering that work for publication. Applicants whose first language is not English must also demonstrate English language proficiency of IELTS 7.5 (no band less than 7.0 in each element), or equivalent.

MFA Creative Writing FT (Z197)

Duration 1 Years Attend Full Time Deadline Rolling*



* Courses will remain open until such time as all places have been filled, therefore early application is advised

1 year full-time.

MODE OF DELIVERY:Face-to-Face

Next Intake: 2024/2025 September.

Careers & Employability

Many graduates of the MFA in Creative Writing establish successful writing lives, several securing publishing contracts. MFA student Colin Barrett (2015) won the Guardian First Fiction Prize with Young Skins then went on to win both the Frank O'Conner International short story award and the Rooney Prize for Literature. 2015, has also seen the publication of novels by four of our recent graduates; Susan Stairs, The Boy Between; Paula McGrath, Generation; Andrea Carter, Death at Whitewater Church; Henrietta McKervey, What Becomes Of Us. Henrietta won both the Hennessy First Fiction Award and the UCD Maeve Binchy Travel Award in 2014. The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Prize 2011 was awarded to graduate, Helena Nolan, while in 2013, graduate Jessica Traynor won the Hennessy Emerging Poet Award and the Hennessy Writer of the Year Award in 2013.