Bachelor of Arts (English and Creative Writing)

This new course builds and expands on over a decade’s worth of experience in directing and fostering undergraduate talent specifically in Creative Writing at NUI Galway. It provides a unique opportunity for students with an aptitude and passion for literary expression, and in keeping with the principle that ‘writers learn to write by writing’, the emphasis throughout is on practice-based learning and experience.

You will study and practice all the major genres of Creative Writing: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Playwriting, Screenwriting. Within these broader genres, you will be helped discover, experiment with and strengthen your own individual strands of interest.

During the course, your developing concentration on your own creative practice is paralleled by a focus on the practical imperatives and industry requirements in the many established and emerging writing-related fields. From the very start during your first year, a speaker from the writing profession visits the class each week for discussions, Q & A and informal conversation. This will help you begin to actively engage with the everyday routines and rhythms of writing-related professionals of all kinds.

With your expanding knowledge of what it takes to write at a high level, by the end of the second year you will be ready to embark on the third year that provides for a 100% focus on your personal Creative Writing project(s). By the end of this specialism year, students on the course have developed advanced drafts of, for instance, novels of various kinds, collections of stories and/or flash fiction, poetry collections, plays, screenplays, essay collections, and podcasts scripts. You decide on your creative direction and project focus for the year, and then we will engage with your ideas and provide the teaching, mentorship and all-in guidance to help you fulfil your vision for your work.

Then, as you complete your studies in English and one other subject during your fourth and final year, you will build further on your third-year project(s) through modules that concentrate on further professionalisation, publication planning, social and public platforms and the various ways now of getting yourself and your writing out there.

Year 1

• You will study Creative Writing, English, and one other Art subject. The focus on Creative Writing will be on the practice of Fiction and Nonfiction, and there will also be a weekly visiting-speaker series.

Year 2

• You will study Creative Writing, English, and your other chosen Arts subject. For Creative Writing, the second year concentrates on the writing of Poetry, Plays and Screenplays.

Year 3

• Your Creative Writing work will be the exclusive focus, through a mentored independent project(s) and/or study abroad and/or work placement. While mentorship with professional writers is the prime work experience for our Creative Writing students, other forms of work placement are possible. Your third year provides a major opportunity for guided self-directed learning, and you can discuss your plans and prospects in advance with your course director and/or mentor. If you are studying a language with English and Creative Writing, you may avail of exchange at an EU university, and the Creative Writing study path you take while abroad will be planned in advance. Non-language students may also avail of an exchange with an English-speaking university abroad, most typically in the USA or Canada.

Year 4

• Completion of your studies in Creative Writing, English and your other subject. For Creative Writing, your classes will centre on project and portfolio consolidation, professionalisation and publication planning.