MA
in Creative Writing
Course
Handbook
1
Welcome to the 8th year of the Masters in Creative Writing at Queen’s University,
Belfast. The MA is designed to equip students to use their literary talents to the
best of their ability, to encourage their development as independent writers and
self-reflective lifelong learners, and to provide them with a broad understanding of
the literary marketplace and of the commercial aspects of literary production.
This handbook is designed to introduce you to your tutors, to give you an overview
of the MA, and to inform you about the rich creative culture of Queen’s more
generally.
There is a long and distinguished history of Creative Writing at Queen’s, stretching
back to the famous Heaney/Longley/Mahon ‘group’ of the 1960s. To consolidate
and further develop Queen’s renowned international reputation for creative writing,
the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry was established here in 2003. Acclaimed
poet and novelist, Professor Ciarán Carson, is the Centre’s director. As well as
housing most of the MA activities, the Centre plays host to a series of readings by
national and international academics, novelists and poets. These readings are free
and open to members of the public, and will form a stimulating backdrop to your
own exploration of creative practice.
The MA is expanding: Creative Writing students are now required to study
Research Methods alongside all other MA students in the School of English, as
well as a Research Methods course specifically for creative writers. In addition to
your compulsory modules, there is also a series of new elective half-modules,
including workshops on the short story, life writing, poetic form and translation. In
addition, you will have the opportunity to take part in a series of interdisciplinary
‘adventures’ (on a non-assessed basis) with students from drama, film studies,
music, and social anthropology.
Congratulations on being accepted onto the course. We wish you a stimulating and
enjoyable time ahead.
Dr. Sinéad Morrissey
Convenor, MA in Creative Writing
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Contents:
Staff
4-6
Course overview
7
Timetable
8
Module descriptions
9-11
Assessment
12
Former students
13
Other creative writing activities
14
Seamus Heaney Centre
15
Contacts
15
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STAFF
Professor Ciarán Carson
Ciarán Carson was born in 1948 in Belfast. He is the author of nine collections of
poems, including The Irish for No, Belfast Confetti, and The Twelfth of Never. In
recent years he has written four prose books: Last Night’s Fun, a book about
traditional music; The Star Factory, a memoir of Belfast; Fishing for Amber: A Long
Story; and Shamrock Tea, a novel, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize. He
has won several literary awards, including the Irish Times Irish Literature Prize and
the T.S. Eliot Prize. His translation of Dante’s Inferno (2002) was awarded the
Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize, and in 2003 he was made an honorary
member of the Irish Translators’ and Interpreters’ Association. Breaking News was
awarded the 2003 Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection. A new collection of
poetry is due next year.
Ciarán will be facilitating the Poetics of Translation module.
Contact: +44 (0)28 9097 1074
Email: c.carson@qub.ac.uk
Mr Daragh Carville
Daragh Carville is a playwright and screenwriter. His plays, which include
Language Roulette and Observatory, have been widely produced in Britain and
Ireland, and in France, Germany, Holland and the US. He was also one of the
contributors to Convictions, the award-winning theatre event held at the Crumlin
Road Courthouse, Belfast in 2000. Daragh Carville has written widely for both TV
and Radio. His radio play, Regenerations, first broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2001,
was nominated for the Richard Imison Award, and his version of Bram Stoker’s
Dracula was broadcast on Radio 4 in December 2003. His film Middletown,
starring Matthew McFadyen, was released in 2006. Daragh was the winner of the
1997 Stewart Parker Award and the 1998 Meyer-Whitworth Prize. He was Writerin-Residence at Queen’s University, Belfast from 1999 to 2002 and has been a
creative writing lecturer on the MA since 2002.
Daragh will be facilitating the Scriptwriting and Craft and Technique modules, as
well as co-facilitating the Research Methods for Creative Writers module.
Contact: +44 (0)28 9097 1082
Email: daraghcarville@hotmail.com
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Mr Carlo Gébler
Carlo Gébler was born in Dublin in 1954 and brought up in London. He now
lives in Co. Fermanagh. He is the author of several novels including The Eleventh
Summer, The Cure and How to Murder a Man, the short story collection W.9. &
Other Lives, along with several works of non-fiction including the memoir Father &
I, the narrative history, The Siege of Derry, and two travel books, Driving Through
Cuba and The Glass Curtain. He has also written several novels for children and
reviews fiction and non-fiction widely in the Irish and British press. His adaptation
of La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler, Ten Rounds, was short-listed for the Ewart-Biggs
prize in 2002. His play, Henry & Harriet received its premiere at the Cathedral Arts
Festival in May 2007 and his novel A Good Day for a Dog is forthcoming from
Lagan Press in November. His film Put to the Test won the Royal Television
Society award
in 1999 in the best regional documentary category. In 2006 he was Writer
Fellow at Trinity College Dublin and he is currently Writer-in-Residence in
HMP Maghaberry, Co. Antrim. He is a member of Aosdána. He is married with five
children.
Carlo will be facilitating the Prose Fiction workshop, and The Short Story
module.
Contact: +44 (0)28 9097 3678
Email: cgebler.email@virgin.net
Dr Leontia Flynn
Leontia Flynn, Research Fellow at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, was
born in 1974. She won an Eric Gregory Award in 2001, and her first collection
These Days (Cape 2004) won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and was
shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize for Poetry. She was selected as one of twenty
‘Next Generation Poets’ in a Guardian promotion the same year. She has also
written a PhD thesis on the poetry of Medbh McGuckian, which she is currently
preparing for publication. Her second collection of poetry, Drives, is due from Cape
in 2008.
Leontia will be facilitating the Poetic Form module.
Contact: +44 (0)28 90973795
Email: leontia_flynn@yahoo.co.uk
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Dr Sinéad Morrissey
Sinéad Morrissey was born in Co. Armagh in 1972. She is the author of three
poetry collections: There Was Fire in Vancouver (1996), Between Here and There
(2002) and The State of the Prisons (2005). She was the recipient of the Patrick
Kavanagh Award in 1990, of an Eric Gregory Award in 1996, of the Rupert and
Eithne Strong Award in 2002, of the MacCauley Fellowship from the Irish Arts
Council in 2002, and of the Michael Hartnett Poetry Prize in 2005. Both Between
Here and There and The State of the Prisons were shortlisted for the TS Eliot
Prize. The State of the Prisons was also shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Prize
and for the John Llewellyn Rhys Commonwealth Literature Prize. She has
previously worked as Poet-in-Residence at the Royal Festival Hall, and as Writerin-Residence at Queen’s University between 2002 and 2005. She has recently
been appointed Lecturer in Creative Writing (Poetry) at Queen’s and is convenor of
the MA.
Sinéad will be facilitating the Poetry workshop, the Practice of Writing module
and will be co-facilitating Research Methods for Creative Writers.
Contact: +44 (0)28 9097 1118
Email: s.morrissey@qub.ac.uk
Dr Ian Sansom
Ian Sansom, BBC Writer-in-Residence at Queen’s, was educated at the
universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He is the author of the non-fiction book, The
Truth About Babies (2002), the novels Cortex (2000) and Ring Road (2004), and
the Mobile Library detective series, The Mobile Library: The Case of the Missing
Books (2006), and The Mobile Library: Mr Dixon Disappears (2006). He is a
founder and editor of the magazine The Enthusiast, whose publications include
The Enthusiast Almanack (2006). He writes for The Guardian, The London Review
of Books, and The Spectator, and his essays have appeared in numerous books,
magazines and journals. He is a regular broadcaster on Radio 3 and Radio 4.
Ian will be facilitating the Life Writing module, and the Writers’ Group, which
students on the MA are welcome to attend.
Contact: +44 (0)28 9097 1076
Email: sansomian@hotmail.com
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COURSE OVERVIEW
Semester 1
Compulsory modules:
1. Research Methods (6 weeks)
2. Craft and Technique (6 weeks)
3. Writing workshop (12 weeks)

Writing workshops = Poetry 1, or Scriptwriting 1, or Prose Fiction 1.
Elective, non-assessed modules:
1. The Short Story (6 weeks)
2. Poetic Form (6 weeks)
3. ‘Adventures’ (3 weekends)
Semester 2
Compulsory modules:
1. Research Methods for Creative Writers (6 weeks)
2. The Practice of Writing (6 weeks)
3. Writing workshop (12 weeks)

Writing workshops = Poetry 2, or Scriptwriting 2, or Prose Fiction 2
Elective, non-assessed modules:
1. The Poetics of Translation (6 weeks)
2. Life Writing (6 weeks)
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Timetable
Semester One
Mondays
Research Methods 1st 6 wks
4-6pm
PFC, 211
Tuesdays
Poetry Workshop 1 12 wks
1-3pm
S.R.,SHC
Weds
Poetic Form
2nd 6 wks
11-1pm
TBC
Thursdays
Prose Fiction 1
12 wks
2-4pm
S.R.,SHC
Fridays
Scriptwriting 1
12 wks
9-11am
105, 4 Univ. Sq.
The Short Story
1st 6 wks
11-1pm
105, 4 Univ. Sq.
Craft & Technique 2nd 6 wks
2-4pm
Committee Room
3, Univ. Sq.
Semester two
Tuesdays
Poetry Workshop 2 12 wks
Weds
Life Writing
1st 6 wks 10-12pm
S.R.,SHC
Thursdays
Prose Fiction 2
12 wks
2-4pm
105, 4 Univ. Sq.
Fridays
Scriptwriting 2
12 wks
9-11am
105, 4 Univ. Sq.
11-1pm
105, 4 Univ. Sq.
Practice of Writing 2nd 6 wks 11-1pm
105, 4 Univ. Sq.
Research Methods 1st 6 wks
1-3pm
S.R.,SHC
for Creative Writers
The Poetics of Translation:
time and venue TBC
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Module descriptions
Research Methods (compulsory)
This course contains some directions on the methods of preparing and presenting
a piece of scholarly writing; some instruction in techniques in the use of the library
and of electronic databases for the purposes of accessing information about
chosen topics of research; and some technical information about the production
and transmission of texts that may influence ways of assessing literary evidence
and intentionality.
Research Methods Creative Writing (compulsory)
This six-week module involves discussion and analysis of research methods
relevant to creative writers, and of some of the practical, legal, and ethical
implications of publishing creative work. Use of material in the public domain,
problems with historical method, literary revisionism, ownership of ‘found’ material
and questions of plagiarism and copyright will be considered, as well as ways to
take advantage of Queen’s library’s special collections for artistic rather than
academic purposes.
Craft and Technique (compulsory)
All students on the MA must take this six-week module which is taught in a twohour weekly seminar. The module deals with a range of key issues in creative
writing, including: aspects of craft; the development of technique; the demands of
structure; and approaches to characterisation. The class also focuses on the work
of writers, from Aristotle to Heaney, who have written about the process of writing
itself.
The Practice of Writing (compulsory)
All students on the MA must take this six-week module which is taught by tutors
and by visiting speakers with a practical knowledge of the literary, publishing and
media worlds. The class focuses on such matters as preparing work for
publication, making book proposals, rewriting and editing, the role of the literary
agent, different kinds of publishing outlets, and reviewing for newspapers,
magazines and journals.
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Poetry: Creative Writing Workshops 1 and 2
This is a two-hour weekly workshop to which students bring their poems to be
discussed with the convenor and the other students.
Fiction: Creative Writing Workshops 1 and 2
This is a two-hour weekly workshop to which students bring their fiction to be
discussed with the convenor and other students.
Scriptwriting: Creative Writing Workshops 1 and 2
This is a two-hour weekly workshop to which students bring their scripts to be
discussed with the convenor and other students.
The Short Story (elective)
The course will introduce students to some of the techniques and strategies used
by late-nineteenth and twentieth-century European short story writers. The
emphasis will be practical rather than literary. On completion of this module
students will be familiar with the work of some of the outstanding practitioners of
the short story, including Anton Chekhov, Cesare Pavese and Katherine Mansfield.
They will also be aware of how to appropriate various techniques such writers
employ in order to use them in their own work.
Poetic Form (elective)
This module will involve discussion and analysis of how poetic form in general is
generated. The focus will be a grounding in specific poetic forms, including sonnets
and sestinas, by reading a wide range of examples by different poets, with
students then undertaking to try and produce a different set form each week.
Life Writing (elective)
This course introduces students to life writing in various forms: autobiography,
biography, memoirs, travel writing. On successful completion of this module,
students will have learned some of the principles of life writing, discussed the
conceptual issues arising from it, and have completed a piece of writing of their
own.
The Poetics of Translation (elective)
The module will require a basic reading knowledge of a language other than
English. Through the study of the theory and practice of translation, it will
introduce postgraduate students to issues raised by studying differing translation
processes, versioning and formal experimentation in the light of Walter Benjamin’s
seminal writing on ‘the task of the translator’.
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Adventures in Interdisciplinarity (elective)
This module is part of the brand new interdisciplinary arts MA experience and
involves three intensive task-focused practice-based weekend Adventures where a
group of students from a wide range of arts backgrounds collaborate with
professional practitioners of local, national and international standing to explore
making work in an interdisciplinary context. The group meet with the visiting artist
on a Friday lunchtime and by the end of Saturday they have created a
performance or an installation or a presentational pitch.
This semesters Adventures will be led by Eric Lyon (Sonic Art Research Centre),
Forced Entertainment (“Britain’s most brilliant experimental theatre company” The
Guardian) and Sinead Morrissey (poet) and Sylvia Borda (photographer).
The module also includes three one-off evening business skills workshops on
Tuesday evenings.
For more information about the opportunity to audit this module, please contact
Anna Newell, Artistic Director, CETL(NI): the Centre for Excellence in the Creative
and Performing Arts. 028 9097 5112 or a.newell@qub.ac.uk
Places are limited and as the first Adventure is 5/6 October, you must register your
interest by the end of September.
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Assessment
Assessment of the MA in Creative Writing is by writing portfolios and essays.
You will be asked to produce work for all the compulsory modules:

Research Methods

Research Methods for Creative Writers

Craft and Technique

The Practice of Writing

Writing Workshop 1

Writing Workshop 2
In addition you will be required to produce a summer Thesis: an extended portfolio
of creative work.
You will be marked on the basis of six modules in total.
Research Methods and Research Methods for Creative Writers count as one
module.
Craft and Technique and The Practice of Writing count as one module.
Scriptwriting 1
counts as one module
Scriptwriting 2
counts as one module
Poetry 1
counts as one module
Poetry 2
counts as one module
Prose Fiction 1
counts as one module
Prose Fiction 2
counts as one module
The summer Thesis counts as two modules.
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Former Students
Though there can be no guarantees of course, many former students on the MA in
Creative Writing at Queen’s have gone on to successful careers in writing and the
arts. They include:
Deirdre Alexander (nee Cartmill). Currently working as a script editor for BBC
Northern Ireland, Deirdre won the 2003 Claddagh Films Award for her script 'Honk
if you love Jesus' and her first poetry collection, Midnight Solo, was published by
Lagan Press in 2004.
Maureen Boyle won the Strokestown Poetry Competition in 2007 for her poem
‘Weather Vane’. Maureen was also runner-up for the 2004 Patrick Kavanagh Prize.
Her poems have appeared in The Yellow Nib, Fortnight and elsewhere.
Briana Corrigan is an actress and musician - best known for her work with the
Beautiful South - as well as a writer. Film appearances include The Honeymooners
(2003) and The Most Fertile Man in Ireland (1999) and theatre work includes ‘The
Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne’, which Briana co-wrote with Zoë Seaton.
Anne Fitzgerald’s poetry collections are Swimming Lessons (Wales, Stonebridge,
2001) and The Map of Everything (Dublin, Fortyfoot Press, 2006). She is a recent
holder of The Ireland Fund Writer-in-Residency at The Princess Grace Irish Library
in Monaco.
Mary Lally is a playwright, short story writer and a winner of the Hennessy Award.
She has written several children's books for Poolbeg including A Hive for the
Honey-Bee and The Hungry Wind. Her play, ‘The Dark Daughter’ is touring Leitrim,
Donegal and Antrim under the aegis of the Donegal Blue Stack Festival this
Autumn.
Maria McManus’s plays include ‘His 'n' Hers’ (Replay Theatre Company, 2006),
'The Black Out Show' (Red Lead Arts, 2006) and ‘Nowhere Harder’ (Replay
Theatre Company Script Lab, 2003). She is currently writer on attachment to
Tinderbox Theatre Company. Her poetry has appeared in Poetry Introductions 1
(Lagan Press) and elsewhere, and in 2005 she won the Bedell Scholarship for
Literature awarded by the Aspen Writers Foundation, Colorado. She was
shortlisted for the 2007 Rupert and Eithne Strong Award for her collection, Reading
the Dog, published by Lagan Press.
Eirin Thompson’s debut novel Notes for the Next Time, originally written as her
MA dissertation, was published by Hodder Headline in 2007. She is currently
working on her second novel.
Eoghan Walls won the prestigious Eric Gregory Award in 2006. His poetry has
appeared in the British Council’s New Writing series and elsewhere, and he is
currently working on a PhD at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s.
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Other creative writing activities
Writers’ Group
The Seamus Heaney Centre’s Writers’ Group continues the tradition of the
original ‘Belfast Group’ of the 1960s which was attended by Seamus Heaney,
Michael Longley, Paul Muldoon and other writers of international stature. It is run
by the Centre’s BBC Writer-in-Residence, the novelist and critic Dr Ian Sansom,
and is open to students from all levels of the university, to staff, and to writers from
the general public. Fiction, poetry and scriptwriting are all discussed in a friendly
but critically stimulating environment and students on the MA are encouraged to
attend.
The Writers’ Group meets on Wednesday afternoons during term time, between 4
and 6, in the seminar room of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry.
Contact: Dr Ian Sansom: sansomian@hotmail.com
For the Love of Poetry: a Poetry Reading Group
For the Love of Poetry meets every alternate Tuesday at 6.30 in the seminar
room of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, in order to discuss a recent
collection by a contemporary poet. The format of the group is democratic:
members take it in turns to present a collection and lead the discussion. The group
is open to members from both inside and outside the university and students on
the MA – particularly students studying poetry – are encouraged to attend.
Contact: Paul Maddern: Umumbermuda@aol.com
Heaney’s Lunchbox
A series of informal readings, panel discussions and talks on the first Friday
lunchtime (1-2pm) of every month, starting in October 2007, in the seminar room of
the Seamus Heaney Centre. This year’s programme involves poetry readings,
events surrounding National Novel Writing month, and a series of talks by poetry
editors who are also poets. Heaney’s Lunchbox is run by BBC Writer-inResidence, Dr Ian Sansom, and Paul Maddern, a PhD student and poet who is
assembling an archive of poetry readings by contemporary poets at the Centre.
Students on the MA are encouraged to attend.
Contact: Dr Ian Sansom: sansomian@hotmail.com
Paul Maddern: Umumbermuda@aol.com
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The Seamus Heaney Centre
Resources
Gerry Hellawell is the secretary for the Centre. Her office is on the ground floor as
you enter from University Road. The office is open Monday to Friday, 9-1pm.
Gerry’s email is g.hellawell@qub.ac.uk and she can be contacted on +44 (0)28
9097 1070.
The Seamus Heaney Centre houses a fine collection of contemporary poetry in the
reading room, located on the first floor. Access to the collection is free to students
on the MA and you will have borrowing rights, though a £10 deposit is required for
the key. Keys are available from Gerry upon completion of a registration form. The
reading room is for quiet study only.
Postgraduate rooms on the ground floor beside the office comprise a reception
area and a computer room.
The seminar room directly opposite the office is where the majority of teaching
for the MA occurs. It is also where the Heaney’s Lunchbox events will be held.
The Centre also houses the offices of Professor Ciarán Carson, Dr Ian Sansom,
Dr Leontia Flynn, Mr Daragh Carville, Mr Carlo Gébler, and Dr Sinéad
Morrissey.
Other Contacts
Linda Drain
Dr Philip McGowan
Postgraduate Secretary
Head of Postgraduate Studies
School of English
School of English
Tel: +44 (0)28 9097 5103
Tel: +44 (0)28 9097 3261
Email: l.drain@qub.ac.uk
Email: philip.mcgowan@qub.ac.uk
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