Bachelor of Arts (English and Creative Writing)

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Course Overview
Key Facts
Course Outline
Further Education
Why Choose This Course?
Course Fees
Find Out More

Entry Points (2022)

468

Course Overview

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 professions 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 second year you will be ready to embark on a 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, podcast 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.

Applications and Selections

Who Teaches this Course

Dr John Kenny.

John McGahern Lecturer in Creative Writing

Programme director

http://www.universityofgalway.ie/our-research/people/english-and-creative-arts/johnkenny/

Mike McCormack, author and lecturer.

Director, MA in Writing

https://canongate.co.uk/contributors/12516-mike-mccormack/

Betsy Cornwell, author.

https://www.betsycornwell.com

Susan Du Mars, author.

http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com

Tanya Farrelly, author.

https://tanyafarrelly.wordpress.com

Elaine Feeney, author.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/1084515/elaine-feeney.html?tab=penguin-biography

Kevin Higgins, author.

http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com

Tim Kearney, screenwriting educator.

Kate Kerrigan (aka Morag Prunty), author.

https://www.katekerrigan.ie

Sarah O’Toole, theatre artist and writer.

https://www.sarah-otoole.com

Requirements and Assessment

Key Facts

Entry Requirements

Minimum Grade H5 in two subjects and passes in four other subjects at O6/H7 Grades in the Leaving Certificate including Irish, English, another language, and three other subjects recognised for entry purposes.

Additional Requirements

Duration

4 years

Next start date

September 2023

A Level Grades (2022)

universityofgalway.ie/alevels

Average intake

QQI/FET FETAC Entry Routes

1 (More Info)

Closing Date

NFQ level

Mode of study

ECTS weighting

Award

CAO

GY111

Course code

Course Outline

Year 1

You will study Creative Writing, English, and one other Arts subject. The focus in 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, second year concentrates on the writing of Poetry, Plays and Screenplays.

Year 3

Your Creative Writing work will be the exclusive focus, through 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 your 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 an 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.

Curriculum Information

Curriculum information relates to the current academic year (in most cases).
Course and module offerings and details may be subject to change.

Glossary of Terms

Credits: You must earn a defined number of credits (aka ECTS) to complete each year of your course. You do this by taking all of its required modules as well as the correct number of optional modules to obtain that year's total number of credits.
Module: An examinable portion of a subject or course, for which you attend lectures and/or tutorials and carry out assignments. E.g. Algebra and Calculus could be modules within the subject Mathematics. Each module has a unique module code eg. MA140.
Subject: Some courses allow you to choose subjects, where related modules are grouped together. Subjects have their own required number of credits, so you must take all that subject's required modules and may also need to obtain the remainder of the subject's total credits by choosing from its available optional modules.
Optional: A module you may choose to study.
Required: A module that you must study if you choose this course (or subject).
Required Core Subject: A subject you must study because it's integral to that course.
Semester: Most courses have 2 semesters (aka terms) per year, so a three-year course will have six semesters in total. For clarity, this page will refer to the first semester of year 2 as 'Semester 3'.

Year 1 (60 Credits)

Year 2 (60 Credits)

Year 3 (60 Credits)

Optional CW303: Portfolio Development - 25 Credits - Semester 5
Optional CW306: International Creative Writing I - 30 Credits - Semester 5
Optional CW300: Independent Writing Project 1 - 30 Credits - Semester 5
Optional PS338: Theories of Personality - 5 Credits - Semester 5
Optional DT2112: The Practice and Exploration of the Creative Arts (S1) - 5 Credits - Semester 5
Optional CW307: International Creative Writing 2 - 30 Credits - Semester 6
Optional CW305: Yearlong Personal Project - 60 Credits - Semester 6
Optional CW301: Independent Writing Project 2 - 30 Credits - Semester 6
Optional PS320: Memory & Cognition - 5 Credits - Semester 6

Year 4 (60 Credits)

Further Education

Typical postgraduate courses our Creative Writing graduates move on to include our MAs in Writing, Literature & Publishing, English, Education, Journalism, Languages. Our students have a comparatively very high success rate in applications to a broad range of postgraduate courses at home and abroad.

Why Choose This Course?

Career Opportunities

With a comparatively high proportion of our students attaining first-class honours degrees (typically 30-40% of the class), this course will help open doors of employment for you in all those fields where written communication is important. You will have fostered the talent, imagination and professionalism necessary to be a published author and you may consider a career as one.

The skills you will acquire are applicable to a wide range of careers and creative fields, for example in teaching, editing, publishing and other literary professions, advertising and copy-writing, games writing and narrative design, and the existing and ever-expanding areas in media, journalism and public engagement.

Who’s Suited to This Course

Learning Outcomes

Transferable Skills Employers Value

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 prospects for additional placements can be discussed in advance with your course director and/or mentor.

Study Abroad

If you are studying a language with English and Creative Writing, Erasmus exchanges with European universities are possible; the Creative Writing study path you take abroad will be discussed in advance with your course director. Non-language students may also avail of an exchange with an English-speaking university abroad, most typically in the USA or Canada.

Related Student Organisations

Course Fees

Fees: EU

€5,738 p.a. 2023/24

Fees: Tuition

€2,598 p.a. 2023/24

Fees: Student Contribution

€3,000 p.a. 2023/24

Fees: Student levy

€140 p.a. 2023/24

Fees: Non EU

€18,620 p.a. 2023/24

EU Fees are comprised of Tuition + Student Contribution Charge + Student Levy** €140. **Payable by all students and is not covered by SUSI. Further detail here.

Find out More

Dr John Kenny
John McGahern Lecturer in Creative Writing
School of English and Creative Arts

e. john.kenny@universityofgalway.ie
t. +353 91 495612

What Our Students Say

John McHugh | BA Connect (Creative Writing)

‘The BA programme in Creative Writing gave me a formidable start in my journey as a writer. Now, with the publication of my first book, I think back to the programme’s combined focus on writing skills, imaginative daring and vision, and its strong workshop ethos: these are the vital foundations for building a future in the writing professions.’ John McHugh, author of Pure Gold (4th Estate/New Island, 2021).