Every year, the MA welcomes students from overseas. The majority come from the USA. Other graduates have come from Greece, Holland, India, Japan, Pakistan and elsewhere. All had very strong English language skills before beginning the course. Students choose to take their Creative Writing MA at NTU because of the course's strong professional ethos, intensive workshopping and high success rate. Note that the course lasts eleven months, from October to the beginning of September, with graduation in late November. If applying, you must leave yourself plenty of time between application and the start of the course to allow for the interview process (usually by phone) and to satisfy UK visa requirements.
The city of Nottingham is at the centre of the UK, with a thriving literary culture and less than two hours from London, with good connections to the rest of the country. Here is what two current students, both from the US, have to say about the course:
"The tutorial system at NTU makes students explicitly responsible for the direction of their coursework and the outcome of their educations. To my mind, this forces students to engage in a way that is not present in undergraduate education back home and underemphasized in many of the Master's programs I considered. Focus, at the Master's level is critical to producing a worthy dissertation and making the most of the graduate school experience. One on one access to professors and tutors is, of course, tremendously valuable, but the real benefit to students is the degree of thought which their fellows invest in their own development. In any program, exposure to the teaching staff can be a rewarding experience, but regardless of how many hours you spend in lectures, you will always find yourself in the company of your peers. Their interest and investment in the course is a looming unquantifiable that has perhaps more impact on one's education than even the staff or the University you choose. Writing workshops can be brutal and cliquish, I was looking for a group of people willing to consider the work and help each other improve. I am gratified to say I made the right choice at Nottingham Trent."
Matt Gelgota
"Five months into the MA course, I'm amazed by what I've accomplished so far. The way I read, the way I write, and the way I think about writing have developed dramatically through the workshopping process, and it's exciting to observe the rise in quality of my own work and that of my colleagues.
"One major strength of the MA at Trent is its emphasis on training for a career in writing. I've been encouraged to submit work, and have already had one short story and one book review accepted for publication. All of us are being pushed to consider our dissertation manuscripts as professional pieces of writing, suitable for submission to agents and publishers. Another strength for me personally is the option to complete the course in one, intensive, full-time year. It's hard work, but incredibly rewarding, and to be able to earn an MA of this caliber in only one year is invaluable. Finally, I greatly appreciate the flexibility on this course. Within its structural framework, students can make choices about what they want to emphasize. There's the opportunity to write and edit an anthology, to assist in teaching undergraduate students, to experiment with adaptation, and to learn from a huge variety of writers: graphic novelists, travel writers, television scriptwriters, poets, and more. I've been able to direct my education at Trent to make the course all that much more satisfying, meaningful, and productive. I enthusiastically recommend this program to anyone who cares passionately about the craft, who is willing to work hard, and who wants to take a quantum leap as a writer."
Freda Love Smith
