Student Profiles

I’ve just finished my MA in Creative Writing and I’m now concentrating on being a full-time freelance writer. I’ve just received a generous Arts Council grant to work on my second full collection of poetry. Alongside my research, I am running a project (The At or Below Sea Level Project) which involves hosting a series of free workshops in the Coastal and Fenland region of East Anglia. It will culminate in publication of participants’ work on the project website and a launch-night reading.

Not only were the workshops a lot of fun, I made friends (with fellow poets) that resulted in readings and collaborations that occurred after the MA had finished. These contacts will be lifelong friends. Another important aspect of the MA was the thesis. The feedback sessions with my supervisor were even more constructive than I had hoped for. Poems from my thesis resulted in two publications: my pamphlet, which won the inaugural Paper Swans Pamphlet Competition, and my full collection which was accepted by the first publisher (Pindrop Press) I sent it to and was launched in Waterstones, Brussels in January.

The teaching component of the Creative Writing MA enabled me to appreciate the other side, as it were. Teaching a subject always reinforces the teacher’s knowledge too!

Students who get the most out of the Creative Writing MA are also the ones that give the most: attend every workshop, prepare notes on others’ work in advance, and partake in every opportunity available to you! 

…the energy and enthusiasm of every member of the MA staff I’ve met during the course of my MA – thank you Man Met!

Man Met is a unique university: it’s very prestigious on the one hand, with the nation’s Poet Laureate as Creative Director of the MA programme, while it also has a wholly inclusive, down-to-earth ethos that I find greatly encouraging.