University news

The University of Glasgow's prestigious Creative Writing Programme celebrates its 15th anniversary this year.

Since Professors Philip Hobsbaum and Willy Maley founded the Masters in Creative Writing in 1995, the Programme has earned a world-wide reputation for excellence with many of its alumni becoming distinguished writers.

Establishing the course was a natural progression for the late Philip Hobsbaum who had already gained a remarkable reputation for nurturing writing talent having run influential writers’ groups in London, Belfast and Glasgow for over thirty years.

Creative Writing [mp4]

By 2001, the MLitt course had grown to become one of the most successful postgraduate courses of its kind in the country, and the University established a chair in creative writing, which was jointly held by Alasdair Gray, James Kelman and Tom Leonard.

Other respected writers have since taught on the course including Janice Galloway, Zoe Strachan, Louise Welsh, Laura Marney, Alan Bissett and the Jamaican poet Kei Miller. While members of the Departments of English, Scottish and Spanish Literature regularly contribute to the programme, as well as from a range of experts from out with the University.

Convener of the Creative Writing Programme, Michael Schmidt said: “I think the success of the course is due to the structure and the attention we give to students.  It isn’t just a creative writing course the course has three elements: creative, practical and literary. It has the creative aspect with workshops and tutorials and people produce very substantial work in those contexts; students also learn about publishing, agents, contracts and copyrights; and the third very important aspects is the literary strand  where students read books they might not have read and think about literature in ways they might not have thought about it.

“In the future, we plan to develop the MFA course. It is the first MFA in Britain and gives students the opportunity to learn about the application of their skills in various ways including teaching. We are looking to expand distance learning which is exciting - you might have a student in Kuala Lumpur at midnight and a student in Idaho in the bright sunlight dialoguing with each other in real time. The kind of mixes you can achieve with distance learning are considerable. We also hope that the part-time Mlitt will continue to develop.” 

Today the Creative Writing Programme continues to provide a unique writing environment for undergraduate and postgraduate students of all ages.  After fifteen years, the future for the Programme looks bright with the University’s Masters, MFA and PhD provisions among the most challenging and popular in Britain and an ambitious programme of visiting speakers, masterclasses and public events. 

The 15th anniversary of the Creative Writing programme will be marked by an exhibition in the Mitchell Library, reading events and a party.

EXHIBITION

The Mitchell Library hosts an exhibition devoted to the Creative Writing Programme that traces the history and underlines the achievements. It includes books, manuscript material and photographs. It runs from 1-29 November and is open to the public from 9am-8pm from Monday - Thursday and 9am-5pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

SPECIAL EVENTS

There are two major readings at the Mitchell Library by five of the outstanding alumni of the course, to which all are warmly invited.

Friday 5 November from 6pm: Meet the Tutor with Laura Marney, Kei Miller, Elizabeth Reeder, Michael Schmidt and Zoe Strachan for questions and conversation and at 7pm there will a reading with Karen Campbell, Jason Donald and Anne Donovan.

Saturday 6 November from 2pm: another chance to Meet the Tutor for questions and conversation and readings from Rachel Seiffert and Louise Welsh.

These special events are free.

ANNIVERSARY PARTY

To mark the end of the exhibition there will be a party with readings at the Anatomy Museum and Theatre, University of Glasgow on 29 November at 5.30pm. All members of the programme, past and present, are invited to this event.

Further information:
Martin Shannon, Senior Media Relations Officer
University of Glasgow Tel: 0141 330 8593

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First published: 21 October 2010