Creative Writing and the WRITE Program
What is Creative Writing?
Always wanted to be a writer? Investigate the power of language to reveal and reimagine the world and ourselves in new and dynamic ways! Our creative writing program offers an exciting and diverse range of courses, including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, along with creative research and experimental forms of writing.
Why Study Creative Writing at UAlberta?
This program offers an exciting and diverse range of courses, including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, along with creative research and experimental forms of writing. Our program has our students work closely with active and talented writers. We also have community-focused courses in which students engage in collective and grassroots creative writing and research projects, expanding thought, asking questions, and attending to the voices of others.
Experience Beyond the Classroom
Edmonton plays host to many renowned literary and poetry festivals. We employ a Writer in Residence who is available for one on one consultations with students. Creative coursework can be combined with community outreach and interaction in order to earn a Community Service-Learning Certificate, benefitting both our students and our community.
In the course-based Master of Arts, students can submit an original creative project for the completion of their degree. Past projects have included collections of poetry or short stories, and non-fiction and hybrid works or *research creation projects, combining theoretical/critical and creative elements.
In our Master of Arts creative thesis, students can propose and submit a substantial piece of creative writing, such as a novel or a collection of stories or poems in place of an MA thesis. The thesis can include collections of poetry or short stories, and non-fiction and hybrid works or *research creation projects, combining theoretical/critical and creative elements.
Community focused WRITE classes are also available in which the creative coursework is combined with community outreach and interaction. In these classes, our students can work towards a Community Service Learning certificate, engaging in collective and grassroots creative writing and research projects, expanding thought, asking questions, and attending to the voices of others.
* We use the current SSHRC definition of research creation to define the nature of projects of research creation:
Research-creation: an approach to research that combines creative and academic research practices, and supports the development of knowledge and innovation through artistic expression, scholarly investigation, and experimentation. The creation process is situated within the research activity and produces critically informed work in a variety of media (art forms). Research-creation cannot be limited to the interpretation or analysis of a creator's work, conventional works of technological development, or work that focuses on the creation of curricula.
- Fiction
- Non-fiction
- Poetry
- Publishing
- Video Game Narrative
- Experimental Writing
- Speculative Fiction
- Creative Research
Our program trains students to be professional communicators and engaging storytellers, becoming skilled at crafting narratives. Students find jobs in creative and commercial industries. Potential jobs include working as journalists, librarians, copywriters, editorial assistants, and social media managers, as well as writers for magazines, websites, video games, theatre, and more.
Our Areas: English | Creative Writing | Film Studies | Writing Studies
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AWE: Open to all Arts students
The Value of an Arts Degree - Caroline Gault
