Specific Requirements
M.A. in English: Creative Writing and Language and Literature
- ENGL-8910 / 8920: Creative Writing Seminar A and B (Fall and Winter Terms)
- Four graduate seminars
- ENGL-8940: Creative Writing Project
- ENGL-8000: Scholarship and the Profession (a pass/fail 3-week course)
The Creative Writing Project (ENGL-8940), which will normally emerge out of the graduate seminar in Creative Writing, is a book-length manuscript (approximately 70-120 pages). The manuscript will include creative work in a particular genre followed by an essay of approximately 3,000-4,000 words. This essay must contextualize the student's creative work, and might include one or more of the following: articulating compositional process; reviewing the theory/history of a mode or genre featured in the thesis (e.g., historical fiction, the elegaic, concrete poetry, etc.); situating the work within contemporary creative practice. The student will work independently on this project under the guidance of a Master's Committee consisting of a thesis director (Chair of the Master's Committee), one other member from the Department of English, and one faculty member from another department.
Applicants are not required to have a faculty advisor in order to be accepted into the program. Advisors will be assigned during the student's first term in program.
Visit our Faculty page to view each faculty members' research/teaching interests.
NOTE: Creative Writing applicants are encouraged to apply to begin the program in the Fall semester. The Creative Writing Seminars run consecutively in the Fall and Winter semesters.
Students in the Creative Writing and Language and Literature field must register in ENGL-8940 Creative Writing Project in every term in which they use university facilities for their work.
Creative Writing Thesis Prospectus:
Prior to beginning work on the creative writing thesis, students must submit a prospectus, which will be prepared in consultation with their advisor(s). The prospectus (approximately 1,000 words) is a formal, detailed plan of work which sets out clearly the scope and nature of the project, its particular use of genre and how the work is situated within contemporary creative and critical writing in Canada. The prospectus is accompanied by a bibliography of primary and secondary texts that provide a context for the project. The prospectus will be circulated to appropriate members of the Department of English for approval.
Grading
The Faculty of Graduate Studies requires that students maintain at least a 70% cumulative GPA at all times. Courses in which a grade of 70% or higher is received will be accepted for graduate credit. A student whose grade in a graduate course is less than 70% may be allowed to repeat the course or to substitute another for it, at the discretion of the Dean of Graduate Studies and the program coordinator. The student may not repeat more than one course.