ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳

Master of Fine Arts

• MFA entry requirements

  MFA Year 1 entrants will normally be required to hold a good honours level undergraduate degree or equivalent.  MFA Year 2 direct entrant applicants are required to hold, or expected to obtain, a distinction level MLitt in Creative Writing or Playwriting and Screenwriting.

• How to apply

  MFA study Applications should be submitted via the research degree option of the fully automated online application system and you should ensure that you have all additional documents required available for upload at point of application.

  The writing samples provided within your application are incredibly important in the assessment process. Ideally, this should be a piece of distinction-grade writing which you have recently completed and must be on a theme related to your programme intention.

  Application document requirements

  • CV or resume
  • 2 academic references (directly from referees via the automated system)
  • An academic critical writing sample of approximately 2,000 words which should be on a literary topic.
  • A portfolio of original verse, prose, playwriting or screenwriting (approximately 10 poems or around 10-15 pages of prose, playwriting or screenwriting). Please add this sample as a section of your academic writing sample and upload as one document.
  • Certified academic transcripts of study, including modular grades (interim UG level transcripts are permitted at this stage where final results are not yet known)
  • MFA research proposal: Year 1 entrants should merely state the strand (poetry, prose, or playwriting and screenwriting) and year of the programme that you are applying for, and confirm that your intended project will be relevant for that genre; Year 2 entrants require to provide a full proposal of around 1,000 words.
  • Statement of Purpose
  • IELTS/CPE/TOEFL certificate (if applicable) with an IELTS 8.0 grade minimum in each sub-category, or equivalent

• Application deadline

  Application deadline for receipt of complete study application (including references): 31 May

• Fees

  In the first year, students pay the equivalent fee for taught postgraduate students. Taught tuition fee information can be found on the University's . This page also includes links to other relevant information, such as residence fees etc.

  In the second year, fees will be charged in line with the equivalent research fee for the relevant academic year. Please see tuition fees for research postgraduate programmes for current fee levels.

• Funding

  Following submission of a study application, students should apply separately through the scholarships and funding catalogue for any available awards. Awards can be viewed on the scholarships and funding pages. Deadline dates and eligibility are separately listed for named individual awards within the catalogue, and students normally do not require to hold a study offer prior to application.

  For general information about any aspect of funding, please contact the Scholarships Office at pgscholarships@st-andrews.ac.uk

• Staff teaching on the MFAs

  Year one entrants are not required to contact a prospective supervisor prior to application submission since one will be allocated during their studies automatically, but for Year 2 direct entrants this is a crucial step in the process. The following members of staff may be available to supervise research topics:

  Ms Anne Boyer

  Anne Boyer welcomes enquiries from students working in poetry and poetics, autotheory, and experimental literature. Of particular interest are the intersections of literature with critical theory or philosophy, social movements, and the visual arts. 

  Professor Zinnie Harris

  Professor Harris is a playwright, screenwriter, and theatre director. She would be happy to supervise students who are interested in writing for stage or screen, and has a particular interest in adapting classical texts from the canon. She would welcome enquiries from writers who are interested in how women are presented on the stage and screen, and those with bold and contemporary stories that demand to be told.

  Dr Oliver Hazzard

  Dr Hazzard is interested in supervising students working on 20th and 21st-century poetry. He is particularly interested in transnational poetic exchange, coteries, influence, ekphrasis, appropriative and constraint-based writing.

  Mr Johnny McKnight

  Johnny McKnight is a playwright and screenwriter and would be happy to supervise students who are interested in stage and screenwriting. He has worked across a variety of forms – from original dramas to pantomime to crime dramas to musicals and operas. His work includes adaptations from novels and short stories; TV reboots; original drama and long-form serial drama.

  Mrs Frances Poet

  Frances Poet is a writer of stage, screen and radio. Her work often bears witness to real people's stories and she would welcome enquiries from students interested in shaping non-fiction narratives with authenticity, integrity and craft, as well as those using fictional stories to reflect powerfully and urgently on the world in which we live.

  Ms Dina Nayeri

  Ms Nayeri would be happy to supervise fiction or non-fiction, in a range of narrative forms, relating to displacement and movement of all kinds: not only across borders or in language and culture (though the middle east is one of her own focal points), but stories that reflect upon and dramatize moments of profound change, undoings, and times of estrangement and otherness in a variety of lives.

  Ms Karen Solie

  Karen Solie is interested in supervising students working with 20th-century and contemporary poetry. Particular interests include writing about work and place, ecopoetics, form and the potential of hybrid genres, epistemology and the influence of philosophy, research methods, and Canadian poetry.

• Testimonials

  The Creative Writing community cultivated at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ is necessary for growth as writers. The people that I have met and write with have confirmed to me that ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ is a special place to work on my novel.

  Jenna Rogers
  2018

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  The quality of the poets who teach at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ is still very difficult to fully appreciate. I could spend the next decade learning from them, and probably will keep doing so through their poetry, once I’ve left. Second best thing I’ve done in my life, taking my MFA in poetry here.

  Sean Robinson
  2018

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  I LOVE ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳. Living in this small stone town by the sea is the best thing that ever happened to me. The town practically begs you to write poetry to it. Professors are totally available and classmates are some of the best advocates. People here are rooting for you. There is something so magical– the berries in fall, icy dips in the sea in winter, sunsets all year round. And the English department has the best community for postgraduates by far. We take care of each other!

  Lily Clarke
  2017

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  I initially came to ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ as an MLitt student to study abroad, learn in a global context, and meet new people. I stayed on for the MFA to continue writing alongside my cohort and gleaning from accomplished professors.

  I also wasn’t ready to give up the view of the North Sea from Castle House steps..

  Rachel Hall
  2017

• Careers

  The benefits of postgraduate study at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ stretch far beyond graduation. As well as joining a long line of notable alumni and academics, postgraduate students are supported in their next steps by both the Careers Centre and the University alumni relations team. See the University's page on Using your English degree.

  The University also provides an extensive and award-winning generic skills development programme – GRADskills – for all of its early career researchers, including MFA students.