Creative Writing PhD

University of Aberdeen

Our Creative Writing PhD programme offers a dedicated, supportive, multi-award-winning team of full-time supervisory staff specialising in poetry, fiction, non-fiction prose, and screenwriting. Our writers include internationally renowned novelist Alan Warner (author of Morvern Callar, The Sopranos and The Stars in the Bright Sky as well as film and stage adaptations of his work) David Wheatley (author of Mocker, A Nest on the Waves and The President of Planet Earth, and a 2015 judge of the National Poetry Competition) Helen Lynch (author of The Elephant and the Polish Question and Tea for the Rent Boy) Alan Marcus (filmmaker of In Place of Death, The New Colossus and 216 Beach Walk, Waikiki) and Shane Strachan (author of DWAMS and Nevertheless: Sparkian Tales in Bulawayo). The University of Aberdeen offers a rich and unique variety of inter-disciplinary creative opportunities based on the University’s centres of research excellence such as the WORD Centre for Creative Writing, The Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies (host of visiting writers such as Michael Longley and James Kelman), the Centre for the Novel (host of visiting writers such as Michele Roberts, Janice Galloway and Will Self), and the Sir Herbert Grierson Centre. Our postgraduate programmes host masterclasses from world-class visiting writers (recent workshops have featured Claire Keegan, Don Paterson and Simon Armitage) and The WORD Centre delivers the highly successful, youth-led literary arts festival, WayWORD Festival. The Centre also fosters many active and productive links with the wider writing community of the northeast. PGR students may opt to study part-time or full-time, and all successful applicants are considered for competitive bursary funding. We are open to discussing all potential projects with applicants, including the possibility of undertaking these via Distance Learning.

School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture