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IMPORTANT DATES 2012-13

AUTUMN TERM

Monday 1 October 2012 Beginning of Autumn Term.

Monday 1 October Introductory Meeting of all MA students at 12 noon in The Writers Room, Millburn House.

Wednesday 3 October All module choices to be finalised.Hand in completed orange registration cards to Reception (H506).

Monday 5 November All Bibliography Exercises to be submittedto the English Office (H506) by 12.00 noon.

Saturday 8 December End of Autumn Term.

SPRING TERM

Monday 7 January 2013 Beginning of Spring Term.

Monday 11 February 1st Autumn Term portfolio to be submitted.*(week 6)Part-time students can choose to submit their first term option module portfolio for this deadline.

Saturday 16 March End of Spring Term.

SUMMER TERM

Monday 22 April Beginning of Summer Term.

Monday 20 May 2nd Autumn Term portfolio to be submitted.Part-time students who did not submit theirfirst term option module portfolio for theFebruary deadline MUST submit for thisdeadline.

Monday 24 June 1st Spring Term portfolio to be submitted.*

Saturday 28 June End of Summer Term.

Monday 2nd September Submit all remaining portfolios and/or Long Projects by 12.00 pm.

Wednesday 16 October 2013 Taught MA Examination Board

* - You have a choice as to which option module essay you submit for which deadline.

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NOTE: All deadlines are final. No late work will be accepted without the written permission of the MA Convenor, which shall not normally be given without documented medical evidence or equivalently serious cause. It is expected that students in difficulty will request an extension which can only be granted by the MA Convenor, who can be contacted directly. The request for extension can be discussed as well with your Personal Tutor, but please remember that she/he cannot approve an extension. A medical note will be required in case of illness. Work which is late without permission will be penalised by 3 marks a day.

All assessed work must conform to the stated maximum word lengths. The maximum word lengths are inclusive of quotations and footnotes but not of bibliography. You will be asked to provide a word count of your essays on the cover sheet which you complete when the work is submitted. We allow a stated margin of up to 10% over or under-length for flexibility. Essays that are 10-25% over/under-length will incur a penalty of 3 marks. Essays that are more than 25% over/under-length will be refused.

NB - If you take an outside option module from those available to the MA in English Literature students, you must submit assessed work to your own degree’s word length (ie up to 10,000 words for MA in Writing students)

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THE WARWICK WRITING PROGRAMME

Master’s Programme in Writing

This handbook should be read in conjunction with the general MA Students’ Handbook for the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies. The general handbook contains practical information on practical matters such as registration for options, mail and messages, use of Common Room, IT services, transport, portfolio / essay binding, complaints procedures, and so on. Please consult your personal tutor if you have questions not answered by this documentation.

STAFF CONTACTS

Director of GraduateStudies, Department of English & Comparative Literary Studies

Dr Emma Francis

Room H511

024 76 522403

[email protected]

Graduate Secretary Mrs Cheryl Cave

Room H505

02476 523665

[email protected]

MA in Writing: Convenor and Examinations Secretary

Professor Maureen Freely

Room H527

024 76 523348

[email protected]

MA in Writing: Admissions Tutor

Professor Maureen Freely

Room H527

024 76 523348

[email protected]

Director of the Warwick Writing Programme

Professor David Morley

Room H521

02476 523346

[email protected]

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mailto:[email protected]

INTRODUCTION

The MA Programme in Writing

The degree is intended for students who are already experienced as well as ambitious practising writers, whether published or not. While we don’t believe that creativity, as such, can be taught, or that it is only fulfilled in ‘the marketplace’, we do aim to help develop technical writing skills which students will find useful professionally, whether in full-time authorship or in related professions such as publishing, the media, or teaching.

Course content and methods of teaching and assessment involve a mixture of approaches based on workshops (see page 13) and portfolios, combined with more traditional academic pedagogies. At least as important as the teaching, though, are the space and stimulus to write within a community of people who have similar aspirations and are facing similar practical, imaginative and intellectual problems. The literary community at Warwick is a scholarly as well as a creative one: the University is one of the most highly ranked research institutions, nationally, to offer such a degree. Much of the value of the course comes from students’ working on the University campus and making use of the full range of activities which it offers.

‘Litbiz’, ‘Work in Progress’, ‘Writers at Warwick’ and other series and external links

Staff of the Programme have excellent links not only with other writers but also with publishing houses, literary journals and agencies, with national and regional organizations such as the Arts Council, PEN and the Royal Literary Fund, and with other creative writing schools in Britain, continental Europe and the USA. An exchange programme enables MA students undertaking long projects to work in Milan under the supervision of Tim Parks. A regular series under the title Litbiz brings literary professionals – among them, publishers and agents - to the Writers’ Room, where they meet students informally over sandwiches before giving a talk chaired by one of the MA students. A more occasional series, Work in Progress, gives opportunities for writers – including Warwick staff - to read from and discuss their current projects.

In partnership with the Warwick Arts Centre, staff of the Writing Programme also help to organize a weekly series of public readings and talks by visiting authors throughout the academic year. More than 300 writers have appeared in the series since 1997, among them Monica Ali, Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, A.S. Byatt, Umberto Eco, Bernardine Evaristo, Michael Frayn, Christopher Hampton, Tony Harrison, Nick Hornby, Clive James, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Hanif Kureishi, Hermione Lee, Doris Lessing, Mario Vargas Llosa, David Lodge, Ian McEwan, Anne Michaels, Andrew Motion, Tim Parks, Michèle Roberts, Salman Rushdie, Will Self, Wole Soyinka, Meera Syal, Colm Tóibín, Derek Walcott, Marina Warner, Fay Weldon Edmund White and Gao Xingjian. We regard students’ active participation in these events as an essential part of their experience on the Writing Programme. Full details can be accessed at the Warwick Arts Centre website: www.warwickartscentre.co.uk.An audio archive of past events can be accessed at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/writingprog/writersatwarwickarchive/Please contact Matt Burman, Head of Programming, for more information.

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http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/writingprog/writersatwarwickarchive/

http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/

The Writing Programme is closely involved with the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (formerly the Capital Centre). The Institute facilitates a number of activities which overlap with those of the Writing Programme - among them, writing for performance. It is housed in a large, newly converted block next to University House, ten minutes’ walk from the Humanities Building, which contains studios, exhibition space, IT facilities and a Writers’ Room which we use for a range of literary activities. A fellowship programme associated with the Capital Centre has brought to Warwick people like the poet and editor Fiona Sampson and the dramatist Adriano Shaplin, both of whom worked with the Writing Programme.

Other aspects of the Writing Programme’s work include international conferences and public debates on topics which have included Censorship, The Needs of Writers, Minority Cultures and the Establishment Press, Science Writing, Creativity, Women in the British Theatre, Writing for Children and Journalism and Public Policy. In 2008, students on the Programme organized Pencilfest: the First National Student Writers' Festival.

Writers’ Lunch: Please make a point of bringing your sandwiches to the Writers’ Room on Thursdays, any time between 1.30 and 3.00, and feel free to invite a friend with an interest in writing. The Writers’ Lunches are an opportunity for staff, students and visiting writers to meet informally. They generally involve an event in the LitBiz series.

A.L.Kennedy and China Mieville will run one-to-one tutorials and tailored masterclasses for MAW students during several visits over the year.

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FULL TIME STUDENTS

THE COURSE STRUCTURE IN OUTLINE

There are two pathways through the Warwick MA in Writing. A) involves five taught modules in which a wide range of written work is produced. B) - the 'Long Project' route - involves three taught modules plus, as the title suggests, a long written project in any genre which the Programme is able to supervise. Permission to follow the 'Long Project' route depends on an assessment of the student's prior experience of writing and of a proposal submitted before the course begins, as well as on the availability of a qualified supervisor or supervisors. (NB supervision of the Long Project begins in Term 2 and continues through Term 3) Students enrolled on the module will receive a letter about their choices during the summer vacation and are asked to respond by 1 September

ROUTE A: ‘TAUGHT’

Full-time students take three modules in the autumn term, two in the spring. The summer is given to ‘writing up’, supported by additional workshops and 1:1 tutorials. The course is structured so as to give students a strong basis in creative work in the first term, followed by an element of optionality afterwards. What follows describes the normal pattern, but there is some flexibility over it. For example, a student who chose to switch to more ‘academic’ study in the second term would be able to do so, subject to her / his previous academic experience.

We try not to make last-minute changes in course plans but modifications are sometimes necessary because of staff illness or other unforeseen circumstances.

AUTUMN TERM

Full-time students will study:

Research Methods (for module details, see pp13-14) AND

Warwick Fiction Workshop I (for module details, see pp 24-25) OR

Non Fiction Workshop (for module details, see pp 19-21)

And ONE OF THE FOLLOWING

Life-writing in History (for module details, see pp 18-19)

Writing for Children and Young People (for module details, see pp 30-33)

Writing Places (for module details, see pp 33-34) or

Another module selected from those offered at MA level by the faculty of Arts, subject to the permissions both of the director of the MA in Writing and of the module convenor.* Modules change from year to year and may be restricted in terms of students numbers but the list is likely to include: The British Dramatists in Society 1965-2005; Writing, Language, Cultural Transfer; Resource Fictions. More details can be found on the websites of individual departments – in the case of English,

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/postgrad/current/masters/modules/

They should also allow time for:

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● Participation in workshops and other events

SPRING TERM

Module choices for the second term need to be made by the end of September. As numbers may be restricted on some modules, students will be asked to name their second and third choices.

Full-time students will study two of the following:

● Crossing Borders (for module details, see pp 14-15)

● Ecopoetics (for module details, see pp 15-18)

● Poetry & Music (for module details, see pp 21-22)

● Seven Basic Plots (for module details, see pp 22-24)

Warwick Fiction Workshop II (for module details, see pp 25-27)

Warwick Writing Progamme for Schools (for module details, see pp 27-29 )

Writing Poetry (for module details, see pp 35-36)

Writing about Human Rights and Injustice (for module details, see pp 36-39)

or Another module selected from those offered at MA level by the Faculty of Arts, subject to the permissions both of the director of the MA in Writing and of the module convenor.* Modules change from year to year and may be restricted in terms of student numbers but the list is likely to include: The British Dramatist in Society, 1965-2005; Resource Fictions. More details can be found on the websites of individual departments – in the case of English, http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/postgrad/current/masters/modules/

SUMMER TERM

Continuation of written projects under supervision Participation in workshops and other events

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ROUTE B: LONG PROJECTPermission to follow the 'Long Project' route depends on an assessment of the student's prior experience of writing as well as the availability of a qualified supervisor or supervisors.

AUTUMN TERM

Full-time students following Route B will study

Research Methods (for module details, see pp 13-14) AND



They should allow time for:

Participation in workshops and other events

SPRING TERM


Long Project: 1:1 tutorials begin

Plus one of the following:






Warwick Writing Programme for Schools (for module details, see pp 27-29)



Another module selected from those offered at MA level by the Faculty of Arts, subject to the permissions both of the director of the MA in Writing and of the module convenor.* Modules change from year to year and may be restricted in terms of student numbers. See exemplary list above.

*Because some Warwick MA programmes involve foundation elements such as a preliminary training in literary theory, students interested in a particular

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module should be careful to find out whether their previous academic experience gives them sufficient grounding for it.

Plus participation in workshops and other events

SUMMER TERM

Long Project: continuation of work under supervision


PART-TIME STUDENTS

THE COURSE STRUCTURE IN OUTLINE

There are two pathways through the Warwick MA in Writing:

A) involves five taught modules in which a wide range of written work is produced. Part-time students who choose Route A generally take two modules in the first term of their first year (of which one will be Research Methods). They go on to take one module in the second term of their first year, one module in the first term of their second year, and one module in the second term of their second year. For further information please consult the guidelines in the information pack that we send to you over the summer.

B) - the 'Long Project' route - involves three taught modules plus, as the title suggests, a long written project in any genre which the Programme is able to supervise. Permission to follow the 'Long Project' route depends on an assessment of the student's prior experience of writing and of a proposal submitted at the beginning of September, just before part-time students enter their first year of study as well as on the availability of a qualified supervisor or supervisors.

During the first term of the second year, part-time students doing the Long Project will meet informally with tutors, usually in a group, to discuss their projects in the round: formal 1:1 supervision of the Long Project begins in Term 2 of the second part-time year and continues through Term 3.

ROUTE A:

In the first term of their first year, part-time students following Route A will study:



Non Fiction Workshop (for module details, see pp 19-21) OR

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Writing for Children and Young People (for module details, see pp 30-33) OR

Life Writing (for module details, see pp 18-19) OR

Writing Places (for module details, see pp 33-34)

In the first term of their second year, part-time students following Route A will generally choose a second module from the same list. There is, however, room for flexibility. The Convenor of the MA in Writing will be happy to advise.

Please bear in mind that part-time students will have to take either Fiction Workshop I or Non Fiction Workshop in their first OR second year.

Part time students should also allow time for:


In the second term of their first year, part-time students following Route A will study ONE of the following:








or Another module selected from those offered at MA level by the Faculty of Arts, subject to the permissions both of the director of the MA in Writing and of the module convenor.* Modules change from year to year and may be restricted in terms of student numbers but the list is likely to include: The British Dramatist in Society, 1965-2005; Writing, Language, Cultural Transfer; Resource Fictions. More details can be found on the websites of individual departments – in the case of English, http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/postgrad/current/masters/modules/

SUMMER TERM

Continuation of written projects under supervision Participation in workshops and other events

In the second term of their second year, part-time students following Route A will generally choose a second module from the same list. There is, however, room for flexibility.

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Part-time students should also allow time for:


*Because some Warwick MA programmes involve foundation elements such as a preliminary training in literary theory, students interested in a particular module should be careful to find out whether their previous academic experience gives them sufficient grounding for it.

ROUTE B: LONG PROJECT

Part-time students following Route B take two taught modules in the autumn term of their first year and a third module in the spring of their first year, while developing their work on the Long Project throughout their time at Warwick. The second year of the part-time course is given to ‘writing up’, supported by additional workshops and 1:1 tutorials in terms 2 and 3. The course is structured so as to reinforce students' existing strengths in creative work in the first term and to give them a wide range of choice in the second, while enabling them to focus on a long piece of writing. We try not to make last-minute changes in course plans but modifications are sometimes necessary because of staff illness or other unforeseen circumstances.

Permission to follow the 'Long Project' route depends on an assessment of the student's prior experience of writing as well as the availability of a qualified supervisor or supervisors. We can offer supervision in Fiction (for adults or children), Nonfiction, and Poetry.

AUTUMN TERM

In their first year, part-time students following Route B will study:




They should also allow time for:

Participation in workshops and other events, as well as informal group discussions to discuss their Long Projects in the round.

SPRING TERM


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Long Project: 1:1 tutorials begin

Part-time students doing the Long Project must take one of the following modules during the spring term of their first year:




Poetry and Music (for module details, see pp 21-22)

Seven Basic Plots (for module details, see pp 22-24)

Warwick Writing Programme for Schools (for module details, see pp 27-29)


● Writing about Human Rights and Injustice (for module details, see pp 36-39)

Another module selected from those offered at MA level by the Faculty of Arts, subject to the permissions both of the director of the MA in Writing and of the module convenor.* Modules change from year to year and may be restricted in terms of student numbers. See exemplary list above.

*Because some Warwick MA programmes involve foundation elements such as a preliminary training in literary theory, students interested in a particular module should be careful to find out whether their previous academic experience gives them sufficient grounding for it.

Plus participation in workshops and other events

SUMMER TERM

Long Project: continuation of work under supervision


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INDIVIDUAL MODULES

RESEARCH METHODS FOR THE MA

Convenor / Tutor: Dr Rochelle Sibley and the English LibrarianAutumn Term: Weeks 2-7: Wednesday, 13:00-15:00.

All students taking the MA in Creative Writing must pass the English Department’s introductory course on Research Methods. The course provides skills which everyone involved professionally in literary work is likely to need at some point in his or her career. By the end of the course, it is expected that students will demonstrate: a sound understanding of research methods, including the use of electronic sources; an ability to reference sources in a scholarly manner including any essays / commentaries written as part of a creative writing module; an ability to conduct literary research; an ability to integrate research into their creative writing projects as well as the essays / commentaries which accompany these projects; and a thorough understanding of the university’s provision of library and online resources.

This module introduces students to the basic issues and procedures of literary research, including electronic resources. The Academic Writing Programme offers guidance for MA students on structuring their research, engaging critically with secondary material and planning their dissertation or Long Project. The first seminar (term 1, week 2) will discuss the writing process, including how to construct a bibliography, and how to establish good writing practice. The second session (term 1, week 5) will focus on research methods and how to demonstrate critical engagement. The third session (term 1, week 6) will cover the structuring of assessed essays and the dissertation or Long Project. In addition to these seminars there will also be a dissertation proposal workshop (term 1, week 2) that will offer students effective guidance in constructing a clearly articulated outline of their research projects. Sessions are conducted by English Department staff members and by the English Librarian. In addition to these sessions, there will be a workshop on using reflective writing for MA in Writing students (Term 1, week 7), which will be co-taught with a member of the Creative Writing Programme. The seminars will take place in weeks 2-7 of the autumn term. All sessions are on Wednesday afternoons from 1.00-3.00. Full details and venues will available on-line at the beginning of the year. Note that the week 2 and 3 meetings will take place in the Library Training Room (Floor 2). You are asked to complete online training tutorials before each library session using the link below which will be updated over the summer - http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/main/tealea/arts/engcomplitstudies/training/ Week 2: The writing process, constructing a bibliography,– Dr Rochelle Sibley (Room H051)Week 3: Resources in Research (i) – English Librarian (Library Training Room)Week 4: Resources in Research (ii) – English Librarian (Library Training Room)Week 5: How to demonstrate critical engagement – Dr Rochelle Sibley (Room H051)Week 6: How to structure assignments and the dissertation - Dr Rochelle Sibley (Room H051)

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http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/main/tealea/arts/engcomplitstudies/training/

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/main/tealea/arts/engcomplitstudies/training/

Week 7: Reflective writing (MA in Writing students ONLY)- Dr Rochelle Sibley (Room H051)Week 9: Writing your PhD thesis (PhD students ONLY) – Dr Rochelle Sibley (Room H051)Week 10: Writing conference papers – Dr Rochelle Sibley (room H051)

Students will be required to complete a short two-part exercise. Part I will consist of a bibliographical exercise, and Part II of a number of advanced electronic search exercises. Both must be submitted to the English Graduate Secretary by 12 noon on Monday, Week 6. (8 November). The exercise is marked as Pass/Fail. If you receive a Fail, you will receive appropriate feedback and will be required to resubmit. The award of an MA is contingent upon successful completion of the assessment for this module.

CROSSING BORDERSTutor: Mr Michael HulseSpring Term: weeks 1-10, Wednesday 11.00-1.00 (venue TBA)

In this course, we spend five sessions reading texts that cross borders of a linguistic and/or cultural nature, and follow each session with a workshop devoted to original texts written by the course members out of the encounter with these border crossings.

Weeks 1 and 2

In the first session we read W. G. Sebald’s account of Conrad’s response to the Congo, in Chapter V of The Rings of Saturn. A familiarity with Conrad’s Heart of Darkness will be an advantage.

Weeks 3 and 4

This session looks at encounters with the Ottoman Empire, the Near East and India in travel writings by Alexander Kinglake (from Eothen), Robert Byron (from The Road to Oxiana) and J. R. Ackerley (from Hindoo Holiday). Extracts from these texts will be made available in photocopy.

Weeks 5 and 6

In this session we focus on the relationship between travel across and between historical and geographical frames, using Amitav Ghosh’s In an Antique Land, a travelogue-cum-memoir set in Egypt.

Weeks 7 and 8

Turning to that most difficult of borders to cross, the border that separates us from the past, we read extracts from the first volume of Elias Canetti’s autobiography, The Tongue Set Free. Extracts will be made available in photocopy.

Weeks 9 and 10

In our final session we return to W. G. Sebald, and read one of his great narratives concerning the unknowability of the past: the fourth section, ‘Max Ferber’, of The Emigrants.

READING

As indicated above.

ASSESSMENT

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The submission must consist of the following:

a portfolio of narrative fiction or non-fiction of between 5,000 and 6,000 words plus a critical commentary on the cultural and creative processes involved in the portfolio.

BACKGROUND READING

S. H. Duncan, Writes of Passage: Reading Travel Writing, 1999 Terry Eagleton, The Idea of Culture, 2000 Paul Fussell, Abroad, 1980 Peter Hulme and Tim Youngs (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing, 2002 Mary Louis Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation, 1992 Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands, 1991 Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism, 1993 Eliot Weinberger, Karmic Traces, 2000

ECOPOETICSTutor: Jonathan SkinnerTerm 2 Tuesday 10-1 Writers Room

Goal: a long poem or a sequence of poems, or a small collection of discrete poems with enough coherence to constitute a substantial section of a manuscript. Students will also be asked to keep a commonplace book, that integrates notes on poetry and poetics, along with poem drafts, with notes from the students' other studies, that will be handed in to the instructor periodically throughout the term. Finally, students compose a critical essay or statement on poetics, which is approached through drafts of shorter statements written in response to each unit's readings and discussion. Alternatively, a site-specific project, performance or community-based writing or publishing initiative may be substituted for this final essay, but only in close consultation with the instructor and with the requisite planning and documentation. Additionally, besides completing the reading and writing assignments for the introductory sections (first seven classes), and participating in workshops around those assignments, the student will read four poetry collections chosen with respect to the student's writing concerns (which might include "classics," or might include reading a run of works by the same poet) and write short reviews of these collections. Students will bring three, progressively developed drafts of their final writing project to the workshop--the project entails pursuing a direction indicated by the compass that instructor and student together decide best suits the student's concerns, in ecopoetics. Each student will have at least one of his or her drafts intensively workshopped during the final month of the semester.

Week 1 Introductions. Methods. Overview of workshop. Listening and writing.Week 2 Sound and soundscapesSound marks the “true north” of ecopoetics—not the only significant dimension of an environmental poetics, but often a reliable way to get oriented—a Compass Point for thinking, writing, speaking to get their bearings in a more-than-human world. Anecopoetics attends first by listening, whatever be its other vectors of engagement.(“Before it is polluted, the river wants to be heard,” writes Cecilia Vicuña.) Listeningcan be understood as a stance of participatory receptiveness, as much as an aural

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faculty (we can “listen” with our eyes or “sound” with science): it is difficult to beresponsible to an environment, if we have not first listened in, to find out who ispresentJohn Cage, “Music Loversʼ Field Companion,” Empty Words (excerpt)Emily Dickinson, "A route of evanescence"Larry Eigner, What you Hear (selections)Ronald Johnson, “ARK 38, Arielʼs Songs to ProsperoNathaniel Mackey, “Sound and Semblance”Lorine Niedecker, “Paean to Place”Maggie OʼSullivan, “Starlings”R. Murray Schafer, The Soundscape (excerpt)First poem(s) and intial statement of poetics due.

Week 3 Concepts and proceduresNortheast points to conceptual and procedural writing: modes of writing keyedexplicitly to the development of modernist poetics in the Western tradition (muchmore than to any orientation to more recent developments in poetics around theglobe). [Something about managing information.] At the same time, conceptual andprocedural writing offer tools for a kind of site-specific practice, at the “sites” ofvarious discourses and institutions, like “ecology” itself, that make them absolutelycontemporary.Jody Gladding, Translations from Bark BeetleKenneth Goldsmith, The Weather (selection)Bernadette Mayer, Midwinter Day (excerpt)Stephen Ratcliffe, Real (selections)Ron Silliman, “Jones,” “Skies” (excerpts)Juliana Spahr, things of each possible relation hashing against one another (excerpt)Jonathan Stalling, “Wolf Howls”Poem(s) and poetics response due.

Week 4 Documents and researchDocumentary and research-based practices work directly with history, and/or whathas been documented, as their primary material. They orient attention against themovement of solar time, heirs to an Enlightenment quest to know what the day hasso far illuminated—and what, as the case may be, official histories have obscured.Many of the poets at work in this vector provide strategies for the longtermincorporation of research into oneʼs poetics.Jack Collom, “Passage” (excerpt)Brenda Coultas, The Bowery Project (selection)Thalia Field; Bird Lovers, Backyard (excerpt)Susan Howe, “Thorow”Phil Metres, Oil (selections)Simon Ortiz, Fight Back: For the Sake of the People, For the Sake of the Land(selection)Ed Sanders, Investigative Poetry (excerpt)Eleni Sikelianos, The California Poem (selection)Poem(s) and poetics response due.

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Week 5 SituationsSituationist work engages the dérive of research, turning the compass towardunknown outcomes. The unknown can emerge as much from standing oneʼs groundas from pursuing detours, and some of the poetics in this section emerges from anexplicitly activist stance, literally placing or displacing poetry into public space andother less evidently poetic contexts, such as governmental hearings, farming, orarchitecture. Sometimes poetry goes undercover and is reframed as an architecturalbureau or an art review. Here is the practice of “poetry by other means,” a reframingthat situationist work holds in common with conceptual poetics—the difference being that conceptual practice emphasizes the aesthetic dimension while situationistpractice may be tied more explicitly to political outcomes.

Wendell Berry, Farming: A Manual (selection)Jules Boykoff and Kaia Sand, Landscapes of Dissent (excerpt)Simon Cutts, “After John Clare: Proposal for the first Aeolian Neon, powered by windturbine,”Allison Hedge Coke, Blood Run (selection)Brenda Hillman, Practical Water (selection)Joan Maloof, “September 11th Memorial Forest”Julie Patton, “Paper Toys,” Concrete Poetries, “Composaytions,” “Floor Plays,”“Recycle Pedias,” and “Vociflors” (photo portfolio)Heidi Lynn Staples and Amy King, eds., Poets for Living Waters (editorsʼ statement)Poem(s) and poetics response due.

Week 6 Systems and boundariesAs we turn south, we face the border and the boundary work that characterizesecopoetics, as a practice of the ecotone. Ecopoetics entails working creatively withedges and the exploration of systems (ecosystems, economic systems, politicalsystems, immune systems), from the inside as well as the outside, a doubled stancethat poetry is especially adept at assuming. Borders above all entail acts oftranslation.

Will Alexander, “The Bedouin Ark”Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, “Pollen”Robert Duncan, “The Opening of the Field”Lyn Hejinian, “The Quest for Knowledge in the Western Poem” (excerpt)Myung mi Kim, Dura (selection)Jena Osman, The System (selection)Gary Snyder, “Mount Saint Helens: Loowit” and “After Bamiyan”Arthur Sze, “The Redshifting Web” (excerpt)Poem(s) and poetics response due.

Week 7 Interstices and hybridsAs ecopoetics turns west, toward the “future,” boundary work becomes a practice ofinterstices, of thinking and making between: between writing and drawing, betweeninternational modernist and traditional lineages, between North and South, in ways

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that seek to undo these binaries, or to develop them as complementary rather thanopposed. “Mestizo poetics” seek a way forward without the myths of cultural andecological purity that have been so frequently deployed to resist Westernlogocentrism. A new form of resistance to the “spell” of alphabetic literacy draws asmuch on European modernist innovation as on traditional indigenous practice.

Sherwin Bitsui, Flood Song (excerpt)Philippe Descola, Par-delà nature et culture / Beyond Nature and Culture (excerpt)Robert Grenier, OWL/ON/BOU/GH (selection)James Thomas Stevens, “A Half-Breedʼs Guide to the Use of Native Plants”(selections)Cecilia Vicuña, “Ten Metaphors in Space”Poem(s) and poetics response due.

Week 8 First review and manuscript draft due. Workshopping.Week 9 Second review and manuscript draft due. Workshopping.Week 10 Third review and manuscript draft due. Workshopping.

Final manuscript draft and essay due a week or two later.

Assessment:A portfolio of 10,000 words (45 CATS), or 8,000 words (36 CATS) 6,000 words (30 CATS) or 5000 words (20 CATS). In all cases, students will submit a portfolio of 50% creative work and 50% essay

Life-writing since 1900Tutor: Jeremy TreglownAutumn Term: Week 1-10, Thursday 10.00-12.00 (venue TBA)

Classes will roughly alternate between literary-historical and practical sessions. Where set texts are indicated, all students are expected to read the ones in bold type; those in square brackets will be allocated to one or more students as additional reading on a rotation basis, so that those students can bring extra knowledge / an additional perspective to the discussion.

Week

1. Introduction: New Kinds of Lives from Bloomsbury to the C21 – Xeroxed extracts from Lytton Strachey, Richard Ellmann, Lyndall Gordon, Colm Tóibín.

Section A: Bloomsbury

2. Virginia Woolf, Orlando [Victoria Glendinning, Vita: The Life of V. Sackville-West; Nigel Nicolson, Portrait of a Marriage: Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson)

3. Introduction to Archives (Modern Records Centre)

4. Archive-related workshop

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5. Clive Bell and Mary Hutchinson – the Unknown Famous Couple. Xeroxes will be made available. [Frances Spalding, The Bloomsbury Group.]

6. Project work

Section B: 21st-Century Approaches

7. Edmund de Waal, The Hare with Amber Eyes

8. Workshop

9. [Provisional: this topic may be changed] A.N.Wilson, Hitler [Ian Kershaw, Hitler.]

10. Concluding discussion and workshop.

Background reading

Leon Edel, Bloomsbury: A House of Lions, 1979Richard Ellmann, Golden Codgers: Biographical Speculations, 1973Peter France and William St Clair, eds., Mapping Lives: The Uses of Biography, 2002Ian Hamilton, Keepers of the Flame: Literary Estates and the Rise of Biography, 1992Richard Holmes, Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer, 1996Lytton Strachey, Eminent Victorians, 2002 edn. intro. Paul Levy

NON FICTION WORKSHOPTutor: David VannAutumn Term, Weeks 1-10, Thursday 4-7 (H507)

Memoir, personal essay, travel and adventure writing, nature writing, ‘literary journalism,’ and investigative journalism. Creative nonfiction is a vague and unfortunate term, of course, and the entire field is a mess, but that’s what makes it fun. We’ll consider memoir in relation to fiction and confession, with a brief look back to Augustine. For personal essay, we’ll start with Aristotle and the critical essay, then discuss Seneca, Montaigne, and Swift before jumping into our own time. We’ll consider travel and adventure writing in relation to each other and to memoir, and nature writing in relation to the British Romantics and American Transcendentalists. We’ll also consider a few examples of ‘literary journalism,’ such as The Perfect Storm and River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, and also several investigative pieces (on ocean acidification and sugar). We’ll look at possibilities and limitations in each genre, and these discussions will carry over into the workshop as we consider the work that students submit to be workshopped. Workshops will focus on the discussion of language and craft in detail, including structure and strategies for revision. MEMOIR (AND NOVEL)

1 St. Augustine, Confessions (online link)Tobias Wolff, This Boy’s Life (pp 3-8), In Pharaoh’s Army (pp 171-181)

Annie Proulx, The Shipping News (pp 1-11)

2 Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping (pp 7-13)

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Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior (pp 3-22)Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes (pp 11-19)

PERSONAL ESSAY (AND INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM)3 Begin workshop of student work (2 or 3 manuscripts per week)Aristotle, “The Kinds of Friendship” (online link)Seneca, “On Noise” (pp. 3-8)Michel De Montaigne, “On affectionate relationships,” “On sleep,” (pp 205-210, 303-305), introductory note (online link), “Of books” (online link), “Of thumbs” (online link)Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal” (online link)

4 James Baldwin, “Notes of a Native Son” (pp 85-114)Zora Neale Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” (online link)

Jamaica Kincaid, “On Seeing England for the First Time” (pp. 333-344)

5 Ann Hodgman, “No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch” (pp. 157-162)Philip Weiss, “How To Get Out of a Locked Trunk” (pp. 150-156)

6 Elizabeth Kolbert, “The Darkening Sea”Gary Taubes, “Is Sugar Toxic?”

TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE WRITING (AND ‘LITERARY JOURNALISM’)7 Intro to Travel Writing by Jamaica Kincaid (Best American TW 2005)

Frances Mayes, Under The Tuscan Sun (pp 1-25)Peter Mayle, A Year in Provence (pp 3-25)

8 Peter Hessler, River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (author’s note & pp 3-32)Kira Salak, “The Vision Seekers”Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm (pp XI-11 and 136-146)

NATURE WRITING9 William Blake, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” (online link)Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Nightingale,” “Dejection: An Ode” (online links)Henry David Thoreau, “Solitude” (online link)

10 Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (pp 3-33)Gretel Ehrlich, “The Solace of Open Spaces” (pp 467-476) and “The Source of a River” (pp 208-211)Pam Houston, “A Blizzard under Blue Sky” (pp 37-43)

Aristotle, “The Kinds of Friendship” Baldwin, James “Notes of a Native Son” Blake, William, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, “The Nightingale,” “Dejection: An Ode”

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Dillard, Annie, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Ehrlich, Gretel, “The Solace of Open Spaces” and “The Source of a River”Hessler, Peter, River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze Hodgman, Ann, “No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch” Houston, Pam, “A Blizzard under Blue Sky” Hurston, Zora Neale, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” Junger, Sebastian, The Perfect StormKincaid, Jamaica“On Seeing England for the First Time” Kingston, Maxine Hong, The Woman Warrior Kinkaid, Jamaica, Intro to Travel WritingKolbert, Elizabeth, “The Darkening Sea”Mayes, Frances, Under The Tuscan Sun Mayle, Peter, A Year in Provence McCourt, Frank Angela’s AshesMontaigne, “On affectionate relationships,” “On sleep,” “Of books”, “Of thumbs” Proulx, Annie, The Shipping News Robinson, Marilynne, Housekeeping Salak, Kira, “The Vision Seekers”Seneca, “On Noise” St. Augustine, Confessions Swift, Jonathan, “A Modest Proposal” Taubes, Gary, “Is Sugar Toxic?” Thoreau, Henry Taylor, “Solitude” Weiss, Phillip, “How To Get Out of a Locked Trunk” Wolff, Tobias, This Boy’s Life, In Pharaoh’s Army

Secondary Reading:

St. Augustine, ConfessionsTobias Wolff, This Boy’s Life, In Pharaoh’s ArmyAnnie Proulx, The Shipping NewsMarilynne Robinson, HousekeepingMaxine Hong Kingston, The Woman WarriorFrank McCourt, Angela’s AshesJames Baldwin, Notes of a Native SonFrances Mayes, Under The Tuscan SunPeter Mayle, A Year in ProvencePeter Hessler, River Town: Two Years on the YangtzeSebastian Junger, The Perfect StormAnnie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Assessment:10 000 words (8000 creative and a 2000-word critical essay)8000 words (6000 creative and a 2000 word critical essay)6000 words (4000 creative and a 2000 word critical essay)

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POETRY & MUSICTutors: Peter Blegvad and Emma MasonSpring Term: Weeks 1-10, Thursday 3-00-5.00 (venue TBA)

This module seeks to bring together thinking about ‘poetry’ and ‘music’ from the fields of literary studies, musicology and philosophy in order to invite students to explore questions of form, creativity and the listening experience. The module suggests that the reading of poetic form and the listening experience music provides enable a reciprocal theorizing that opens up questions of how we represent and learn to interpret speech. As Henry Lanz writes in The Physical Basis of Rime (1927): ‘Though we are unable to represent exactly, still less play, the music contained in the vowels of our speech, the music nevertheless is there and in very definite form. It is a very strange music, which reminds one of those fantastic sounds, probably suggested by one’s own imagination, which one may occasionally hear in a moving railroad car when one listens intently to the monotonous noise of the rolling wheels.’ The module is taught through a series of key examples from the major innovations in poetry and music between 1700-2000: examples include the ballad tradition; love songs; the Beats; rhythm and blues; the philosophy of music; folk music; ‘silence’; and karaoke. Students on the MA in Writing must submit a portfolio of 30% creative work and 70% essay; students on the MA in English Literature, World Literatures, Philosophy and Literature or Pan-Romanticisms may choose to submit a portfolio of 40% creative work and 60% essay, or a 100% essay.

Primary texts

In addition to material handed out in seminars, primary texts include:

Theodor Adorno, Essays on Music (2002)T. S. Eliot, The Music of Poetry (1942)Henri Lefebvre, Rhythmanalysis (2004)Garcia Lorca, The Theory and Play of Duende (1928)Jean-Luc Nancy, Listening (2007)Denis De Rougemont, Love in the Western World (1956)Salome Voegelin, Listening to Noise and Silence: Toward a Philosophy of Sound Art (2010)Victor Zuckerkandl, Man the Musician (1973)

Further reading

James Beattie, Essays on Poetry and Music (1779)Tim Brennan, Secular Devotion: Afro-Latin Music and Imperial Jazz (2008)Nick Cave, Love Song Lecture (2000)Peter Dayan, Art as Music, Music as Poetry, Poetry as Art, from Whistler to Stravinsky (2011)William Ferris, Give My Poor Heart Ease (2009) Brandon LaBelle, Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life (2010)Henry Lanz, The Physical Basis of Rime (1927) Luigi Russolo, 'The Art of Noises' (1913)Eric Sackheim, The Blues Line: Blues Lyrics from "Leadbelly" to "Muddy Waters" (2003)George Saintsbury, A History of English Prosody (1910)

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R. Murray Schafer, The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World (1977)John Thompson, The Founding of English Meter (1961)Phyllis Weliver, The Figure of Music in Nineteenth-Century British Poetry (2005)

THE SEVEN BASIC PLOTSTutor: Ian SansomSpring Term: Wednesday 10-1, (venue TBA)

The module will be exploratory and practical, using structured exercises, published texts, handouts, class discussion and homework to stimulate the production of new work. Each week students will study one text in particular in relation to an aspect of plot.

Week 1 Plot: An Introduction (Poetics, fairy tales, Joseph Campbell, Robert McKee, complex patterns in nature and art)Week 2 Heroes/Heroines (Conan, Don Quixote, The Bourne Identity)Week 3 Monsters/Others (The Bible, Frankenstein, Stephen King, Homer)Week 4 Tragedy (Oedipus Rex, Ibsen, Chekhov, revenge)Week 5 Comedy (Chaplin, Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Emma, P.G.Wodehouse, slapstick, stand-up, and Henri Bergson)Week 6 The Quest (Heart of Darkness, Dan Brown, Super Mario)Week 7 Voyage and Return (Islands, Lord of the Flies, The Beach) Week 8 Transformation (Dostoevsky, Great Expectations, A Star Is Born, the Bildungsroman)Week 9 Anti-Plots (Clarice Lispector, Christine Brooke-Rose, Slaughterhouse-Five, Adaptation)Week 10 Plots: A Summary

Aristotle, PoeticsSophocles, Oedipus RexJane Austen, EmmaJoseph Conrad, Heart of DarknessCharles Dickens, Great ExpectationsKurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

SECONDARY READING

Aristotle, ‘Poetics’, in Classical Literary Criticism, trans. T.S. Dorsch (1965)Bell, James Scott, Plot and Structure (1995)Booker, Christopher, The Seven Basic Plots (2005)Brooks, Peter, Reading for the Plot (1985)Burke, Kenneth, The Philosophy of Literary Form (1957)Chatman, Seymour, Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film (1978)Kermode, Frank, The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction (1966)

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Lodge, David, Working with Structuralism (1981)McKee, Robert, Story (1999)Mittelmark, Howard and Sandra Newman, How Not to Write a Novel (2009)Polkinghorne, David, Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences (1988)Polti, Georges, The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations, trans. Lucille Ray (1977)Prince, Gerald, A Dictionary of Narratology (2nd edn., 2003)Ryan, Marie-Laure, ed., Avatars of Story: Narrative Modes in Old and New Media (2006)Thompson, Kristin, Storytelling in Film and Television (2003)Vogler, Christopher, The Writer’s Journey (3rd edn., 2007)

Assessment: A portfolio of 10,000 words (45 CATS), or 8,000 words (36 CATS) 6,000 words (30 CATS) or 5000 words (20 CATS). Students on the MA in Writing must submit a portfolio of 70% creative work and 30% essay; students on the MA in English Literature, Philosophy and Literature, Pan-Romanticisms or World Literatures may choose to submit a portfolio of 70% creative work and 30% essay OR 100% essay.

Students will be expected to submit writing for class discussion every week.

WARWICK FICTION WORKSHOP I

Tutors: David Vann and Maureen FreelyAutumn Term Weeks 1-10 Tuesday 3.00-6.00 (venue TBA), Wednesday 4.00-7.00 [The Writers’ Room, Millburn House]

This module mainly focuses on short fiction but may lead on to ‘Warwick Fiction Workshop II’ for students who wish to specialise in longer work.

The main purpose is broadly to enable students to develop writing skills specific to fiction, and to produce a body of work of this kind. They will also gain critical insights into contemporary literature and the processes of literary production.

SYLLABUS and workshop procedures

While the module emphasizes short fiction, those already at work on novels will be free to submit extracts. Most of the term will be devoted to writing workshops. As a rule, the aim will be to workshop three pieces of fiction every week.

Week

1 Introduction and preparation of the workshop schedule

NB: Students who have fiction ready to be workshopped and who would like to reserve a slot in Week Two are encouraged to bring in hard copies in the first week of term to hand out to the class.

2-10

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Weekly 3-hour workshop, divided into three one-hour units. (Writing by one student is the focus of each unit, on a rotating basis.)

Each student will be able to reserve 2-3 slots per term for discussion of his/her work, depending on the size of the class. They should be ready to hand out hard copies of their stories/extracts to the tutor and their fellow students one week before they are to be workshopped. It is very important for all students to have read all stories/excerpts by the time they are due to be workshopped: they will learn as much by (constructively) criticising their classmates’ writing as they will by presenting their own work for review. We always begin with the texts to hand, though we go on to more general discussions about character, point of view, style, voice, narrative framing, plot, setting, the uses and abuses of autobiographical material, and dialogue. Where it seems helpful, the tutor will offer small tailored talks on these and related issues, as well as suggesting books that speak to the students’ particular interests.

BACKGROUND READING

Short fiction

Borges, Jorge Luis, Labyrinths, 2000Calvino, Italo, Invisible Cities, 2002Carver, Raymond, Cathedral, 1999Crace, Jim, Continent/Quarantine, 1987 Ford, Richard, The Granta Book of the American Long Story, 1999Ford, Richard, ed The New Granta Book of the American Short Story, 2007 Kelman, James, Selected Stories, 2001McEwan, Ian, First Love, Last Rites, 2006Messud, Clare, Hunters, 2001Munro, Alice, Selected Stories, 1997Plimpton, George, ed., Beat Writers at Work: the Paris Review Interviews, 1999Plimpton, George, ed., Women Writers at Work: the Paris Review Interviews, 2003 Rushdie, Salman, East, West, 1994Simpson, Helen, Hey Yeah Right Get a Life, 2001Elisabeth Taylor, The Blush, 1958Richard Yates, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness, 1962Tim Winton, The Turning, 2005

Books about fiction

Booker, Christopher, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories, 2005James Wood, How Fiction Works, Jonathan Cape 2008Margaret Atwood, Negotiating with the Dead, Virago 2007Morley, David, The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing, Cambridge University Press 2007Mullan, John, How Novels Work, Oxford University Press, 2006Lodge, David, Consciousness and the Novel, Harvard University Press, 2002Prose, Francine, Reading Like a Writer; Haper Perennial 2007

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ASSESSMENTThe submission must consist of the following:

FICTION PORTFOLIO

Fiction amounting to no more than 8,000 words and preferably consisting of 2-3 short stories. Students already at work on a novel may submit an 8,000-word extract instead, but should consult with the tutor before they do so.plus:a commentary of 2,000 words on the aims and processes involved in the fiction.

Note – any student who has fiction ready to be workshopped should bring copies to the Introductory meeting at 10.00 am on Monday 3rd October – a maximum of 5000 words.

WARWICK FICTION WORKSHOP II

Tutor: Will Eaves, Spring Term Weeks 1-10 Wednesday 4-7 (Writers’ Room, Millburn House)

This module leads on from ‘Warwick Fiction Workshop I’, which is a prerequisite.

The main aim is to enable students to develop advanced writing skills in fiction and to produce a body of work of this kind. Students will continue to develop critical insights into contemporary literature and the processes of literary production.

SYLLABUS

The module will operate along the same lines as Fiction Workshop I, though the focus will be long fiction. Those who wish to continue writing shorter fiction are free to do so.

NB: Students who wish their writing to be workshopped early in the term should arrange to distribute hard copies of their stories/extracts BEFORE the Christmas break.

Weeks 1-10

Weekly 3-hour workshop, divided into three units. (Writing by one student is the focus of each unit, on a rotating basis. So the current work of three students is discussed each week, and each student is the focus of two to three workshops in the course of the term).

BACKGROUND READING

Novels

Achebe, Chinua, Things Fall Apart, 2001Ballard, JG, SupercannesBaldwin, James, Giovanni’s Room, 1990Barnes, Julian, Arthur and George, 2006

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Coe, Jonathan, The House of Sleep, 1998Danticat, Edwige, The Dew Breaker, 2004 Delillo, Don, White Noise, 1985Greene, Graham, The Quiet American, 1955Ishiguro, Kazuo, An Artist of the Flying World, 1999McEwan, Ian, On Chesil Beach, 2007 Mitchell, David, Cloud Atlas, 2005Morrison, Toni, Beloved, 1997Sinclair, Ian, Downriver, 1991Vargas Llosa, Mario, The Feast of the Goat, 2003. McGahern, John, Amongst Women, 1990Moore, Brian, Lies of Silence, 1992 Kennedy, A.L., Day, 2007Michaels, Ann, Fugitive Pieces, 1998Coetzee, JM, Disgrace, 1999Roth, Philip, American Pastoral, 1998Mistry, Rohinton, A Fine Balance, 1997Pamuk, Orhan, The Black Book, 2006Gordimer, Nadine, The Pickup, 2002Smiley, Jane A Thousand Acres, 1992

Books about fiction

See list for Fiction Workshop I

ASSESSMENT

The submission must consist of the following:

FICTION PORTFOLIO

A piece of fiction of no more than 8,000 words, preferably part of a planned longer work. (Students who have decided to concentrate on shorter work may submit several pieces adding up to 8,000 words, but should consult with the tutor before they do so.)

plus:

A commentary of about 2,000 words on the aims and processes involved in the fiction, including (where appropriate) its place in the longer work.

Warwick Writing Programme for Schools: Teaching Writing in School and Community Settings.Tutor: Naomi AlsopTerm 2 Monday 10-1 in the Writers’ Room, Millburn House

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the purpose of the module is to allow students to develop their own unique approach to teaching writing based on their creative practices as a writer, to gain experience of running workshops in local schools and to develop the professional skills necessary to market themselves and work in educational and community settings. Students will benefit from taking the course by gaining an understanding of their own approaches to writing and teaching, postitioning themselves in relation to current pedagogical debates about learning and creativity, exploring the educational and community settings in which they will work, developing the necessary professional skills to design, deliver and evaluate workshops, and the experience necessary to help them to find work in the sector after graduation. The module will explore the well established and particular value that writers bring to educational settings, both in their engagement with pupils and those with QTS. This module will offer the student an additional way of understanding and engaging with their creative processes as a writer, taking what they learn about their ways of writing and learning throughout their time with the Warwick Writing Programme and applying it in educational settings. Working in education and community settings gives opportunities for writers to expand their writing communities and for many writers is an important part of their portfolio careers.

The module will have five key parts: Parts one to four will be taught in term 2. Part five, in which students will gain experience of workshops, will take place in term three.

Part one: weeks 1-3. The writing voice and the teaching voice. We will explore the processes and practices which help us to be creative as writers and understand how our own ways of being creative can inform and underpin our teaching.

Part two: weeks 4-6. Learning environments and their requirements.We will research, examine and analyse the learning environments in which writers work, the requirements they place upon writers, and the possible expectations of commissioning partners. We will develop practical teaching skills, such as designing, planning and delivering workshops, classroom and behaviour management and evaluation, and analyse how these practical tools and skills can support writers in developing and delivering their own unique teaching practice.

Part three: weeks 7-8Writing and the National Curriculum. We will consider current pedagogical debates surrounding creativity and learning and how they might influence writers in developing their approach to teaching writing. We will examine the ways children are taught to write creatively in schools and assess the impact of current teaching methods upon the role of the writer in schools.

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Part four: weeks 9-10.The business of working as a writer in education.We will explore the processes of finding work, funding streams, the current working environment, safeguarding and the role of the portfolio and internet in finding work.

Part five: to take place in terms three, at a time to suit the school/s and students.Workshops.Students to design, deliver and evaluate their own workshop/s based on the outcomes of preceding weeks.

Primary reading list:Cowley, Sue (2010) Getting the Buggers to Behave. London. Continuum.Crowe, Dan (2007) How I Write: The secret lives of authors. New York. Rizzoli.Flynn, Naomi & Stainthorp, Rhonda (2006) The Learning and Teaching of Reading and Writing. Chichester. Wiley.Freely, Maureen (2012) In Conversation: A new approach to teaching long fiction. In Morley and Neilson (eds) The Cambridge Companion to Creative Writing. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.Hyde, Lewis (2007) The Gift: How the creative spirit transforms the world. Edinburgh. Canongate. Johnson, Paul (1991) A Book of One’s Own: Developing literacy through making books. London. Hodder & StaughtonKennedy, A.L. (2012) Does that Make Sense? Approaches to the creative writing workshop. In Morley and Neilson. Op Cit.Mallet, Margaret (2003) Early Years Non-Fiction: A guide to helping young researchers. London. RoutledgeFarmerMorley, David (2007) The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.Smith, Mark (2006) ‘Keeping a learning journal’, The encyclopaedia of informal education. www.infed.org/research/keeping_a_journal.htmStarko, Alain Jordan (2010) Creativity in the Classroom: Schools of curious delight. Abingdon. Routledge.The Guardian (20th Feb 2010) Ten rules for writing fiction (parts one and two) Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one and http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/10-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-twoThomson, Pat & Sefton-Green, Julian (eds)(2011) Researching Creative Writing: Methods and Issues. Abingdon. Routledge.Thorpe, Kay (2007) Essential Creativity in the Classroom: Inspiring kids. Abingdon. Routledge.

Assessment:An essay of 3500 words, a portfolio of 1500 words (including images, planning and pitching documents, testimonials and evaluations) (25% + 25%) and an observed workshop (50%). NB: Assessment criteria examples are given in section 19: Learning outcomes

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WRITING FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLETutor: Leila Rasheed Autumn Term:, Week 1-10, Monday 1-4, Writers’ Room, Millburn House

This module is an introduction to the varied and flourishing field of writing for non-adults. As well as producing your own writing and workshopping each other’s, you will discuss specific texts, use writing exercises and games to develop craft, and explore the wider context of writing and publishing for children and young people.

The formal aims and purposes of the module are:1) to introduce students to specific issues relative to the writing and reading of contemporary children’s fiction.2) to give them practical experience of writing for a wide age range of children and young people3) to enable them to locate themselves as writers in the field of contemporary children’s literature.

Around two hours of each three hour seminar is for introduction, discussion and writing; the rest is a workshop session in which we will examine between 2 and 3 students’ work per week, depending on group size.

The best preparation for this module is to read as much contemporary (i.e. published in the last 10 years) fiction for all ages of non-adult as possible. The books mentioned below are a good starting point. However, don’t feel you have to restrict yourself to these titles. Although children’s books are generally shorter than adult fiction, it would be a good idea to get a head start on the reading during the summer.

Also read some of the interviews with children’s authors on these two sites:

http://www.achuka.co.uk/interviews/

http://www.justimaginestorycentre.co.uk/interviews

and some or all of Write For Children; Andrew Melrose. (An extract is available online via the university library).

COURSE PLAN

Week 1The child’s perspective: we discuss key principles of writing for children and explore the world from a child’s perspective. (no reading for this week)

Week 2One theme, three age groups; We discuss at least two books for different age ranges, each of which tackles the theme of death. Students explore how authors tailor their writing to the needs, wants and abilities of children of different ages and experiment with writing for different age groups.

Core readingGilbert the Great (pb ), Jane ClarkeWays to Live Forever; Sally Nicholls

Secondary readingThe Great Hamster Massacre; Katie DaviesBefore I Die; Jenny Downham

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Michael Rosen’s Sad Book (pb); Michael RosenVicky Angel; Jacqueline WilsonPeter Pan In Kensington Gardens; J M Barrie

Week 3Retellings and revisions; We discuss children’s books which are retellings or revisions of traditional tales or classic novels. We will examine, amongst other issues, the different methods by which a traditional story can be made relevant to contemporary children and teenagers. Students produce their own writing arising from a traditional or classic story.

Core reading:The Map of Marvels; David Calcutt Zelah Green, Queen of Clean; Vanessa Curtis

Secondary reading:The Graveyard Book; Neil GaimanThe Garden; Elsie V. AidinoffPercy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters; Rick RiordanWatership Down; Richard AdamsNot The End of the World; Geraldine McCaughrean

Week 4From realism…In weeks 3 and 4 we will discuss realistic, fantastic and magical realist novels for children, focusing on realism in Week 3 and the fantastic in Week 4. Students practice writing on the sliding scale between reality and fantasy, exploring the ways in which the two can illuminate each other.

Week 4 core reading:Millions; Frank Cotterell Boyce Feeling Sorry For Celia; Jaclyn Moriarty

Week 4 secondary reading:Three ways to snog an alien; Graham JoyceSaffy’s Angel; Hilary McKay

Week 5…to the fantasticWeek 5 core reading:Shadow Forest; Matt HaigCold Tom; Sally Prue

Week 5 secondary reading:Skellig; David AlmondStoneheart; Charlie FletcherDevil’s Kiss; Sarwat Chadda

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Week 6Image and Text. Students read a selection of illustrated books for different ages and explore ways image can expand on text and vice versa. They gain practical experience of ‘writing for pictures’.

Core reading:Fix-it Duck (pb); Jez AlboroughVoices In The Park (pb); Anthony Browne Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus! (pb); Mo WillemsThe Invention of Hugo Cabret; Brian Selznick Not Now, Bernard (pb); David McKee

Secondary reading:Captain Underpants; Dav PilkeyRosie’s Walk (pb); Pat HutchinsThe Snowman (pb); Raymond Briggs (the version with no words at all)Monkey and Me (pb); Emily Gravett

Week 7Here and now; then and there. We look at speculative and historical fiction in tandem. We explore ways of writing past and future for today’s child and teenage readers.

Core reading:Feed; M T AndersonWitch Child; Celia Rees

Secondary reading:The Knife of Never Letting Go; Patrick NessExodus; Julie BertagnaThe Hunger Games; Suzanne CollinsThe Carbon Diaries 2015; Saci LloydUglies; Scott WesterfieldThe Incredible Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor To the Nation; MT AndersonWolf Brother; Michelle PaverFleshmarket; Nicola Morgan

Week 8Taboos and Issues. We will discuss messages, morals, (in)appropriate subject matter. We will ask: who writes and who reads children’s books? And does or should children’s literature have different aims and priorities to literature written for adults?

Core readingRed Tears; Joanna KenrickSold; Patricia McCormick

Secondary reading:Forbidden; Tabitha Suzuma Oranges in No Man’s Land; Elizabeth LairdGuantanamo Boy; Anna PereraThe Breadwinner; Deborah EllisThe Truth about Leo; David YellandBoy vs. Girl, Naima B Robert.Does my head look big in this?; Randa Abdel-Fattah

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Week 9Poetry for Children: we read a selection of poems ‘within the hearing’ of children and write our own. What is a children’s poem?

Core reading:Love That Dog; Sharon CreechCollected Poems for Children; Ted HughesRevolting Rhymes and Dirty Beasts; Roald Dahl

Secondary reading:The Scumbler magazineMake Lemonade; Virginia Ewer WolffPoems by (among others) the following poets: Andrew Fusek Peters; Phillip Gross; Mandy Coe.

Week 10Concluding discussion We gather students’ final impressions of the module and direct them to further writing and reading according to their interests.

ASSESSMENT

FICTION PORTFOLIO

1) Fiction for children/ young people amounting to no more than 8,000 words. The age range that the fiction is intended for must be specified at the start of each piece (guidance will be given on this) and picture books must be laid out as specified in Week 6.

plus:

2) a commentary of 2,000 words on the aims and processes involved in the fiction.

WRITING PLACESTutor: Sarah MossTerm 1 Wednesday 10-1 (venue TBA)

This module aims to teach students how to write contemporary non-fiction prose about place, based in an understanding of cultural and natural histories specific to particular places and a critical awareness of contemporary British writing about nature and place. The practice of this kind of writing requires both traditional research skills and the ability to identify and respond to present places, so some

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teaching will take place outdoors and off-campus, and students will be required to demonstrate both literary/historical research and immediate experience in their assessed writing. Writing excursions need not be far-fetched or exotic and may involve no more than stepping through the nearest door; the set texts model informed attentiveness to a wide range of contemporary environments. In the writing they do for class each week, students will be encouraged to challenge the idea that there are innately 'inspiring' and 'uninspiring' places.

Week 1: Introduction: Kathleen Jamie, SightlinesWeek 2: EdgelandsWeek 3: London OrbitalWeek 4: The PlotWeek 5: Passage to JuneauWeek 6: Sea RoomWeek 7: A Book of SilenceWeek 8: WaterlogWeek 9: WanderlustWeek 10: field trip

Set texts:Roger Deakin, Waterlog: a swimmer's journey through Britain (Vintage, 2009)Madeline Bunting, The Plot (Granta, 2010) Sara Maitland, A Book of Silence (Granta, 2010)Iain Sinclair, London Orbital (Granta, 2002)Adam Nicolson, Sea Room (Harper Collins, 2001)Jonathan Raban, Passage to Juneau (Picador, 2000)Kathleen Jamie, Sightlines (Sort Of Books, 2012)Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley, Edgelands (Jonathan Cape, 2011)Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: a history of walking (Verso Books, 2006)

Secondary ReadingJonathan Raban, For Love and Money (Picador, 1988)Granta 102, The New Nature Writing (Summer 2008)Jan Morris, Pleasures of a Tangled Life (Arrow Books, 1990)Rachel Hewitt, Map of a Nation (Granta, 2010)William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness (http://www.williamcronon.net/writing/Trouble_with_Wilderness_Main.html) Assessment:Assessed portfolio of 10,000 words (45 CATS), or 8,000 words (36 CATS) 6,000 words (30 CATS) or 5000 words (20 CATS). Students on the MA in Writing must submit a portfolio of 70% creative work and 30% essay; students on the MA in English Literature, Philosophy and Literature, Pan-Romanticisms or World Literatures may choose to submit a portfolio of 70% creative work and 30% essay OR 100% essay.

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WRITING POETRY Tutor: David MorleySpring Term Mondays 2.00-4.00 pm The Writers’ Room

The purpose of the module is to help students develop their practical and creative skills in writing poetry and their critical skills in exploring the aims and processes involved in their work and that of others. It will also give students an understanding of poetry’s role in human culture today.

The module aims can be broken down as assisting the student in: producing a portfolio of poetry; examining some technical concepts; understanding, through practice and discussion, elements as form, metre, rhyme, lineation and address; using imitation as a means to invention;conceptualising one’s own poetics in relation to other poets’ work and practice.

SYLLABUS

1 Poetry and possibility2 The music of language3 Forms of poetry I4 Forms of poetry II5 Forms of poetry III6 Lyric Poetry7 Poetry and the natural world. 8 Poetry as conceptual art 9 Prose and experimental poetry 10 Poetry in the world

Seminars open with a demonstration on the topic, followed by a writing workshop. The workshop is a practical application of the week’s topic to the students’ own work. Workshops sometimes take place out of doors or involve visits to an art gallery.

BACKGROUND READING

The most fruitful approach is to read as much contemporary poetry as you can, in English and in translation from other languages; and to read beyond your current tastes or the current fashions. In addition to reading poetry, the following books will prove useful from the point of view of critical and creative practice although it should be understood that we view critical and creative practice as two sides of the same coin.

Apollinaire, Guillaume, Caligrammes, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. Brown, Clare and Paterson, Don (eds.), Don’t Ask Me What I Mean: Poets in their Own Words, London: Picador, 2003. Fenton, James, An Introduction to English Poetry, London: Penguin, 2002. Heaney, Seamus, Finders Keepers: Selected Prose 1971-2001, London: Faber and Faber, 2002. Herbert, W.N. and Hollis, Matthew (eds.), Strong Words, Newcastle: Bloodaxe Books, 2000.

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Hollander, John, Rhyme’s Reason, New Haven: Yale Nota Bene, 2001. Hughes, Ted, Poetry in the Making, London: Faber and Faber, 1967. Hugo, Richard, The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing, New York: Norton, 1979. Kinzie, Mary, A Poet’s Guide to Writing Poetry, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1999. Matthews, Harry and Brotchie, Alastair, OuLiPo Compendium, London: Atlas, 1998. Morley, David, The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing, Cambridge: CUP, 2007. Pound, Ezra, The ABC of Reading, New York: New Directions, 1934, reissued from New Directions, 1960. Preminger, Alex and Brogan, T., The New Princeton Encyclopaedia of Poetry and Poetics, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. Redmond, John, How to Write a Poem, Oxford: Blackwell, 2006. Strand, Mark and Boland, Eavan, The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms, New York: Norton, 2000.

You will also find it useful to keep up to date with poetry magazines such as Poetry Review and PN Review.

ASSESSMENTSubmit A and B.Page specifications should be interpreted as follows: line space 1.5; font/size Times Roman, 12pt. A. PORTFOLIO OF POETRYEITHER1. A sequence of poems / a long poem of between 20 and 25 pagesor2. A portfolio collection of poems between 20 and 25 pages.

B. CRITICAL PROSEEITHER1. 2000-word commentary on the aims and processes involved in writing your portfolio Or2. 2,000 word essay on a critical issue that arises from the syllabus.

WRITING WRONGSWriting about Human Rights and Injustice 2012-13

Tutors: Maureen Freely, Andrew Williams, and Naomi AlsopTerm 2 Tuesdays 1-3 People from many and diverse walks of life feel compelled to write in response to past and present injustices: journalists, creative writers, lawyers, historians, philosophers and sociologists. They may write to seek redress or policy change, or they may simply want to bring wrongs to public attention. But to do so, they face common problems of representation. What forms of writing are appropriate? Which are possible? What ethical and political sensitivities and sensibilities are constraining? Are any liberating? What skills do they need to develop to write

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effectively and well? How is the matter of ‘truth’ addressed in different media and how does this affect the nature and content of representing wrongs?

This module consists of two strands.

The first strand, will examine the ethical and practical elements of writing about human rights or social injustice in varying contexts and media, looking at classic and contemporary non-fiction and fiction. Throughout the strand we will look at: Beginnings and endings Characterisation Voice and voices Evidence and argument Polemic and reportage Style and form (satire, poetry, non-fiction, and fiction)

The second strand, will offer you a chance to investigate and write about topics of your own choosing. We shall begin to think about these projects when we meet for our first workshop, and we shall use subsequent workshops to work towards final drafts. Along the way we shall examine writing on selected contemporary crises to illustrate questions of technique, competing political and media agendas, ethical dilemmas and legal constraints that those writing about injustice commonly face.

You will be placed in one of two groups. Although we will meet altogether at the beginning and end of the term you will also have group sessions with Maureen and Andrew, alternating between the two. You will also have one-to-one sessions with assigned tutors to discuss and develop your writing for the module.

Preparation for the Module: All students will meet with the tutors in week 9 or 10 of Term 1 to be introduced to the module and set out a reading and writing schedule for the beginning of the following term. We will also distribute a collection of readings at this time so that you may read ahead. We would also like you to read (or re-read) the following two books during the Christmas vacation:

Rohinton Mistry, A Fine BalanceAlexandr Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Writing Wrongs Project: To enhance the module and develop your experience of writing about wrongs, we also try to provide space to develop writing skills, share work, discuss issues of publication, and explore ideas. This will hopefully include guest speakers, expert workshops, reading groups and anything else that you might like to initiate.

Indicative calendar for Term 2 (subject to confirmation):

Week 1: Full module meeting with the tutors in the Writing Room.

We will introduce the detail of the module and also begin to explore the difficulties and issues involved in writing about wrongs.

Reading: George Orwell, ‘Why I Write.’

Week 2: UNDERSTANDING INJUSTICE

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Group 1: with Maureen in the writing room

Group 2: with Andrew in room H1.02

Reading: Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved

Week 3: Group 2 with Maureen in the writing room

Group 1 with Andrew in room H1.02

Week 4: TRUTH, LIES AND PERSPECTIVE



David Vann: Last Day on Earth



Week 6: EVIDENCE



Ian Jack, Gibraltar Francisco Goldman, The Art of Political Murder



Week 8: BARRIERS TO WRITING



Reading: John Hersey, Hiroshima



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Week 10: Full module meeting with the tutors in the Writing Room: reviewing the module

Reading ListIn addition to the extracts provided you may like to read others which address injustice. We’ve set out a few below that you might like to look at:Non-fictionGelhorn, Martha; The Face of War Cercas, Javier; The Anatomy of a MomentHersey, John; HiroshimaVerbitsky, Horacio; Confessions of an Argentine Dirty WarriorFeitlowitz, Marguerite; A Lexicon of terror: Argentina and the Legacies of TortureVuillamy, Ed; Amexica: War along the BorderlineGourevitch, Philip and Morris, Errol; Standard Operating Procedure: A War Story Sontag, Susan; Regarding the Pain of Others Arendt, Hannah; Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of EvilMoorehead, Caroline; Human CargoRoy, Arundhati, The Algebra of Infinite JusticeToolis, Kevin, Rebel HeartsLevi, Primo, The Drowned and the SavedDuras, Marguerite, The WarZephania, Benjamin, Too Black, Too Strong FictionKlima, Ivan, My Golden TradesKundera, Milan, The Book of Laughter and ForgettingBrink, Andre, A Dry White SeasonKemal, Yashar, Memed My HawkVasquez, Juan Gabriel, The Informers Figueras, Marcelo KamchatkaSolzhenitsyn, Alexandr, One Day in the Life…Ibuse, Masuji Black RainLlosa, Mario Vargas, The Feast of the GoatVasquez, Juan Gabriel, The Informers

AssessmentFor the MA in Writing: Either an essay of 10,000 words on a topic arising from the module, agreed with the tutor; or a piece of original biographical writing, 8,500 words in length, on a topic agreed with the tutor, with a 1,500-word commentary on the aims and processes involved (45 CATS). For the MA in English: Either an 8,000 word portfolio (36 CATS) or a 6,000 word portfolio (30 CATS) 50% creative work/50% essay.For the MA in Philosophy and Literature: a 5,000 word portfolio (20 CATS) 50% creative work/50% essayFor the LLM in International Development Law and Human Rights and LLm in Advanced Legal Studies: a 2500 word critical essay on a topic of the student’s choice relating to the module; and a 2500 creative work on the same topic.

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LONG PROJECTTutors: Will Eaves, Maureen Freely, David Morley, Sarah Moss, Leila Rasheed, Ian Sansom,, Jonathan Skinner,

The aim of this module is to provide a supervised space within which students with a strong prior record of achievement in writing* can pursue a long imaginative project: for example, a number or a collection of stories or poems, or a biography or other form of creative non-fiction. The module will provide training in and practical investigation of issues involved in the specific genre and will be supervised by an established practitioner/practitioners in that genre.

Students can apply to do Long Projects in fiction, non-fiction or poetry. Though we assume that most students will be writing for adults, we can also support writing for children in all three forms.

*Students wishing to do Long Projects must submit short proposals by 1st September. (NB: Part-time students must submit their proposals by 1st September in their year of entry, even though they will not embark on their long projects until their second year of study.)

Towards the end of Term 1 we shall hold an informal meeting to introduce Long Project students to their tutors

One-to-one supervision will begin in Term 2 and continue until the end of Term 3.

Tutors will design reading lists to suit each individual student.

ASSESSMENT

18 000 words of creative work, which can be in any of the forms supported by the Warwick Writing Programme. (NB The creative submission can be a finished piece of work or an excerpt of a longer work.)

A 2000-word commentary on aims, processes, and responses to reading.

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GENERAL

AttendanceAccording to University regulations, attendance of seminars is obligatory. The learning that goes on during seminars is an integral part of the MA programme. If you cannot attend owing to illness or other personal circumstances, you should inform your module tutor, preferably in advance. If you miss more than four seminars for any 10-week module, without good cause, then you may not submit for the essay for the module, and so will not be able to earn credit for it. Students in this situation will need to make up the module(s) in another way, for example, by taking another module the following term, or changing to part-time status and taking the same or comparable module the following year.

Department of English and Comparative Literary StudiesMonitoring Student Progression

The members of staff responsible for the drafting of reports are:

Director of Graduate Studies: Dr Emma Francis for 2012(13)

Administrator: Ms Julia Gretton

All PGT and PGR students in the English department will be subject to the

monitoring structure detailed below, which applies to the following degrees:

PG Diploma in English Literature

MA in English Literature

MA in Pan-Romanticisms

MA in Writing

MA in Translation and Transcultural Studies

MA by Research

PhD in English and Comparative Literary Studies

PhD in Translation Studies

The members of staff responsible for these courses are

● Dr Pablo Mukherjee

MA in Pan-Romanticisms: Prof. Jackie Labbe

MA in Writing: Prof. Maureen Freely

MA in Translation and Transcultural Studies: Dr. John Gilmore

MA by Research and all PhD programs: Dr Emma Francis

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Our monitoring structure for PGT (all MA) students is as follows:

Department of English and Comparative English Literature

Monitoring student progress: PGT Full-Time

Lead Academic: Director of Graduate Studies Point 1 Point 2 Point 3 Point 4 Point 5Term 1

Attendance at departmental induction event (week 1)

Compulsory attendance at Research Methods seminars

Compulsory attendance at seminars, including Reading Week

Compulsory submission of Bibliography Exercise

End of term meeting with seminar tutor to discuss essay title (by end Week 10)

Monitored by1. Recorded receipt of Bibliography Exercise in Departmental Office2. Seminar tutors’ reports describing student participation and noting

any absences3. Submission of essay titles sheet to Departmental Office

Point 1 Point 2 Point 3 Point 4 Point 5Term 2

Compulsory attendance at seminars, including Reading Week

Compulsory submission first Term 1 option essay (Week 6)

Submission of title sheet for second Term 1 option

Contact (in person or email) with tutors to discuss essays

Meeting with Personal Tutor to discuss progress

Monitored by1. Seminar tutors’ reports describing student participation and noting

any absences2. Submission of essay titles sheet to Departmental Office3. Recorded receipt of essay in Departmental Office

Point 1 Point 2 Point 3Term 3

Submission of title sheets for Term 2 options

Compulsory submission second Term 1 option essay (Week 5)

Compulsory submission first Term 2 option essay (Week 10)

Monitored by1. Seminar tutors’ reports describing student participation and noting

any absences2. Submission of essay titles sheets to Departmental Office3. Recorded receipt of essays in Departmental Office

Point 1 Point 2Summer Contact (in person or

email) with tutors to discuss essays and/or dissertation

Compulsory submission of remaining essay(s) and/or dissertation

Monitored by1. Recorded receipt of essay(s)/dissertation in

Departmental Office

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Other structures in place:

PGT students must attend a minimum of 60% of any one module or they will

not be permitted to submit the essay for the module and hence will not earn

credit for it. They must either take an additional module in the following term

or switch to PT registration and take an additional module in the following

year.

Supervisors’ termly reports will include the dates on which they have

met/been in email contact with supervisees.

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As mentioned earlier, MAW students are expected to make full use of their involvement in the Writing Programme.

MAW Workshops.

All writing modules use workshops to some extent, and the two fiction modules are almost entirely workshop-based. How a given module is taught will be outlined in the first session. What follow are some preparatory notes intended for anyone who hasn’t previously attended writing workshops.

A workshop is a forum in which members of the group, under the guidance of the module leader, analyse and respond to examples of each other’s work, whether circulated in advance or written during that particular session. The workshop gives feedback to each individual, while advancing everyone’s critical skills. It should also help to develop professional attitudes, whether in terms of self-critical awareness or of a capacity to handle criticism from others. Module leaders emphasise the importance of a combination of a candid, exacting response to work being discussed, with tact and constructiveness. Certain personal boundaries are also set. In particular, it’s expected that people’s writing will respect the privacy of other members of the group.

Support for students

We recognise that some writing assignments, and most especially those drawing on personal experience, may open up areas of difficulty for students. Tutors are very sensitive to these needs, and they can always adjust assignments, give advice, or offer appropriate support. Any student encountering difficulties of this nature should contact his/her tutor promptly. Any help offered will be in complete confidence.

Approval / Submission of written work

Ideas for and titles of essays must be discussed with relevant tutors or supervisors. In the case of ‘academic’ modules, work whose title has not been agreed with the module tutor will not be accepted.

Deadlines for assessed work are centrally timetabled and there are penalties for late submission( 3 marks per day). Students are expected to plan their work in advance, on the basis of the deadlines. Extensions on medical grounds, or for other reasons beyond the student’s control, must be requested in advance from the Convenor of the MA in Writing, Maureen Freely. Supporting evidence (such as a doctor’s certificate) is always required.

All portfolios / essays must be typed with double spacing, and paginated. Other stipulations may be added for individual modules. Your name, the module tutor’s name and the title of the work should appear on each page. The work should be submitted with ONE hard copy to the Graduate Secretary in the English Office by 12.00 noon of the relevant deadline. A copy of the MA cover sheet should be attached to the submission (this can be downloaded from the Departmental website http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/postgrad/current/masters/forms/

You must sign a sheet left outside H506 to confirm that you have submitted your work. An example of the cover sheet appears on page 57

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http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/postgrad/current/masters/forms/

Students are also required to submit on-line using the pg e-submission link:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/postgrad/current/masters/modules/pg-esubmission/

The deadline for the e-submission is 12.00 on the day that the essays are due.

The critical essay as part of a portfolio Most MAW modules require a critical essay together with a portfolio of original work. While the portfolio generally counts for the larger part of the overall mark, and the essay for less, both parts of the submission are important. The following points are intended as a guide to tackling the essay.

Always check the number of words you are expected to write. Do not exceed or fall short of this figure by more than 10%, as penalties will apply.

Give careful thought to both the critical and the reflective aspects of your essay. These two adjectives invite you not only to reflect on the aims of your writing submission and the processes (e.g. drafting) by which it arrived at its final form, but to give critical attention to your own writing - for example by outlining affinities you may feel it has with the work of other writers, by showing how the practices and experience described by writers in essays, interviews, etc. affected your own thinking and practice, by placing your work in any intellectual, aesthetic, social or other context you feel it should be seen in, and so on. Be careful not to use the essay simply as an explanation or excuse for what you may not have managed to achieve in the rest of the portfolio. The original work should be able to stand on its own and the essay should represent ‘added value’, in intellectual terms.

Scholarly presentation is important. If the argument you are making has involved research, be meticulous in how you present the sources you have consulted. Whenever you cite works that have influenced you, or an author’s or critic’s views, provide a note giving the source of your quotation. You should also add a bibliography of the publications you have drawn upon in writing your essay.

Professional presentation is important, too. Submissions that are single-spaced are harder to read: please use one-and-a-half or double spacing. Use a sensible font such as Times New Roman, and don’t set poems in florid ‘handwritten’ fonts. Use white A4 paper.

If you’re unsure of what you are writing, any tutor on the module you’re submitting for will be glad to look at an outline and advise you on the suitability of the approach you are taking. Remember to give tutors time to respond. In any case you should allow at least a fortnight between when the tutor says s/he can see you and the deadline, to allow time for any rewriting. Royal Literary Fund Fellows (room H421) are also available throughout the year for consultations on essay writing.

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Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the theft of other people’s work. It consists first of direct transcription, without acknowledgement, of passages, sentences and even phrases from someone else’s writing, whether published or not. It also includes the presentation as the author’s own of material by someone else – including from the web - with only a few changes in wording. There is of course a grey area where making use of secondary material comes close to copying it, but the problem can usually be avoided by acknowledging that a certain writer holds similar views or has expressed or described things in a similar way, and by writing your work without the book or transcription from it open before you. When you are using another person’s words you must put them in quotation marks and give a precise source. When you are using another person’s ideas you must give a footnote reference to the precise source.

All quotations from other sources must therefore be acknowledged every time they occur. It is not enough to include the work from which they are taken any bibliography, and such inclusion will not be accepted as a defence should plagiarism be alleged. Whenever you write anything that counts towards university assessments, you will be asked to sign an undertaking that the work it contains is your own.

The University regards plagiarism as a serious offence. A tutor who finds plagiarism in a piece of work will report the matter to the Chairman of Department. The Chairman may, after hearing the case, impose a penalty of a nil mark for the piece in question. The matter may go to a Senate disciplinary committee which has power to exact more severe penalties. If plagiarism is detected in one piece, other work by the student concerned will be examined very carefully for evidence of the same offence.

In practice, few students are deliberately dishonest and many cases of plagiarism arise from bad intellectual and imaginative practice. There is nothing wrong with using other people’s ideas. Indeed, citing other people’s work shows that you have researched your topic and have used their thinking to help formulate your own argument. The important thing is to know what is yours and what is not and to communicate this clearly to the reader.

Further notes for MA students in the Department of English can be found in the main MA Handbook.

Deadlines and PenaltiesAll deadlines are published at the beginning of the academic year. They are final. Essays are due at 12 noon, a single copy, with a cover sheet (available on-line ) plus a electronic version submission via the pg e-submissions link on the departmental website. You may not submit essays via email or fax. Essays written for modules taken in other departments must be submitted by that department’s essay deadline but must adhere to the word length for essays in the English Department. Sometimes deadlines for such modules will coincide with English module deadlines. Please note that it is the student’s responsibility to submit by the required deadline: extensions are not normally granted in such circumstances.

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Students are also required to submit on-line using the pg e-submission link - http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/postgrad/current/masters/modules/pg-esubmission/

The deadline for the e-submission is 12.00 on the day that the essays are due.

Penalty for late workWork which is late without permission will be penalised by 3 marks per day.

Applying for an extensionIn some circumstances, such as illness, it is possible for students to apply for an extension to the essay deadline. To apply for an extension, you must contact the MAW Convenor directly, stating the nature of the circumstance and supplying appropriate documentation, such as a medical note. This must be an original note signed by a medical doctor or equivalent. The department treats all medical notes and other sensitive material in confidence. You must apply for an extension in advance of the deadline. Requests for extensions after the deadline has passed will only be considered where the circumstances are grave and unforeseeable. Extensions are granted at the discretion of the MAW Convenor. You may wish to discuss the matter with your personal tutor or your module tutor, but only the MAW Convenor may grant an extension.

Penalty for over or under-length workAll assessed work must conform to the stated word lengths. The word lengths are inclusive of quotations and footnotes but not of bibliography. You will be asked to provide a word count of your essays on the cover sheet which you complete when the work is submitted. We allow a penalty-free margin of up to 10% over or under-length. Essays that are 10-25% over or under-length will incur a penalty of 3 marks. Essays that are more than 25% over or under-length will be refused and a mark of nil will be recorded.

Repetition of materialYou should not use the same material in more than one piece of work nor write at length on the same text or topic in more than one essay. Where this rule is not observed, examiners will disregard the repeated material, and mark the essay only on the basis of the new material. This may result in a fail mark for the essay.

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Marking Practices and ConventionsIn marking, examiners will reward cogency of argument, the use of appropriate material, stylistic excellence and good presentation. Candidates must also satisfy examiners that they have carried out the work required by the each module. All essays are marked by two members of staff. You will receive feedback from the first marker, and the agreed final mark. All marks awarded by examiners are provisional, until confirmed by the Exam Board in October. The pass mark for the MA in English is 50, with a distinction being marked at 70 or more. Marking descriptors are as follows:

80+: (Distinction): Work which, over and above possessing all the qualities of the 70-79 mark range, indicates a fruitful new approach to the material studied, represents an advance in scholarship or is judged by the examiners to be of a standard publishable in a peer-reviewed publication.

70-79: (Distinction): Methodologically sophisticated, intelligently argued, with some evidence of genuine originality in analysis or approach. Impressive command of the critical / historiographical / theoretical field, and an ability to situate the topic within it, and to modify or challenge received interpretations where appropriate. Excellent deployment of a substantial body of primary material/texts to advance the argument. Well structured, very well written, with proper referencing and extensive bibliography.

60-69: Well organised and effectively argued, analytical in approach, showing a sound grasp of the critical / historiographical / theoretical field. Demonstrates an ability to draw upon a fairly substantial body of primary material, and to relate this in an illuminating way to the issues under discussion. Generally well written, with a clear sequence of arguments, and satisfactory referencing and bibliography.

50-59: A lower level of attainment than work marked in the range 60-69, but demonstrating some awareness of the general critical / historiographical / theoretical field. Mainly analytical, rather than descriptive or narrative, in approach. An overall grasp of the subject matter, with, perhaps, a few areas of confusion or gaps in factual or conceptual understanding of the material. Demonstrates an ability to draw upon a reasonable range of primary material, and relate it accurately to the issues under discussion. Clearly written, with adequate referencing and bibliography.

40-49(Fail/Diploma): This work is inadequate for an MA award, but may be acceptable for a Postgraduate Diploma. Significant elements of confusion in the framing and execution of the response to the question. Simple, coherent and solid answers, but mainly descriptive or narrative in approach. Relevant, but not extensive deployment of primary material in relation to the issues under discussion. Occasional tendency to derivativeness either by paraphrase or direct quotation of secondary sources. Some attempt to meet requirements for referencing and bibliography.

39-(Fail): Work inadequate for an MA or Diploma award. Poorly argued, written and presented. Conceptual confusion throughout, and demonstrates no knowledge of the critical / historiographical / theoretical field. Failure to address the issues raised by the question, derivative, very insubstantial or very poor or limited deployment of primary material.

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Supplementary Creative Criteria

DISTINCTION70-100Work in this category demonstrates compelling originality and confidence in handling of language and form. It should show a complete understanding of its chosen genre or medium and manifest a sustained willingness to experiment within that genre or medium so that the formal possibilities of expression are extended and transformed beyond mere engagement with content. Voice, register, pace, the position of the “speaking” poet or narrator, the sense of the work’s contract with the reader – all should be perfectly understood and absorbed within the fabric of the submission. It will evince not just a mature and striking command of language, but a highly imaginative and sustained sensitivity to what, given the subject-matter, is most apt, in prose description, dialogue, verse form, lineation and/or sectional arrangement. Presentation, spelling and punctuation will also be near faultless.

MERIT65-69Work awarded a Merit will show evidence of originality and an emerging, rather than fully achieved, confidence in testing the limits of language and form. Its ambitions and voice may be compromised or dulled by some inconsistencies in tone, pace, narrative positioning and development. The chosen genre or medium will be mostly well handled, though not “made new”. There will be passages of good writing, with apt and often striking use of metaphor and observation which may not, however, be fully integrated with their surroundings. The higher end of this category will apply to submissions with a mature sense of imaginative direction and expressive possibility. The lower end will contain portfolios with a less convincing ability to identify and resolve formal and technical problems.

PASS50-64Work which is adequate but not markedly original in its expressiveness, its handling of the chosen genre or medium, or its imaginative vision. Typically there will be inspired moments in the portfolio and some evidence of technical ability, but there will be frequent structural lapses and a generally unconvincing grasp of how to shape material. In the mid- to high-50s the command of language will be mostly secure, though rarely remarkable. In the lower range, there will be a more than incidental appearance of grammatical error, cliche and developmental contrivance. This category may also include some portfolios which are potentially interesting but hastily assembled and confusingly presented.

FAIL49 and belowWork of a consistently poor quality, with a reduced understanding of form, little ambition and a pedestrian approach to language and structure. The tone will be insecure and the writing will feel contrived and routinely underimagined.

Failure and resubmissionTo obtain the MA degree, candidates must earn pass marks in all their portfolios and in their Long Project. You cannot pass with a fail mark. A very high fail (47-49) may be considered by the board as redeemable if the student has earned high marks on other modules. Such cases are normally decided by one of the external examiners.

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Where a student essay is awarded a fail mark, resubmission is possible under certain circumstances. The resubmission policy is as follows:

1) A student who fails one essay for any other module must await the decision of the Exam Board in October. The Exam Board will consider all aspects of the circumstances, and rule on the case. Normally, the Board will make one of the following requirements of the student:

- to rewrite the existing essay- to write an entirely new essay on the same topic - to write an entirely new essay on a different topic

Where a student is required to resubmit an essay, he or she will normally be required to do so by the 1 September the following year. Students in this situation will need an extension from the Graduate School for which there will be an administrative charge. In very exceptional circumstances, the Exam Board may, rather than requiring resubmission, permit the candidate to sit a written examination. If circumstances warrant it, the Board may condone a fail.

2) A student may resubmit an essay only once.3) A student may resubmit essays for up to two modules (including the Long

Project, which counts as two modules). Failure in three modules or more in the first attempt is normally irredeemable.

4) Where a Long Project is awarded a high fail (47-49), the student may be asked to resubmit.

5) The highest mark a resubmitted essay can achieve is 50, which is a pass. If the resubmitted essay is awarded a fail mark, the candidate will be normally be disqualified from proceeding to the MA.

Board of ExaminersThe Board of Examiners is made up of academic staff and external examiners and normally meets once per year, in October. It is chaired by the Head of Department. The task of the Board is to review all student marks and confirm or revise them as required. The Board awards the MA degree and the MA with distinction, subject to the approval of Senate. The decisions of the Board are public and normally made available at the end of the day on which it meets.

Guidance on Extenuating/Mitigating CircumstancesExtenuating or mitigating circumstances are those events which have had a detrimental effect on your study, to the point that it is in your interest to draw your department’s attention to them and ask for them to be considered in mitigation of poor performance. Such circumstances include (but are not limited to) illness, both bodily and emotional; the severe illness or death of a close family member; a shocking or traumatic personal experience. In addition, sudden, unexpected changes in family circumstances might affect your ability to make academic progress as a consequence of their demonstrable emotional impact upon you, and may also be considered as mitigation.

The University is aware that in some cultures it is considered shameful or embarrassing to disclose the details of these kinds of circumstances to those outside one’s family. This is not the case in the prevailing UK culture and you should be aware that your department and the University are fully supportive of students in difficult circumstances and want to assist if at all possible. If you feel inhibited from talking to a tutor or other member of staff in the first instance, you may also considertalking to a member of your SSLC, the Students’ Union, the University Senior Tutor or a member of staff in Student Support for initial, informal advice.

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Clearly, though, in order for your circumstances to be considered as mitigating by your department, they must be conveyed formally to someone in your department (a tutor, the Director of Graduate/Undergraduate Studies, a course/module convenor, for instance). The University expects that you will discuss your circumstances before Exam Boards meet, so that they may be taken into account in good time. You should be aware that, in the event you feel you need to appeal the outcome of an Exam Board, offering extenuating or mitigating circumstances at that point will need tobe accompanied by a good reason why you withheld the information earlier. Without wanting to invade your privacy, the University does expect that you bring such circumstances to your department’s attention in a timely manner, despite the discomfort you might feel in so doing. Failure to disclose such circumstances at a time when you could have done so may subsequently be problematic. Your department will do all it can to support you in difficult situations.

AppealThe University regards appeal as a very serious matter and has an effective method of dealing with appeals. If you feel there has been some injustice regarding the awarding of your degree, you should immediately speak to your personal tutor, the MA Convenor, or the Head of Department. You may also wish to speak to a Student Union representative. If you wish to launch a formal appeal against the decision of the Board, you should consult the detailed regulations governing appeal. These are found http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/academicoffice/examinations/appeals. Please note the following:

The University has no mechanism for students wishing to appeal against the award of specific marks. In other words, disagreeing with a mark is not deemed by the University as valid grounds for appeal.

It is only possible to make an appeal on the grounds that proper procedures have not been followed by the Board in reaching its decision, or if there is new information pertinent to the case that was not available to the Board at the time it reached its decision.

Appeals are considered not by the department involved but by academic staff drawn from different departments.

If you are not satisfied with the way the University has dealt with your appeal, you may appeal to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator – http://www.oiahe.org.uk/

The ombudsman will only investigate where there is a prima facia case to be answered. The decision of the ombudsman is final.

If you wish to make a complaint about any aspect of your course, you should do so via the University’s complaint’s procedure (outlined in the section below ‘Student Support’), which is distinct from the Appeals procedure.

Student Support

Personal TutorsEvery student is nominated to a personal tutor. The personal tutor is a member of academic staff in the department who can offer advice on academic matters and also help direct students in difficulty to appropriate support within the University. It is highly recommended that you make time to meet your Personal Tutor soon after you arrive, and regularly thereafter. A notice about Personal Tutor arrangements for MA students will be posted on the graduate notice board during the second week of term.

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http://www.oiahe.org.uk/

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/academicoffice/examinations/appeals

SSLCThe task of the Staff-Student Liaison Committee is to review regularly all aspects of postgraduate study in the Department. It is made of representatives of postgraduate students (from all MAs and PhD) as well as academic staff with a role in running postgraduate programmes. Via the SSLC, students can voice concerns and together with staff can work on solutions. The SSLC is also a forum where staff can communicate changes to the courses and proposed improvements. The SSLC is an extremely effective body and its work is very valued by both teaching staff and students. Student members are elected by their peers at the beginning of the year.

PG HubThe PG Hub is a space for Warwick postgraduate taught and research students to access support and to work and share experiences together in the broadest context of postgraduate life, not just study.

Use the following link to find out more:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/pghub

HarassmentThe University considers sexual and racial harassment to be unacceptable and offers support to students subjected to it. The University is also able to take disciplinary action against offenders. Help is available from the Senior Tutor, the staff at Counselling Services and Student Union Welfare Staff. The University’s harassment policy can be found - http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/insite/topic/healthsafety/welfare/harassment/

DisabilityStudents who wish to find out more about University support for people with a disability should contact the Disability Office. Disability Officers can offer a wide range of support for all types of disability. If you are a wheelchair user, it is very important that you make yourself known to the Disability Office soon after arrival, so that an personalised evacuation plan can be drawn up for you.

HealthThere is an NHS doctor’s surgery on campus. You must register with the surgery when you arrive. For any emergencies, ring University Security (999).Health and SafetyThe University monitors health and safely through its Health and Safety policy. If you have any questions regarding this matter, or have any specific causes of concern, you should speak to the Department’s nominated Health and Safety officer.

ComplaintsA student may raise a complaint about any aspect of the teaching and learning process and the provision made by the University to support that process, unless the matter can be dealt with under the Disciplinary regulations, the Harassment Guidelines or the appeals mechanism. Students may not use the complaints procedure to challenge the academic judgement of examiners. Full details of the Student Academic Complaints Procedure can be found at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/gov/complaintsandfeedback/

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WARWICK WRITING PROGRAMME 2012-13: STAFF

Peter Blegvadis a rock musician and cartoonist whose discography includes solo albums as well as collaborations with The Golden Palominos, Faust and Slapp Happy. He is the cartoonist of ‘Leviathan’ and ‘The Pedestrian’ for The Independent on Sunday, the author of Headcheese and The Impossible Book, and appears regularly on BBC radio’s The Verb.

Will EavesWill Eaves is a novelist, poet and journalist, born in Bath in 1967 and educated at King’s College, Cambridge. For many years he was the Arts Editor of the Times Literary Supplement; he remains a contributor to the paper, as to a variety of literary publications. He has written three novels: The Oversight (2001), a coming-of-age story with a surrealist twist, shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award; Nothing To Be Afraid Of (2005), a fantasia on The Tempest and other less elevated theatrical themes, shortlisted for the Society of Authors’ Encore Prize; and This Is Paradise (2012), a tragicomic elegy for all mothers with difficult children, forthcoming. His first full collection of poems, Sound Houses, will be published in September this year. He is particularly interested in trees, geology, music and lyric poetry; the oblique nature of the creative process and the importance to the writer of helpful distraction; the intersection of the comic, the domestic and the macabre in twentieth-century and contemporary fiction.

Maureen Freelyis the author of six novels, among them Enlightenment (2008), Mother's Helper (1979) and The Other Rebecca (1996). Her non-fiction books include Pandora's Clock (1993), What About Us? (1995) and The Parent Trap (2000). She is the English-language translator of five books by the Nobel Prize-winning Turkish author, Orhan Pamuk, and a regular contributor to the Guardian, the Observer, the Sunday Times, and the Independent. Maureen Freely is Convenor of the Warwick MA in Writing.

Michael Hulse

has won numerous awards for his poetry, among them first prizes in the National Poetry Competition and the Bridport Poetry Competition (twice) as well as the Society of Authors’ Eric Gregory Award and Cholmondeley Award. His selected poems, Empires and Holy Lands: Poems 1976-2000, were published in 2002 and in September 2009 he published a new book of poems, The Secret History. The translator of some sixty books from German (among them titles by Goethe, W.G.Sebald, Nobel prizewinner Elfriede Jelinek, and in 2009 Rilke’s novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge), he is also a critic, has taught an universities in Germany and Switzerland, and has read, lectured, and conducted workshops and seminars worldwide. He was general editor for several years of a literature classics series, scripted news and documentary programmes for Deutsche Welle television, and has edited literary quarterlies, currently, The Warwick Review.

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A.L.Kennedy

Alison Kennedy’s novel Day won the Costa Book Award, 2008 and she is the winner of several other leading literary UK and US prizes, among them a Lannan Award. The author of eight other works of fiction, collections of short stories as well as novels, of a book on bullfighting of a study of the film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Kennedy also performs as a comedian, particularly in Edinburgh’s Stand Comedy Club. She did her first degree at Warwick.

China Miéville

One of Britain’s leading fantasy writers, China Miéville describes his work as ‘weird fiction’, a genre in which he offers critical seminars at Warwick alongside his 1:1 sessions and workshops with student writers. His novels include King Rat, Perdido Street Station (which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award) and Un Lun Dun. After reading anthropology at Cambridge he did a PhD in International Relations at the LSE. China Miéville is an active member of the Socialist Workers’ party.

David MorleyA former environmental scientist, Professor Morley has published 18 books including 9 volumes of poetry, won 13 literary awards and gained two awards for his teaching including a National Teaching Fellowship. Warwick University awarded him a personal Chair in Creative Writing in 2007 and a D.Litt. in 2008. David has written essays, reviews and criticism for The Guardian, Poetry Review, PN Review and The Times Higher Education Supplement. Recent books include The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing from CUP, The Invisible Kings from Carcanet, an anthology of new Romanian Poetry, an edition of Geoffrey Holloway's Collected Poems and a new anthology of poems by children. The director of the Warwick Writing Programme since it began, he also runs the new Warwick Prize for Writing. He is currently co-editing The Cambridge Companion to Creative Writing, writing a new book of poems and carrying out several public art poetry commissions with ecological themes.

Sarah Moss

Sarah Moss began her academic career as a Romanticist, publishing on food and gender in Romantic-era women's fiction (Spilling the Beans: Eating, Cooking, Reading and Writing in British Women's Fiction (Manchester: MUP, 2009)) and on the influence of Arctic travel writing on Romantic poetry. Her first novel, Cold Earth (London: Granta 2009), developed from her doctoral research. Since then, she has published a second novel, Night Waking (London: Granta 2011), which won a Fiction Uncovered award and was selected by Waterstone's Book Club, and a travel book/memoir about a year in Iceland with her family, Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland (London: Granta 2012). She is now working on a pair of novels developing some of the stories in the background of Night Waking. Sarah's interests include the practice of contemporary fiction and nature writing, literary representations of northern-ness and the relationships between academic research and 'creative' writing.

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Leila Rasheed

Leila Rasheed was brought up in Libya before moving back to the UK. Her first degree was taken at Warwick, and she has two MAs, one in Children’s Literature and one in Writing, which she also took at Warwick. She has published three books for 8 – 12 year olds, the first of which has been nominated for various prizes, and a specially commissioned YA novel for the Stratford-upon-Avon Literary Festival. Her poetry, for adults, has also been appeared in various publications. She works as a writer in education, and is represented by the Greenhouse Literary Agency. She is married to Danish composer René Mogensen and spends part of the year in Italy, where he lives.

Ian Sansom

creative writing (fiction and non-fiction); creative writing pedagogy; contemporary fiction; reviewing; radio broadcasting. He is the author of nine books, including The Truth About Babies (Granta, 2002), Ring Road (4th Estate/Harper Collins, 2004), and the Mobile Library series of novels. A cultural history of paper, Paper: An Elegy (4th Estate/Harper Collins), is due for publication in October 2012. The first in a new series of novels, The County Guides: Norfolk (4th Estate/Harper Collins) is due for publication in June 2013.Jonathan Skinner

Contemporary poetry and poetics, ecocriticism, animal studies, sound studies, translation and ethnopoetics, critical theory. Dr. Skinner founded and edits the journal ecopoetics <http://www.ecopoetics.org>, which features creative-critical intersections between writing and ecology. His poetry collections include Birds of Tifft (BlazeVOX,2011) and Political Cactus Poems (Palm Press, 2005). Skinner has published critical essays on Charles Olson, Ronald Johnson, Lorine Niedecker, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Bernadette Mayer, translations of French poetry and garden theory, essays on bird song from the perspective of ethnopoetics, and essays on horizontal concepts such as the Third Landscape and on Documentary Poetry. Currently, he is writing a book of investigative poems on the urban landscapes of Frederick Law Olmsted, and a critical book on Animal Transcriptions in contemporary poetry.

Jeremy Treglown

is a biographer, cultural historian and literary editor. His most recent book, V.S.Pritchett: A Working Life (Chatto, 2004) was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award for Biography and the Duff Cooper Prize for Literature. Previous books include: Romancing: The Life and Work of Henry Green (Faber, 2000: ‘Dictionary of Literary Biography’ Award), Roald Dahl: A Biography (Faber, 1994), and the Everyman edition of Dahl’s adult stories (2006). He was Editor of the TLS from 1981 to 1990, has chaired the judging panels of both the Booker and the Whitbread (now Costa) Prizes and has written for Granta and The New Yorker, among other magazines. He founded the Warwick Writing Programme in 1996.

David Vann

Creative writing (fiction and nonfiction). Published in eighteen languages, author of Dirt (2012), Last Day On Earth: A Portrait of the NIU School Shooter (2011), Caribou Island (2011), Legend of a Suicide (2008), and A Mile Down: The True Story of a Disastrous Career at Sea (2005). Forthcoming books: Goat Mountain (2013 or

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http://www.ecopoetics.org/

2014), The Higher Blue (2014), and Crocodile: Memoirs from a Mexican Drug-Running Port (2014). He’s also written for a variety of newspapers and magazines and has been a Guggenheim Fellow, National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, and Wallace Stegner Fellow.

Andrew Williams

Andrew Williams qualified and practiced as a solicitor in London and Malawi before joining the University of Warwick in 1996. Since then, he has combined teaching with legal practice in the field of human rights. He was co-founder of Peacerights, an NGO which brought together activists, academics and practitioners to provide legal support to the peace movement, was a trustee/director of Coventry Law Centre for 10 years, and now directs the Centre for Human Rights in Practice based in Warwick Law School. Andrew continues to work with human rights lawyers and organisations nationally and internationally with a recent emphasis on cases of torture and ill-treatment in Iraq. He wrote a non-fiction book entitled 'A Very British Killing' on one of these cases in 2011.

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(FORMAT FOR COVER SHEET FOR ALL ASSESSED WORK for the MA in Writing)

THE UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK Department of English & Comparative Studies: Warwick Writing Programme

MA in Writing

Module Title_________________________________________________________

Module Tutor _______________________________________________________

TITLE OF PORTFOLIO OR ESSAY___________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

STUDENT’S NAME: ________________________________________________

DATE: ____________________________________________________________

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