Creative Writing

The Master of Creative Writing (MCW) is a 180-credit course that can follow on immediately from your bachelor’s degree in creative writing, English, expressive arts or another approved subject or pathway.

Produce your own creative writing to challenge your innovative energies. Discover new ways to unlock ideas and connect with readers.

Work alongside award-winning authors to write your own novels, poems, short stories, plays, scripts, creative non-fiction and more.

A Master of Creative Writing is one of the most creative and enriching degrees you can do. Employers seek out arts students for their lateral and analytical thinking, communication skills and creative ability.

There are various possibilities for creative writing graduates, including:

• Non-profit or corporate freelance writing
• Creative arts project coordination
• Writing for television, magazines, blogs or the book-publishing industry
• Inter-arts collaboration for arts festivals
• Writing for public relations
• Creative writing in advertising
• Teaching
• Performance-related writing and production
• Writing and advising on Government policy
• Writing for social media

Master of Creative Writing structure

60 Credits from Part One (30 credits each from list A and B), followed by a thesis to the value of 120 credits. A grade average of at least B+ is required in Part One in order to progress to Part Two.

Part One (60 credits)

List A (30 credits)

139.760 Writing Lyric Poetry: Blurring the Boundaries
139.761 Writing Contemporary Fiction
139.763 Community Theatre
154.747 Media Practice and Global Culture

List B (30 credits)

139.703 Critical and Creative Research
139.707 Women, Desire and Narrative
139.710 Rhetoric, Composition and the Teaching of Writing
139.724 Literary Revolutions: 18th Century and Romantic Literature
139.725 The Post-Romantic Subject
139.728 Early Modern Metadrama: Vices and Devices
139.750 Contemporary NZ Writers in an International Context
139.752 New Zealand Drama
139.757 Twentieth-Century New Zealand Fiction: Texts and Theories
139.758 Post-colonial Writing
139.775 Trauma, Memory, Haunting
139.799 Research Report
154.708 Modern Fiction, Popular Culture and the Media

Part Two (120 credits)

120 credits from the courses listed below:
139.861 Thesis Creative Writing Part I (60) and
139.862 Thesis Creative Writing Part II (60).

Applicants require a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing, Expressive Arts, English or equivalent, with a B grade average across the 200 and 300 level specialisation courses.

Applicants who have a Bachelor of Arts with Honours or a Postgraduate Diploma in Arts in Creative Writing, Expressive Arts, English or equivalent, with a B grade average for the qualification may be admitted directly into Part Two.

Massey University Masterate Scholarship

Masterate Scholarships are offered for the purpose of encouraging postgraduate research at Massey University. Applicants must be enrolled or eligible to enrol full-time in a 120 credit research programme towards a Masters degree at Massey University.

Massey University Masterate Scholarship for Māori Students

Masterate Scholarships for Māori students are offered for the purpose of encouraging postgraduate research at Massey University. Applicants must be enrolled or eligible to enrol full-time in a 120 credit research programme towards a Masters degree.