The University of East Anglia's Creative Writing Course was founded by Sir Malcolm Bradbury and Sir Angus Wilson in 1970. The M.A. has been regarded among the most prestigious in the United Kingdom.[1][2][3]
The course allows specialisation in the following strands: Prose, Creative Non-Fiction, Poetry, Scriptwriting (which is Skillset accredited) and Crime Fiction. In 2024, a new strand, MA Creative Writing, which allows students to work across different literary forms, was launched.[4] Each strand results in an M.A. qualification upon successful completion of the course. Course Directors have included Andrew Cowan, Tessa McWatt, Tiffany Atkinson, Steve Waters, Kathryn Hughes, Lavinia Greenlaw, and Henry Sutton. Writers teaching on the course in recent years have included Amit Chaudhuri, Trezza Azzopardi, Giles Foden, Tobias Jones, James Lasdun, Jean McNeil and George Szirtes.
Writers such as Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter, Rose Tremain, Andrew Motion, W. G. Sebald, Michèle Roberts and Patricia Duncker have also taught on the course.
Writers-in-residence have included Alan Burns[5] and Margaret Atwood. Ali Smith has been a Writing Fellow and Visiting Professor on the programme.[6] From 2021 to 2022, Tsitsi Dangarembga was the inaugural International Chair of Creative Writing.[7]