2023
UCC announces scholarship to celebrate a decade of Creative Writing
- Special event in UCC’s Aula Maxima this evening.
University College Cork (UCC) celebrates ten years of its acclaimed MA in Creative Writing this year, and to mark the occasion a scholarship will be awarded to a writer of exceptional promise who comes from a traditionally underrepresented area of society.
UCC’s MA in Creative Writing was founded in 2013 and is directed by award-winning novelist Dr Eibhear Walshe. To date the MA programme has graduated 150 students from Ireland, the US, Canada, France, Scotland, Poland, Malta and Cyprus. Creative Writing needs an ecosystem to thrive including publishers, book shops and — most importantly of all — readers. Many of those readers, writers and publishers will join UCC Creative Writing graduates in the Aula Maxima on Thursday evening (16 February).
John Banville, Zadie Smith, Nick Laird, Colum Mc Cann, Richard Ford, Victoria Kennefick and Olivia Fitzsimons, thanks to donor support, have all offered readings and workshops throughout ten years of Creative Writing at UCC. Now thanks continued donor support the Miriam Cotter MA Scholarship will be awarded to a writer of exceptional promise who comes from a traditionally underrepresented area of society.
As well as developing careers as authors, UCC Creative Writing graduates have gone on to work with ground-breaking publishers and to start their own magazines, contributing to Irish cultural life. Flanking the successful growth of the MA in Creative Writing, BA English students can study the subject as part of their programme, while a growing group of PhD candidates have taken higher degrees in Creative Writing. PhD candidates in Creative Writing have won funding from the Irish Research Council, while the PhD by Prior Publication route has enabled UCC research to recognise the achievements, of such noted Irish writers as Mary O'Donnell, William Wall and Rita Kelly.
UCC Creative Writing has developed links with the Arts Council, Listowel Book Festival, the West Cork Literary Festival, Munster Literature Centre, Cork World Bookfest, Cork International Short Story Festival, Ó Bhéal and Fiction at the Friary; as well as with publishing outlets including the Irish Examiner, The Stinging Fly, Books Ireland. Industry links include Romero Games and a number of Irish publishers including Banshee Press and Skein Press. UCC Creative Writing also has a successful relationship with the Fulbright Commission.
Last Autumn UCC launched its first Arts and Culture Plan (2022-2026) and Creative Writing forms part of UCC’s plan to harness and activate its extensive cultural and artistic heritage.
The UCC Creative Writing 10-year anniversary event occurs in the Aula Maxima on Thursday, 16 February from 18.30pm.
More details on the scholarship can be found here.