Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Writing

University College Dublin

The PhD programme in Creative Writing provides students with the opportunity to engage in individual research over three to four years of full time study under the supervision of a member of academic staff, leading to a thesis that combines creative work with a critical commentary.The majority of any PhD research will be practice based, that is carried out through your own creative practice, and will lead to a novel, a collection of short stories, a poetry collection or other major piece of writing. You will also need to produce a critical commentary that contextualises your writing and demonstrates understanding of the writing process. The final composition of the submitted thesis will be a matter of negotiation between the supervisor and the candidate in order to ensure that it satisfies the requirements of doctoral study, but will be approximately 70 creative work and 30 commentary.The application requirements, procedures, timelines and deadlines for a Creative Writing PhD are the same as that for all other PhD programmes in the School.The creative writing PhD has broadly the same characteristics as any other doctorate in terms of its requirements of breadth, depth and originality. It does differ from a literary studies PhD, however, in some significant details, and particularly in the composition of the thesis and research methods.The creative writing PhD will normally have two components:A creative element made up of, for example, a collection of poetry, prose fiction either in novel form or a collection of shorter fiction, or creative non-fiction such as life writing, travel writing etc.a critical element that might include but is not limited to, critical work on relevant literature, theoretical enquiry and critical reflection on the writing process.