School of Creative Writing

Programme Summary

Year 1 (Level 5) consists of eight 15-credit courses where students improve their writing in a supportive and practical workshop environment. Lecturers encourage students to achieve publications that reach and entertain diverse audiences through passion and discipline.

Readings, and writing exercises, help students to find and develop material relevant to their own interests and lives, and to consider their own work in relation to New Zealand, Maori, and Pacific writing, or other personally relevant writing.

Year 2 (Level 6) builds on the writing skills developed in the previous year, including a further creativity course, and the addition of courses in screenwriting and digital writing.

Year 3 (Level 7) focuses on a book-length project, or a major collaborative work. If students choose to write a book manuscript, that may be a revision of work produced in previous creative writing workshops in the Level 5 and 6 years, as well as new work, to enable them to specialise at an advanced level in a genre of their choosing. Collaborations may be with other writers, performers, or visual artists who are also in the final year of the Bachelor of Creative Arts.

Each year we devote a course to reading as a writer (Voices of Pacific Literature in year 1, Home Fires in year 2, Woven Words in year 3), as well as literary readings in every course.

A unique aim of this programme is to enhance collaborative work across the arts, so students are encouraged in the Creativity courses each year to take up informal and formal opportunities to work with other students who are performing artists and visual artists.

Lecturers include leading writers and scholars Sue Orr, Witi Ihimaera, Albert Wendt, and Robert Sullivan.

Courses

Year 1 (Level 5) 

Semester 1: Creativity 1 / First Light: Foundations of Creative Writing / Voices of Pacific Literature / Writing Fires: Poems and Songs 1 

Semester 2: Shorts: Flash Fiction, Poems, Essays & Songs / The Art of Writing Stories / Writing Auckland 1 / Writers at Work

Download | Level 5 - Course Info | Creative Writing

Year 2 (Level 6)

Semester 1: Creativity 2 / Moving Fiction 1 / Writing Fires: Poems & Songs 2 / Writing Auckland 2

Semester 2: Home Fires: New Zealand Literature / Screenwriting / Number 8 Wi-Fi: Introduction to Digital Writing / Moving Fiction 2

Download | Level 6 - Course Info | Creative Writing

Year 3 (Level 7)

Semester 1: Independent and Directed Project Preparation OR Woven Words: World Literature / Creativity 3

Semester 2: Creative Writing Capstone Project 

Download | Level 7 - Course Info | Creative Writing

Entry Requirements

Applicants must meet the following entry requirements:

• Have at least 42 NCEA credits at Level 3, including a minimum of 14 credits in each of two subjects, plus a minimum of 14 credits in one or two subjects and a minimum of 4 credits in reading and a minimum of 4 credits in writing, both at level 2 or equivalent.
  OR
• Have at least 72 NCEA credits at Level 2 including a minimum of 14 credits in each of two approved subjects and including 8 credits in reading/writing and including 30 credits achieved at Merit or Excellence or equivalent.
  OR
• Have at least 60 NZQA recognised credits at Level 5 or higher or equivalent.
  OR
• Have relevant work/life experience and be able to demonstrate that they can work/study at a level appropriate to the programme. Each applicant will be considered on an individual basis. To support their application applicants will be required to demonstrate their ability to study at Level 5 (Year 1) including a file providing evidence of personal life skills and previous activities. Applicants will be invited to an interview. Among attributes an applicant must demonstrate are a mature and positive approach to study, commitment and motivation to degree study.
   AND
• Have English language competence to undertake this programme which is taught and assessed in English. Applicants whose first language is not English may be asked for evidence of an overall IELTS (Academic) score of 6.5 (with no score below 6.0) or equivalent.
  AND 
• Submit a portfolio consisting of a five page writing sample of poetry or imaginative prose that demonstrates technical competency and creative ability.

Programme Summary

When studying the Diploma in Creative Writing (Level 5), you will begin with courses in Creativity as well as First Light: Foundations of Creative Writing, which aims to establish a common writing and reading skill-set for the group.

You will then go on to study a range of other courses including:

• Writing Fires: Poems and Songs
• Voices of Pacific Literature
• The Art of Writing Stories
• Shorts: Flash Fiction, Poems, Essays and Songs
• Writing Auckland
• Writers at Work.

A programme of extracurricular activities will be part of your study programme and will include a reading series by visiting writers as well as opportunities to publish creative writing in journals such as Trout.

Courses

Diploma in Creative Writing (Level 5) 

Semester 1: Creativity 1 / First Light: Foundations of Creative Writing / Voices of Pacific Literature / Writing Fires: Poems and Songs 1 

Semester 2: Shorts: Flash Fiction, Poems, Essays & Songs / The Art of Writing Stories / Writing Auckland 1 / Writers at Work

Download | Level 5 - Course Info | Creative Writing

Entry Requirements

Applicants must meet the following entry requirements:

• Have at least 42 NCEA credits at Level 3, including a minimum of 14 credits in each of two subjects, plus a minimum of 14 credits in one or two subjects and a minimum of 4 credits in reading and a minimum of 4 credits in writing, both at level 2 or equivalent.
  OR
• Have at least 72 NCEA credits at Level 2 including a minimum of 14 credits in each of two approved subjects and including 8 credits in reading/writing and including 30 credits achieved at Merit or Excellence or equivalent.
  OR
• Have at least 60 NZQA recognised credits at Level 5 or higher or equivalent.
  OR
• Have relevant work/life experience and be able to demonstrate that they can work/study at a level appropriate to the programme. Each applicant will be considered on an individual basis. To support their application applicants will be required to demonstrate their ability to study at Level 5 (Year 1) including a file providing evidence of personal life skills and previous activities. Applicants will be invited to an interview. Among attributes an applicant must demonstrate are a mature and positive approach to study, commitment and motivation to degree study.
   AND
• Have English language competence to undertake this programme which is taught and assessed in English. Applicants whose first language is not English may be asked for evidence of an overall IELTS (Academic) score of 6.5 (with no score below 6.0) or equivalent.
  AND 
• Submit a portfolio consisting of a five page writing sample of poetry or imaginative prose that demonstrates technical competency and creative ability.

At the School of Creative Writing we believe that the mentoring and collaboration our students engage in develops relationships that support our graduates as they begin their careers. These relationships are the key to many successful projects where the skills and friendships that are established over the period of your study become recognised in professional practice.

Witi Ihimaera and Albert Wendt need no introduction as the foremost Maori and Pacific authors. They both currently have multiple book projects. The Parihaka Woman by Witi Ihimaera was recently published by Random House, while The Adventures of Vela by Albert Wendt won the Asia Pacific region Commonwealth Book Prize in 2010. They have mentored many students. Witi focuses on fiction writing, while Albert teaches in the Voices of Pacific Literature course.

In 2012 the School of Creative Writing welcomes fiction author and journalist Sue Orr who was the 2011 Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow, and who also has a background in speechwriting.

Robert Sullivan’s background is in poetry, children’s writing, and Pacific writing who once lead the long-established creative writing program at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.