Masters Degrees (Book)

The Master of Fine Arts in the Book Arts Program began in 1985, and emphasizes the art and craft of making books by hand. We are located in the College of Communication and Information Sciences, School of Library and Information Studies, at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa; a verdant, traditional campus located on the banks of the mighty Black Warrior River.

Visit the website https://bookarts.ua.edu/

The program leading to the M.F.A. in the Book Arts degree is a 60-credit hour course of study comprising four basic areas: printing/publishing, bookbinding, papermaking, and the history of the book. These areas do not work in isolation. Connections between them are made as often as possible. Our emphasis is on the book as an integrated unit, although there is opportunity for a student who wishes to pursue a specific interest in one or more of these areas after the initial general year of study. We are interested in developing craft skills based on historical principles and techniques, and the artistic expression that follows.

The M.F.A in the Book Arts Program develops book artists who have well-honed technical knowledge of the various facets of contemporary bookmaking, and who have an understanding of the historical evolution of the book including its materiality, and the role of the book in society. Courses explore the reconciliation of modern sensibilities with historic craft. It is to be remembered that the M.F.A. degree, and the 2.5-3 years leading to it, is a starting point in what is a lifelong process of acquiring skills and sensibilities in the art and craft of making books.

We accept up to eight new students each year. Our students are highly motivated, and come from various undergraduate backgrounds and work experiences. We have four graduate assistantships available yearly, on a competitive basis, plus three Windgate Fellowships.

The general goal for the M.F.A. program is to develop professional artisans who are technically proficient in the book arts and cognizant of the historical background in which these various crafts evolved and of the professional environment in which our graduates will work. To reach this goal, the school has created the following two specific goals and enabling objectives.

1. To provide students with an education that inculcates craft skills required for proficiency in the book arts, and that develops a sound foundation for the aesthetics and methodology of these arts:

a. Provide each student with fundamental technical skills in each of the crafts comprised by the book arts

b. Ready each student to apply these skills and techniques in the marketplace

c. Provide advanced technical skills in each student’s area of professional specialization

d. Create in each student a desire to acquire and upgrade skills beyond the formal program

e. Provide and reinforce in each student an appreciation for the aesthetics of the crafts

f. Facilitate the choice by the end of the first semester of an initial professional specialization in either printing or binding

g. Maintain a faculty whose members are recognized leaders in their fields

2. To enhance the professional status of artisans engaged in the book arts:

a. Acquaint students with the heritage, responsibilities, trends, and standards of the profession

b. Instill in students a concept of the interrelationship of the book arts

c. Enlist faculty to assist the book arts community by helping to establish standards, by supporting professional organizations, by offering continuing educational opportunities, and by serving as consultants and lecturers

d. Encourage faculty to publish and exhibit original works whenever appropriate

e. Encourage faculty to conduct research and disseminate findings to practitioners and teachers in the book arts community

Applicants are required to submit either the general portion of the Graduate Record Examination or the Miller Analogies Test in support of the application for admission. Ideally, prospective students should submit a portfolio of their work (in their area of experience), and if at all possible be interviewed by the book arts faculty. For detailed information about the application process please see the Graduate School website (http://graduate.ua.edu/).

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MLitt in The Book. History and Techniques of Analysis

• Develop a deep understanding of key issues and methods in book history c.1445-1870.

• Become familiar with the invention, development, spread, and transformation of printing in the period concerned.

• Explore important aspects of book history, such as the economics of the book trade, the social and religious context of printed books, news and censorship, the development of the illustrated book, the relationship between books and the Enlightenment, the industrialisation of print, and the history of libraries and book collecting.

• Acquire the technical skills required for rare book curatorship (teaching involves the Special Collections department): bibliography, paper, format, type, provenance, bindings, fingerprints, technical description, cataloguing, research tools and methods.

• Undertake skills training in palaeography and either Latin or a modern foreign language.

• Study as part of active book history research community with the Universal Short Title Catalogue, Department of Special Collections, Book History Online, the St Andrews Book History Conference series.

Features

* With around 50 staff, we can offer an unusually broad and varied portfolio of research expertise.

* We have a friendly and collegial atmosphere, in which our postgraduates are actively involved. Social events run throughout the year, starting with a Welcome Reception, and including parties organised by the different Departments, Centres and Institutes.

* Our large postgraduate community includes around 90 research postgraduates and a further 50 taught postgraduates.

* We have a strong commitment to providing skills training to enhance the employability of our postgraduates.

* We are committed to the provision of language training throughout the degree; we also offer up to six language bursaries to incoming postgraduates wishing to develop skills essential to their research.

Postgraduate community

The University of St Andrews is one of the world’s Top 40 Arts and Humanities universities (Times Higher Education 2015) and home to a major centre for postgraduate historical study. Building on excellence in individual research, the School has expertise across the Mediaeval, Early Modern and Modern periods, and a wide geographical coverage. Our research interests range from sixth-century Scotland to Iran in the early twenty-first century (and innumerable other places in between). We have particular strengths in Middle Eastern, Transnational, British, Continental European and US History; as well as groupings focused on Reformation Studies, Environmental History, and Intellectual History. As befits Scotland’s oldest university, the School is also a leading centre of Scottish
historical research.
The School of History occupies three sites in the heart of the historic town of St Andrews. All are within a few minutes’ walk of each other, and of the University Library:
• On tree-lined South Street and close to the ruins of the Cathedral, most Mediaevalists and Reformation Studies colleagues are based in a charming seventeenth-century town house and the adjoining mediaeval residence of the Hospitallers.

• St Katharine’s Lodge is a nineteenth-century former school (attended by Field Marshal Earl Haig) close to St Andrews Castle and the magnificent West Sands beach.

• Middle Eastern History is in the Arts Building, which opened in 2008, with elegant new teaching and work spaces.

Facilities

• The University Library provides extensive collections for use in historical study, including an outstanding Special Collections facility, and continues to make substantial investment in materials, including electronic resources, each year.

• Computer facilities are also readily available within workspaces and University clusters.

• A scheme of competitive scholarships and bursaries is in place to support selected postgraduates financially.

• Language bursaries are available (through a competitive scheme) to enable students new to St Andrews to gain language skills in the summer before starting their postgraduate study.

• All History postgraduates at St Andrews receive financial assistance annually from the School of History specifically to subsidise research expenses.

• Postgraduate students can apply for material support for the organisation of conferences and seminars; this has led in the past to successful events and subsequent publication.

• Social events run throughout the year including the Welcome Reception, a Christmas Party and a Champagne Brunch at graduation. Students may also attend annual Reading Parties and enjoy the opportunity to meet visiting speakers over dinner after research seminars.

Careers

Following a taught postgraduate course in History at the University of St Andrews, students go on to pursue careers in a range of sectors including journalism, publishing, think tanks, government, law, and teaching. Others continue in academia, moving on to a PhD.

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The University of London’s postgraduate degree in the History of the Book was inaugurated in 1995 and each year attracts a range of students from many countries. The University’s location in the centre of London, with its unrivalled resources for all aspects of book history within easy reach, together with the expertise that exists in its many colleges and institutes, makes it an ideal place in which to carry out research of an interdisciplinary nature. The history of the book has developed rapidly over the last 40 years as its power to clarify problems in many other disciplines has become evident. Scholars have come to see the study of the book as an aid to understanding literary and other texts and, more recently, as a way of understanding broader social, cultural, and intellectual processes in history.

The programme aims to:

Give students a broad understanding of book history from c. 3000 BCE to 2000 CE

Introduce students to the range of disciplines that make up the subject, including historical bibliography, palaeography, codicology, history of printing, bibliometrics, history of publishing, history of reading, and library history

Provide frequent opportunities to handle archaeological and historical objects relating to the subject

Give students the ability and confidence to deal with primary sources for book history (both manuscript and printed)

In addition, the MRes will:

Provide selected students with a foundation of three appropriately specialised taught courses (60 points in all), which will equip them to undertake a more extensive programme of master’s level research than that offered by the MA

Provide the opportunity for able students to write an extended dissertation (30,000 words) on a subject that requires treatment at a much greater length and depth than the usual MA topic

Offer students a degree programme that satisfies the needs of those who wish to undertake more extensive research or go on to do an MPhil or PhD

Structure

The MA consists of a series of six taught courses (including two core courses) plus a dissertation of 15,000 words.

The MRes consists of a series of three taught courses and a 30,000 word dissertation.

Students may also choose courses from the London Rare Books School programme under the guidance of the Course Director and Course Tutor.

London Book Trade Internship

Students have the option to substitute one of the modules with an internship at a London bookselling firm. The internships offer a key opportunity for students to experience life in a bookselling firm, to undertake projects for the company (everything from stocktaking to cataloguing to running a book stall at a fair), and to make connections in the book trade. In the past, students have been placed in Maggs Bros., Jarndyce Booksellers, Robert Frew Ltd., and Ash Rare Books.

Teaching and Supervision

Teachers are recognised experts drawn from the Institute, the British Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Lambeth Palace Library, and other institutions, at which some of the teaching takes place.

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The MA Children’s Book Illustration course is aimed at both professional practitioners wishing to pursue a sustained period of time developing new ideas or recent graduates wishing to focus their studies and refine ideas at an advanced level. The course will also consider students from non-traditional illustration backgrounds, such as fine artists, graphic and Internet designers and animators, providing they can offer clearly articulated and informed reasons for wishing to study Children's Book Illustration at an advanced level.

The emphasis of the course is on the practice of illustration for children’s picture books and story books. At postgraduate level you will be encouraged to pursue a unique and personal line of enquiry within their chosen area of children’s book illustration and design.

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AND ASSESSMENT

Through the collective community, students have access to a wide range of staff expertise and extensive workshops and studio resources.

The course is supported by extensive computer, studio and workshop facilities located within the department and the University as a whole. There is also a programme of guest lecturers, company and consultancy visits as well as exhibitions and extra workshops.

Both the practical and theoretical elements will be assessed both during and at the end of each module. The final form of the assessment strategy and criteria is the result of collaboration between student and staff.

FURTHER INFORMATION

The MA in Children’s Book Illustration is aimed at practicing professional illustrators, artists and designers wishing to develop new ideas and techniques aimed at the children’s market, and at recent graduates who wish to focus and refine their ideas at a more advanced level

Understandably, Children’s Book Illustration is primarily a visual course; however authorial control over content is also hugely important in the children’s book field so the ability to write creatively and to fuse written and visual content is an important component in the practice of children’s book illustration. You will have the opportunity to collaborate with postgraduate students on the MA Writing for Children course.

At the end of the course you will have a body of work produced to a professional and publishable standard. This will culminate in a final project and public exhibition, and hopefully, although not exclusively, in professional publication.

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Introduction

MA Book Arts at Camberwell College of Arts focuses on debates concerning the cultural, creative and individual functions of the book. The course engages with aspects of the book such as sequence, poetry, structure and materials; encompassing printed multiples and sculptural one-offs.

Content

What students can expect from the course:

- To develop a project from proposal to final exhibition

- To research content, materials and technical skills, then produce written and practical work exploring a subject in relationship to contemporary practice

- To receive support and supervision throughout the course from specialist academic staff in workshops, individual tutorials, seminars and lectures

- To take part in staff and student-led seminars to help promote debate, and work-in-progress sessions that allow for supportive critique

- To develop research skills, professional practice and an understanding of the wider context of book arts as an area of fine art and design practice

- To take part in a shared lecture programme across the Visual Arts courses that draw upon the richness of research across Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon Colleges

- To get involved in artists book fairs and visiting special collections in London such as the Tate, John Latham’s Flat Time House and the National Art Library at the V&A Museum

- To explore the expanded book in a display or installation by showing work in public exhibitions

Structure

Unit One – Research, Development and Practice

Students will explore, experiment and research to further develop their Project Proposals. This unit introduces students to pathway specific issues and topics, research methodologies and techniques. It aims to orientate students and their practice within the course, and develop their contextual, critical and research skills at the onset of their MA learning.

Unit Two – Reflection and Presentation

Resolution and presentation of students' work according to their Project Proposal. A symposium will provide the opportunity to present their research and provide further peer feedback. Students' practice at this stage should synthesise their practical, conceptual and professional abilities and they will be expected to consider their future practice, audience and context of their work in contemporary practice.

The intention and context of students' work will inform their decisions they will take regarding a final exhibition. Students' will also be expected to work collaboratively with their peers to actively plan, organise and install an exhibition as part of their continued Personal and Professional Development.

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Follow in the footsteps of acclaimed children’s artists. Show your work to publishers at book fairs and exhibitions and get dedicated support from a team of internationally-recognised artists, who’ll help you to develop your own personal visual vocabulary and make connections with the children’s publishing industry.

Overview

This taught studio course, the first of its kind in the UK, will give you the dedicated support and knowledge you need to develop your practice in the art of children’s book illustration.

Within the broad guidelines of each module, you’ll propose and develop a project, with guidance from internationally recognised illustrators, writers and publishers of children's books. You’ll share and discuss your work with other students in group critiques, and attend lectures and seminars that will inform your studio practice.

Illustration at Anglia Ruskin is built on a tradition that goes back to the founding of the Cambridge School of Art in 1858. Our MA students work in dedicated illustration studios right next door to the Ruskin Gallery, with access to a fully equipped printmaking studio.

By studying with us, you’ll follow in the footsteps of alumni such as designer and war artist Edward Bawden, acclaimed graphic satirist Ronald Searle, and Roger Law and Peter Fluck, founders of the TV phenomenon Spitting Image.

Teaching times: currently either Mondays and Thursdays (9am-3pm) or Tuesdays and Fridays (9am-3pm). There are also lectures and presentations on Wednesdays from 3-5pm (full-time); Wednesdays 9am-5pm in semesters 1 and 2 (part-time)

Careers

Our partnership with Walker Books and its American counterpart Candlewick Press will give you the chance to go on a work experience visit to their London offices. They also sponsor our annual Sebastian Walker Award for Most Promising Student.

Many of our past students now enjoy careers as freelance authors and illustrators for children. Among our published graduates are Paula Metcalf, Marta Altés, Nadia Shireen, Birgitta Sif, Rebecca Patterson and Jo Empson.

You may decide to take your work to a deeper level with a research degree, like our PhD Children’s Book Illustration.

Modules

Core modules:
Observation and Experiment
The Sequential Image
The Diploma Project
The Diploma Review
Master's Project: Art and Design

Assessment

In your first three studio modules, you’ll show your progress through project work, worth 80% of your module grade, and an essay relating to the contextual study lectures, which is worth 20%.

Your Diploma Review thesis will be assessed 100% on your 6,000-8,000 word essay, while the Master’s Stage Project will be assessed 90% on your project work and 10% on your written report.

What you'll study

Cambridge School of Art has been inspiring creativity since 1858 when it was opened by John Ruskin.

Engaging with current debates surrounding contemporary practice and with the state-of-the-art facilities, Cambridge School of Art houses light, bright studios, industry-standard film and photographic facilities, and 150-year-old printing presses alongside dedicated Apple Mac suites. Our digital art gallery, the Ruskin Gallery, exhibits both traditional shows and multimedia presentations, from national and international touring exhibitions and our own students.

We are the only university in Cambridge offering art and design courses at higher education level. A tight-knit community of artists, academics and over 900 students, we collaborate across our University, the creative industries, and other sectors. Cambridge is a centre for employment in the creative industries and there are rich opportunities for collaboration with the city’s entertainment, technological, scientific, arts and heritage industries.

Our graduates have a history of winning national and international awards and an excellent employment record. They include Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett and Dave Gilmour, Spitting Image creators Peter Fluck and Roger Law, and illustrator Ronald Searle, the creator of St Trinian's.

We’re part of the Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences, a hub of creative and cultural innovation whose groundbreaking research has real social impact.

Field trips

At our annual London graduation exhibition you’ll show your work to leading publishing companies and literary agencies. We also organise a stand at Bologna Children's Book Fair each year, where you’ll have more opportunities to secure a publishing deal with industry reps. As a direct result, our past students have signed contracts with publishers including Macmillan, Random House, Nosy Crow, Sarbacane (Fr), Donizelli (It), Child's Play, Walker Books, HarperCollins (NY), Doubleday (NY), Penguin (NY), Faber & Faber and Hodder. Advances against royalties have ranged from €2,000 with an independent publisher, to $50,000 for a three-book deal.

Work experience

Our partnership with Walker Books and its American counterpart Candlewick Press will give you the chance to go on a work experience visit to their London offices. They also sponsor our annual Sebastian Walker Award for Most Promising Student.

Specialist facilities

You’ll work in dedicated illustration studios right next door to our Ruskin Gallery, with access to a fully-equipped printmaking studio.

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The Publishing - Book, Magazine and Electronic program is one of the most prestigious programs of its kind in Canada. Through hands-on education, it prepares you for employment in a wide variety of areas in the publishing industry.

Established in 1974, this unique and award-winning Publishing program has earned several accolades for academic excellence and for the career success of its graduates.

In this School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design program, you learn to:
-Be an integral part of the team that helps to shape the evolution of Canada's cultural and literary landscape
-Publish e-books
-Help build the careers of the next generation of writers in the publishing industry
-Take part in publishing the bi-yearly On the Danforth magazine

Your experience in the Publishing program is rounded out by an industry field placement at a book or magazine publisher in Toronto. During this time, you acquire critical working experience, industry knowledge and professional relationships as you initiate your new career.

A career in book, magazine or online publishing promises a world of innovation, stories and culture that integrates your creative, marketing and business skills.

Career Opportunities

Companies that have hired program graduates include: Penguin, Random House Canada, Pearson Education, Toronto Life, Nelson Educational Publishing, Chatelaine, Canadian Living, Style at Home, Hockey News, Cycle magazine, Harper-Collins Canada, ECW, House of Anansi, Firefly Books, Outpost Magazine, Cottage Life, McClelland & Stewart, McGraw-Hill Ryerson and Profit.

Program Highlights
-The two-semester accelerated format covers all facets of the publishing process, including e-books and online magazines.
-You complete a six-week field placement in the industry.
-The graduate certificate that is earned reflects a high standard of learning.

Career Outlook
-Editorial assistant
-Marketing coordinator
-Social media assistant
-Web editor
-Web developer
-Sales coordinator
-Publicist
-Copy editor
-Design and layout artist
-Fact checker
-Digital marketer
-Advertising sales representative

Areas of Employment
-Trade and educational book publishing
-Consumer and business-to-business magazines
-Online publications

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Programme description

Book History is a dynamic and rapidly growing area of interdisciplinary study that examines the book as an artefact in material culture. This programme brings together theory and practice in new and innovative ways. We study the production, circulation and reception of books from manuscript to e-books, paying attention to the histories of reading and authorship.

The programme integrates traditional bibliography, advanced theoretical approaches, training in special collections, and hands-on experience. You will be taught by leading experts at the University’s renowned Centre for the History of the Book. Field trips and work placements will allow you to take advantage of the exceptional collections in Edinburgh.

The programme attracts outstanding students from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds. The degree is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.

Programme structure

You will complete two core and two option courses, along with training in research methods. You will then complete a supervised, independently-researched dissertation on a topic of your choice.

Compulsory courses:

• Cultures of the Book
• Working with Collections

Option courses may include:

• Critical Theory: Issues and Debates
• Shakespeare's Sister: Archival Research and the Politics of the Canon
• Sex and God in Victorian Poetry
• Exploring the Novel
• Censorship

Work placement/internship opportunities

Work placements allow students to take advantage of the exceptional resources in Edinburgh for the study of books in order to gain hands-on experience that will be beneficial in their future careers.

Placements may take place internally, for example in the Centre for Research Collections at the University Library, or externally with several partner organisations.

You will receive training from the placement supervisor, and will undertake well-defined projects in the course of your placement, such as cataloguing, conservation, collation, digitisation and other kinds of work.

You will reflect on your placement in a poster presentation, and it will provide material for an academic essay. Regular academic oversight of the work placement will be provided by the Course Organiser.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the programme, you will have a firm grasp of:

• the extensive range of media forms and technologies, from manuscript to electronic text
• the issues surrounding conservation, cataloguing, digitisation, and the display and management of collections
• advanced archival research methodologies in manuscript and print

Career opportunities

This programme will equip you with the detailed knowledge and research skills you need to progress to a research degree and continue a career in academia; or you may pursue a career in publishing, libraries, and the cultural heritage sector. You will graduate with a number of highly transferable skills in communication, project management and analysis that will give you an advantage, whatever your chosen career.

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This course will help you to bring a novel, book of poems, book of short stories or work of non-fiction as near to publishable quality as possible. Working with tutors and other writers on the course, you’ll develop your writing and build up a substantial body of work. Weekly workshops are taught by a strong team of published writers, and there are regular visits by literary agents, publishers, magazine editors and broadcasters, as well as other writers.

Due to the reputation of the MA in Creative Writing, we are able to recruit excellent students who form an exciting and mutually supportive community of writers every year.

COURSE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT

The course is modular and is currently offered for full-time study only.

You’ll learn:

• To plan a manuscript (a novel, collection of short stories, collection of poems or book of literary non-fiction) and complete it, or a substantial part of it, brought to publishable quality or as near as possible.

• To understand literary form, style and genre, as relevant to your chosen form of writing

• To acquire a variety of relevant writing techniques, and research techniques to support writing, and adapt them to your particular creative project.

• To understand and respond creatively to questions arising from the subject-matter, themes, genres, traditions and other literary contexts with which your chosen manuscript is engaged.

• To receive and give precise and sensitive critical feedback in workshop groups and one-to-one tutorials.

• To respond creatively to feedback provided by tutors and other students, adapting that feedback to your particular vision of your book.

• To understand choices and opportunities relevant to your chosen manuscript, including questions of how to place your work, and the role of agents, publishers and editors.

MODULES

Each student will take two workshop modules, two context modules and a double module entitled 'The Manuscript':

In the first trimester ‘Professional Skills’ provides intensive group discussion and some plenary lectures. You’ll bring short pieces of writing to workshop groups consisting of a tutor and not more than seven other students. There are separate groups for prose and poetry. You’ll submit a manuscript proposal halfway through the module.

In trimester two, you’ll take a second workshop module in either prose or poetry.

Each context module explores connections between your creative writing and the wider world as represented by a theme or genre. Seminars are divided between considering set texts and workshopping your creative writing. You’ll take a context module in trimester one and another in trimester two.

In trimester three, ‘The Manuscript’ will be taught by means of one-to-one tutorials. This is the culmination of the course – the book, or substantial part of a book.

For more information on course structure and modules please go to: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/pg-creative-writing/

TEACHING METHODS

You’ll be taught in group workshops and seminars, one-to-one tutorials, plenary lectures and a residential weekend.

TUTORS

The teaching team in 2015-16 included the novelists Ian Breckon, Nathan Filer, Maggie Gee, Tessa Hadley, Samantha Harvey, Philip Hensher, Beatrice Hitchman,Tricia Wastvedt, Fay Weldon and Gerard Woodward, the poets Tim Liardet, Lucy English, Neil Rollinson and Sean Borodale, the historical novelists Celia Brayfield and Kylie Fitzpatrick, the nature writer and memoirist Richard Kerridge, the nature writer Stephen Moss, the travel writer Joe Roberts and the literary memoirist Gavin Cologne-Brookes.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

You’ll be assessed entirely by coursework: mainly creative writing, plus two short essays, a manuscript proposal and a short commentary on the manuscript in progress.

For more information on assessment please see the course handbook: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/media/bathspaacuk/course-handbooks/course-handbooks/PG-Creative-Writing-Handbook-2016-17.pdf

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Current or former students have been awarded excellent contracts for novels; been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, Orange Prize, Costa Prize and the Guardian First Book Award; received the Betty Trask Prize, Manchester Book Award and a W.H. Smith New Talent Award, and reached the best-seller lists.

ALLUMNI SUCCESS

In recent years, several current or former students have been awarded excellent contracts for novels; Two were long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, three for the Orange Prize, one for the Costa Prize and one for the Guardian First Book Award. One received the Betty Trask Prize; another the Manchester Book Award; another a W.H. Smith New Talent Award. One reached the best-seller lists. Student poets have had their poetry accepted for publication in numerous literary journals, including Ambit, Magma, London Magazine, Poetry Wales, PN Review and The Reader, among others, and have been placed in such competitions as the Bridport, the Frogmore, Mslexia, and Writers Inc. Janklow and Nesbit Ltd, a leading literary agency, awards an annual prize for the best novel or novel in progress by a student on the course.

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Design and carry out your own visual projects, exploring the relationships between word and image, as you prepare for a career as a visual artist in a growing creative industry.

Overview

Whatever your artistic background, our Master's course will develop your visual practice in areas that are important for illustrators and book artists, such as visual sequencing and visual text. It will challenge you to cross the divide between fine art and applied art found on many undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, making it a unique course for the UK.

Studying in our purpose-built studios at Cambridge School of Art, much of your work will be practice-based. You’ll propose and undertake self-directed projects, attending group critiques and tutorials that will help you develop your creative skills.

You'll also attend a series of integrated lectures and seminars. These serve two purposes. You’ll explore aspects of illustration and book art, such as the relationships between word and image, narratology and visual language. And you'll receive guidance on research methods and critical writing - which you'll put to immediate use on the course, as well as in your future career.

Throughout the course, you’ll collaborate and discuss your work with staff, visiting professionals and fellow students, giving you an invaluable opportunity to see how others respond to it. All of our teaching team are practising artists, so you’ll hear about the latest news and issues in the industry, and have access to sound careers advice.

Teaching times: 9am-5pm Tuesdays and Wednesdays (full-time); 9am-5pm Wednesdays in Year 1, Tuesdays in Year 2 (part-time).

Careers

Our course will prepare you for a career as a freelance illustrator or freelance book artist. In recent years these roles have been increasingly in demand thanks to the growth of interest in artists' books, graphic novels, self-publishing, e-books and an awareness of small, batch publishing. You’ll also gain skills that will be useful in many other fields, such as bookbinding or teaching. You might even find a way to combine it with your current career, as did Dr Katy Shorttle, whose artwork on health issues was recently featured by The Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/gallery/2015/sep/25/ebola-mumps-old-age-inspire-doctors-artwork-in-pictures).

Modules

Process and Practice as Research
Visual Text
Sequence and Series
Master's Dissertation Art and Design
Master's Project: Art and Design

Assessment

You’ll show your progress through your self-directed visual projects, which will include written project proposals, developmental and final visual work, and a reflective commentary. On the Master's Dissertation module, you’ll submit a 6,000-word essay. Finally, the Master's Project will allow you to build on all previous modules to design a visual project which shows mastery of your subject.

Specialist facilities

You’ll work in purpose-built art and design studios, with open access to our printmaking, bookbinding, letterpress and laser cutting facilities, and training from dedicated technicians. We also have many digital imaging resources that you’ll be able to use, including Macs, scanners, and A3/large-format printers, as well as photography darkrooms, animation and moving image studios and 3D workshops. Our University’s Media Services Unit stocks photographic and recording equipment that you can borrow.

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• Practical design for printed books and ebooks, delivered by practising designers through projects and assignments
• Theory and history, taught through a variety of lectures, seminars and workshops
• Access to the University’s special collections, ensuring a truly hands-on experience
• Close to resources, including historic libraries in Oxford and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London

What will you study?

Sample modules:

• Book design: practice (design projects)
• Book design: core (seminars and essays)
• Dissertation

Please note that all modules are subject to change. Please see our modules disclaimer for more information.

What career can you have?

Our graduates have an excellent employment record. Many take up positions in type design studios, with publishers and general design studios, and wayfinding and information design studios. Others develop their own businesses, or take up managerial roles in creative firms. Employers include Apple, Monotype, Microsoft Typography, Victoria & Albert Museum, Oxford University Press, Financial Times and Nokia.

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Taught by practitioners with extensive experience in children’s books, graphic novels and illustrated stories and utilising an impressive list of specialists from all areas of publishing, the course is divided into three terms (if studied full time).

Each module is designed to be flexible, allowing you to bring your own specific interests to the course work while developing and expanding your visual language and understanding of the requirements and demands of successfully seeing through the activity of writing, illustrating and preparing a text for publication. Additional time will be spent looking at the available avenues and opportunities for publishing, including co-editions, book fairs (a dominant and crucial factor in successful publishing), self-publishing and the international publishing market.

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This specialist creative writing MA is designed for writers for children, teenagers and young adults who aim to complete a novel, series of picture books or shorter stories for young children. It is a practical course, taught by experienced lecturers who are all published children's writers and/or industry professionals.

The course is for writers for children of all ages, from the picture-book age through to young adult (YA). Prose fiction is likely to be the main area studied, but students will have the chance to look at writing in all forms, including poetry, picture book texts and narrative non-fiction for young people.

COURSE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT

The course supports you to create a significant body of writing, with practical plans for its place in the real world of publishing. It is based on the principle that most writers learn and benefit from working closely with their fellow writers, in a disciplined supportive setting, and with tutors who are practising and published writers in their field. Most of our students aim to complete a novel by the end of the MA.

The writing workshop is at the heart of the course. What you’ll do with tutors and your fellow writers in a workshop situation is learn to see your work through objective eyes and to think clearly about the different strategies you might adopt. You learn from each other’s mistakes and successes as well as your own. You will be urged to try things out, take risks and experiment, and reflect on and discuss the writing process. The context modules help you to see your own writing in the wider context of published children’s writing. The course encourages you to read widely and analytically.

MODULES

In the first trimester’s writing workshop you’ll explore a variety of forms of writing, gaining a sense of different age ranges and styles of writing and experimenting with your own writing. The context module is Writing for Young People: Forms, Ages and Stages and it is concerned with the writer’s relationship with their audience, and will help you understand some of the issues raised by writing for young people.

In the second trimester, you'll be asked to choose your area of writing and use the workshop’s feedback and encouragement to explore it in more depth. You will bring short excerpts from your work-in-progress for discussion and feedback in the group. You may continue to experiment with different ideas for other stories.The second trimester's Context Module is Contemporary Children's Publishing, which aims to give a realistic grasp of the choices open to new writers in the field.

In the third trimester, you'll continue to write your work-in-progress, developing a manuscript as near to publishable quality as possible. The manuscript may be a novel, picture book texts, or a collection of stories or poems.

For more information on module and course structure please go to our website: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/pg-writing-for-young-people/

TEACHING METHODS

Modules are normally taught via tutor-led writing workshops, with one three-hour session each week for the eleven weeks of each taught trimester, at the Corsham Court campus. We aim to keep the writing workshops small – usually no more than eight students – so that there is sufficient time, support and attention for each person’s work.

ASSESSMENT

The assessed coursework for each Writing Workshop is a folder of creative writing plus a short reflective commentary. The manuscript is 35,000-40,000 words, or the equivalent in poetry or picture book texts.

TUTORS

This course is taught by publishing writers and depending on timetables will include:

• Julia Green: her novels for young adults include Blue Moon, Baby Blue and Hunter’s Heart (Puffin), Breathing Underwater, Drawing with Light and Bringing the Summer (Bloomsbury)and her most recent novel for younger children is Tilly’s Moonlight Fox (Oxford University Press).
• Lucy Chrisopher: prize winning author of Stolen and The Killing Woods for YA readers, and Flyaway for younger teens ( Chicken House).
• Steve Voake: his novels include The Dreamwalker's Child, The Web of Fire, The Starlight Conspiracy, Blood Hunters, Fight Back and Dark Woods (Faber & Faber), plus his Daisy Dawson and Hooey Higgins series for younger readers (Walker Books).

For the full list of our fantastic staff and tutors please visit our website: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/pg-writing-for-young-people/

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Graduates have achieved publication deals with a range of different mainstream and smaller publishers, and many more students have secured literary agents. Other students have subsequently taught Creative Writing at university level. Some have combined their writing with subsequent careers in journalism, teaching, publishing, television etc.

ALLUMNI SUCCESS

More than 30 graduates of this MA have achieved publication deals since the course began in 2004, with more novels due to be published in 2016-2017. Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls won the Waterstones Children’s Book of the Year Award and the Glen Dimplex New Writers Award in 2008. Marie-Louise Jensen and Elen Caldecott were shortlisted for the 2009 Waterstones Prize. Elen Caldecott, Clare Furniss, Gill Lewis and Jim Carrington have been long-listed for the Carnegie award. Sally Nicholls was short-listed for the Guardian children’s book prize and won the Independent Booksellers’ award in 2015 for her novel An Island of Our Own. David Hofmeyr was short-listed for the Branford Boase award 2016 for his novel Stone Rider.

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Train to become a publisher at a centre of publishing excellence. Our intensive, practical course works with industry and will open doors for you.

We provide the specialist training and experience you need to succeed in the fast-paced, vibrant world of publishing.

Our intensive, industry focused publishing programme is the ‘standard bearer for publishing education in the UK’ (Source: Professional Publishers Association).

Our focus is vocational, providing you with the industry-specific and research skills demanded by employers, the invaluable contacts that will open doors, and a placement that will provide you with crucial experience.

See the website http://www.napier.ac.uk/en/Courses/MSc-Publishing-Postgraduate-FullTime

What you'll learn

MSc Publishing works closely with the Professional Publishers Association (PPA), and was recently awarded the prestigious Creative Skillset Tick. Edinburgh Napier is the only University to have doubly accredited postgraduate Publishing provision.

Our programme works with industry and will open doors for you. Our team has strong relationships with thought leaders across industry, commerce and academia which helps to ensure you are at the forefront of the latest thinking, processes and technology. The expansion of digital media has created a need for highly specialised skills in publishing. This course will give you the specialist training and experience demanded by publishing employers. You’ll develop skills in critical thinking and problem solving, and will graduate with an excellent understanding of the industry in an international context.

You will become familiar with every aspect of the publishing process, meet industry professionals and attend prestigious events such as the London International Book Fair, the Edinburgh International Book Festival and Magfest. You’ll have further opportunities to meet with industry professionals and make valuable contacts at UNESCO Literary Salons, book launches, author readings and literary events.

We are also linked with the internationally renowned Scottish Centre for the Book based at Edinburgh Napier University.

Modules

• Publishing in context
• Publishing in practice: From Concept to Creation
• Creative toolkit
• Publishing placement and professional development
• Publishing in practice: From Creation to Consumer
• Dissertation

Plus one option from
• New venture creation
• Fiction and the Fiction Market
• Interactive media
• Magazine publishing

Study modules mentioned above are indicative only. Some changes may occur between now and the time that you study.

Careers

We have a strong record of placing graduates in relevant employment because we provide you with the most up-to-date skills required by a rapidly advancing industry.

You will be prepared for work in areas including book and magazine publishing (editing, design, production, sales or marketing); journal publishing; consumer and corporate publishing; online and digital publishing; or as a publishing entrepreneur.

A work placement module is offered on this course. Your work placement and subsequent employment could be in:

Career opportunities:
• book, magazine or journal publishing (editing, design, production, sales or marketing)
• consumer and corporate publishing
• online and digital publishing
• publishing entrepreneur

How to apply

http://www.napier.ac.uk/study-with-us/postgraduate/how-to-apply

SAAS Funding

Nothing should get in the way of furthering your education. Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) awards funding for postgraduate courses, and could provide the help you need to continue your studies. Find out more: http://www.napier.ac.uk/study-with-us/postgraduate/fees-and-funding/saas-funded-courses

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The UK’s only dedicated degree in narrative non-fiction writing.

Who is it for?

This master’s programme is designed for those with an ambition to write within the range of non-fiction genres. Running over two years, it attracts students from a wide variety of backgrounds and ages, all of whom work closely within workshop and tutorial settings to produce a publishable work. The unifying factor for all writers on the programme is their intention to deliver their research or story through a narrative structure.

Objectives

Our definition of narrative non-fiction includes biography, travel, history, life writing, true crime, sports and other forms of sustained and structured non-fiction storytelling. The Creative Writing (Non-Fiction) MA provides you with essential skills and a supportive and challenging environment in which to write a full-length work of narrative non-fiction. You will develop your research skills, experiment with different writing styles, reflect on your own and other writer’s work and learn the essentials of the publishing industry.

Teaching and learning

The teaching, all by published authors, across the two years is front-end loaded in terms 1 and 2 with workshops, with workshops, lectures and seminars held two days a week. Here you will extend your writing skills, your understanding of non-fiction genres and your awareness of creative possibilities. You will also analyse the work of leading writers and explore writing through a variety of exercises, encouraging you to experiment with new approaches.

All workshops are based around the students’ own writing assignments which work towards the completion, or opening chapters, of a book. We also closely analyse published works of non-fiction, taking apart books to examine their style, structure and research methods.

Throughout the two years there are readings and workshops with visiting authors. In terms 3, 4, 5 and 6 you work principally on your own book project with the support of one-to-one tutorials.

In term 6 (the final term) the lectures and guest sessions focus on the publishing industry which will provide you with the knowledge to be placed with a literary agent. During the final term you will have the opportunity to read from your work in progress, to contribute to anthology of writing and to submit a full draft of your book.

Modules

Term 1
-CWM 959 The Fundamentals of Non-fiction (core)
-CWM 958 Literary Criticism (core)
-CWM935 Storytelling (core)
-CWM956 Complete Book (core)

Term 2
-CWM957 The Process of Writing (core)
-CWM 958 Literary Criticism (core)
-CWM935 Storytelling (core)
-CWM956 Complete Book (core)

Terms 3,4,5 and 6
-CWM956 Complete Book

Career prospects

The MA creative writing non-fiction is proud of its track record in publishing with students from the programme winning publishing contracts every year.

Graduates include:
-Peter Moore, The Weather Experiment (Chatto and Windus),
-Anne Putnam, Navel Gazing (Faber and Faber)
-Bridge O’Donnell, Inspector Minahan Makes a Stand (Picador).

Graduates have also gone on to work for media outlets and used their transferrable skills in a variety of professions including teaching, political campaigning and in the charity sector.

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