MA students excel in 2012 Threshold International Feature Writing Competition

A current MA Creative Writing student and a recent graduate have won recognition in the 2012 Thresholds International Feature Writing Competition. Graduate Ever Dundas is among ten shortlisted entrants for her essay, Lick My Words: Angela Carter's 'The Erl King'. Current student Sean Martin was among 15 highly commended entrants for his essay, Breece D'J Pancake - A Short Life in the Hills.

The contest challenged writers to explore a single short story, a story collection or profile a short story writer. It attracted entries from around the world, making the fact that two of the top 25 came from Edinburgh Napier's MA Creative Writing course all the more remarkable. The overall winner will be announced on April 25th - we have our fingers crossed for Ever.

This is far from being the first success for either writer. Earlier this month Ever won the enLIGHTen photographic competition, and her short story Connect was a runner-up in the 2010 Edinburgh University science fiction competition. Last year Sean won the 2011 Wigtown Poetry Competition, an accomplishment for which Edinburgh Napier can take little credit - poetry is not an option on our Creative Writing MA!

Our MA Creative Writing students on the BBC

Students at Edinburgh Napier's MA Creative Writing course appeared on the BBC TV show Politics Scotland today [April 1st], taking part in a unique experiment. Historians have discovered that a spring said to grant enhanced creative abilities is piped into one particular area of the Scottish capital.

Bruntsfield and Morningside - also known by the postcode EH10 - are home to several international bestselling authors including Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith and [until a few years ago] JK Rowling. The area is also home to the Craighouse campus where our Creative Writing MA is based.

Eight students and programme leader Sam Kelly were filmed for the experiment. If you're based in the UK, you can watch the results for the next week by clicking this link. Unfortunately, the clip isn't viewable from outside the UK, and will go offline in seven days. In the meantime, enjoy!

Three keys skills taught at Edinburgh Napier

Teaching is almost over for the third year of our MA Creative Writing course at Edinburgh Napier. The current full-time cohort and our second-year part-timers will soon be embarking on their major projects, while places are filling up fast for the new cohort due to arrive on September 27th.

After three years, a trinity of core skills have emerged as absolutely vital. Conquer these and your writing will be so much the better. We've even used the Keep-Calm-O-Matic website to create a poster naming them. Want to master this trinity? Apply - links are top right of this page.

The Full Nine Yards

Current MA Creative Writing student Catherine Simpson did not, alas, win the Mslexia Novel Writing Competition. But getting on the shortlist of twelve from hundreds of entries is no small feat, and earned her an invite to a networking event with agents and editors in London this summer.

Nine writers from the shortlist have formed a blogging collective called The Full Nine Yarns, with Catherine among them. Go here to read her first post and discover how long it takes to defrost a frozen human body. Yes, really.

Coming to America - Sam Kelly at AWP 2012

MA Creative Writing programme leader Sam Kelly is going to America next week for the 2012 AWP  conference. She will be representing our course and Edinburgh Napier University at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs' annual gathering, which this year is being held in Chicago.

Sam will be in the windy city from Wednesday February 28th until Sunday March 4th talking about our innovative MA in Creative Writing, its unique focus on genre fiction, and discussing how we've replaced the traditional workshop with a new and innovative approach to teaching.

Anyone attending the conference who wants to discover more about our acclaimed MA programme can email Sam now - s.kelly@napier.ac.uk - to arrange a chat while she's in Chicago. Find out why The Times newspaper in London called our course "a radical departure" in creative writing.

News about our course is spreading worldwide. In three years we've attracted students from the United States, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, Italy and Finland. Edinburgh Napier is taking applications for the 2012/13 academic year, and we've already offered places to four US students.

If you're not going to be at AWP in Chicago, you can find out more about our course by checking the links on the right hand side of this blog. If you want to apply, click either full-time or part-time, depending on which version of the course will best suit your needs as a student.

Prize-winning writers & editors visit Genre Fiction class

Genre fiction gets ignored or sneered at by most Creative Writing MAs - not Edinburgh Napier. Our course puts genre fiction at the heart of our teaching. In fact, there's an entire module devoted to it.

To make sure our students are up to date with latest developments in this field, we have guest speakers who specialise in writing, publishing and editing genre fiction.

Last week's class welcomed crime writer, agent and publisher Allan Guthrie, who won the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel Of The Year in 2007. This week we have Lee Harris, editor for the much-acclaimed Angry Robot Books line coming to talk science fiction and fantasy.

Next week anthology editor and Dead By Dawn film festival boss Adele Hartley is coming to talk horror with our students, completing our set of four major genres.

If genre fiction isn't your thing, we also offer specialist modules in writing for graphic novels, creative non-fiction and screenwriting. But poetry is not an option.

Edinburgh Napier student one of 12 shortlisted for Mslexia Women's Novel Competition

One of our current students has been shortlisted for the Mslexia 2011 Women's Novel Competition. Catherine Simpson is among a dozen writers in the running for a first prize of £5000, with the winner announced soon.

The competition was open to unpublished female novelists writing fiction in any genre for adults or young adults. The judging panel features Booker-nominated novelist Sarah Waters, literary agent Clare Alexander, and broadcaster Jenni Murray.

It's believed more than 1000 novels were entered, so reaching the top 12 is well worth celebrating. Getting shortlisted is another success for Catherine.

Her short story Mercy Boo Coo was among the winners of Family Legends, a competition run by BBC Radio Scotland and  Scottish Book Trust last year.

The story was published in an anthology called Family Legends. Catherine read Mercy Boo Coo aloud and was interviewed by BBC Radio Scotland's Culture Cafe in May. You can read Mercy Boo Coo here.