masters in creative writing ontario

18 Best universities for Creative Writing in Ontario

Updated: February 29, 2024

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Below is a list of best universities in Ontario ranked based on their research performance in Creative Writing. A graph of 112K citations received by 8.89K academic papers made by 18 universities in Ontario was used to calculate publications' ratings, which then were adjusted for release dates and added to final scores.

We don't distinguish between undergraduate and graduate programs nor do we adjust for current majors offered. You can find information about granted degrees on a university page but always double-check with the university website.

Please note that our approach to subject rankings is based on scientific outputs and heavily biased on art-related topics towards institutions with computer science research profiles.

1. University of Toronto

For Creative Writing

2. York University

3. Western University

4. Queen's University

5. University of Ottawa

6. McMaster University

7. University of Waterloo

8. Carleton University

9. Wilfrid Laurier University

10. Brock University

11. Ryerson University

12. University of Windsor

13. University of Guelph

14. Trent University

15. Laurentian University

16. Lakehead University

17. Nipissing University

18. Ontario Tech University

Closest to Ontario states to learn Creative Writing

Art & design subfields in ontario.

Creative Writing

Kingston Writer’s Fest 2023

Professor Angela Facundo poses with J.D. Derbyshire 

Scotiabank Giller Prize Event 2024

Collections of graduate student writing

Alumni Publications

Read about our Creative Writing alumni and their publications in our featured alumni section.

Poetry Reading

Creative Writing professor and esteemed creative writer, Armand Garnett Ruffo, giving a reading of his poetry

Lake Effect 10

Collections of undergraduate student writing

A Brief History of Creative Writing at Queen’s

Professor Carolyn Smart has nurtured young writing talent at Queen’s for over 20 years, while championing the creative arts throughout the Kingston community and beyond. During this time, she has mentored over 1,000 aspiring authors—many of whom have gone on to acclaimed writing careers—led countless writing workshops, and generated numerous opportunities for students to publish and present their writing on well-recognized platforms.

Professor Smart initiated and has edited each edition of the Lake Effect anthology as the capstone of our Creative Writing curriculum. Students in CWRI 496 participate in an intensive seminar on writing for publication, culminating in a class-produced anthology and public reading. Lake Effect 10 , published in 2021, marks the 20 th anniversary of the Lake Effect project.

The Writer in Residence program would not be possible without Professor Smart’s drive, along with the support of successive Heads of the Department. The Writer in Residence program welcomes a renowned writer to the Queen’s community each year to participate in a range of literary events and offer advice and mentorship to Creative Writing students.

In 2009, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Queen’s hosted Kingston novelist and poet Helen Humphreys as Writer in Residence. In 2021, the Department of English is proud to welcome Professor Humphreys as an instructor for CWRI 295.

Read more about Carolyn Smart’s powerful legacy at Queen’s in the Queen’s University Alumni Review .

Creative Writing at Queen’s Now and in the Future

The Creative Writing program continues to expand and has been woven into the heart of the English Department’s identity and mission. Esteemed Anishinaabe poet, screenwriter, critic, and creative non-fiction writer Armand Garnet Ruffo joined the program in 2013.

Today we offer a scaffolded Creative Writing curriculum that builds student skill in a variety of genres and mediums. We also offer hybrid Creative Writing courses with both critical and creative components. Furthermore, in-class learning opportunities are supplemented by special events like the:

• The Annual Page Lecture Event which brings a renowned Canadian writer to campus to reflect on literary craft,
• The Scotiabank Giller Prize Event ,
• one-on-one mentorship with a visiting Writer in Residence ,
• an annual series of readings with writers from across Canada.

Learn more about our Creative Writing events .

Additionaly, Creative Writing courses count toward all English Plans , but students do not have to be registered in an English Plan to take these courses. Because most of our creative writing courses take an intensive workshop approach, they are limited-enrolment courses. Admission to some courses is by permission of the department, based on an assessment of a portfolio of samples of creative work.

Exciting developments to the Creative Writing program include:

• Professor Juliane Okot Bitek author of 100 Days joins the department to teach and supervise in Creative Writing and Black Studies
• Writer in Residence Omar El Akkad wins the 2021 Giller Prize for his novel What Strange Paradise  
• The development of a unique learning opportunity for graduating undergraduate students, culminating in an annual student-run Scotiabank Giller Prize Event .
• The Annual Readers’ Series, which brings writers to campus throughout the year
• Expansions to the Writer in Residence program, including the Welcome Reading Event
• The 10 th publication of Lake Effect anthologies
• The publication of The Lamp journal’s 10 th volume

Featured Alumni

Iain Reid’s novel was:

• An international bestseller
• Adapted into a Netflix original film in 2020.
• Selected by National Public Radio as one of the best books of 2021
• A finalist in the 2016 Shirley Jackson Award and appeared on the 2017 Ottawa Independent Writers Frank Hegyi Award for Emerging Authors longlist

Did you know…

Iain Reid studied history and philosophy at Queen’s, but after taking a writing course with Queen’s English Professor Carolyn Smart, he decided to postpone grad school and move to Toronto for a year to give writing a shot.

Read more about Reid’s writing career in the Queen’s Alumni Review.

Liselle Sambury

Sambury works in the the marketing industry as a video content creator and has also signed a two-book deal for a science fiction series.

Sambury’s novel was the:

• Amazon Editor’s Pick Best Young Adult Books of June
• Kobo June 2021 Best of The Month (Young Adult)
• Indigo’s Most Anticipated Young Adult Books of 2021
• Indigo Teen Staff Pick of the Month for July

Carolyn Smart’s Advanced Creative Writing class was the first time Liselle Sambury, ArtSci ’13, had her work published.

Read more about Sambury’s Creative Writing journey and two-book series deal in the Queen’s Journal.  

Omar El Akkad

Omar El Akkad, former Creative Writing student with the Department of English at Queen’s University, is an acclaimed author and a journalist. We were proud to host Omar as our 2022  Writer in Residence .

“On a whim, Akkad applied to the Advanced Creative Writing course, ran by Professor Carolyn Smart. When Akkad logged into his student portal and discovered he had been admitted it was ‘the happiest day of my life.’”

Read the entire story on the Queen’s Alumni Review .

For me personally, and a lot of others in the class, it was the first time we had ever been published in a book.

Omar El Akkad’s first novel, American War , was:

• An International Bestseller
• Winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers’ Award, and the Oregon Book Award
• Selected as one of the best books of the year by the New York Times, The Washington Post, and many other publications
• Chosen by the BBC as one of 100 novels that changed our world

Omar El Akkad's second novel, What Strange Paradise , won the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Omar El Akkad published in the first ever Lake Effect anthology.

Read more about Akkad’s journey through Queen’s Creative Writing.

Anna Maxymiw

Maxymiw is an award-winning writer, with works published in The Globe and Mail , Hazlitt Magazine , Maclean’s , and The Washington Post .

Anna Maxymiw’s book was:

• Winner of the Louise de Kiriline Lawrence Award for Nonfiction

Carolyn was and is still the patron saint of undergrad writers.

Anna Maxymiw was a student in Carolyn Smart’s creative writing course at Queen’s University.

Read Anna Maxymiw’s full quote and other student testimonies.

Andrew Westoll

Andrew Westoll is an award-winning author and professor based in Toronto.

Andrew Westoll’s book was:

• A National Bestseller
• 2012 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction
• Finalist for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction
• A Globe and Mail “Book of the Year”
• An Amazon.ca “Book of the Year”

Westoll got his start in writing with the help of Carolyn Smart, a creative writing professor at Queen’s.

Andrew Westoll did not do a degree in English, and started his career as a writer through the Creative Writing courses at Queen’s.

Read more about Westoll’s writing journey with his award-winning book in the Queen’s Journal.

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• Publications

Department of English, Queen's University

Watson Hall 49 Bader Lane Kingston ON K7L 3N6 Canada

Undergraduate

Queen's University is situated on traditional Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe territory .

Program Information

Since September 2006, the University of Guelph has offered an exciting Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Program in Creative Writing, located in the University of Guelph-Humber building on the north campus of Humber College in Toronto. Our stellar faculty includes Catherine Bush , Carianne Leung , Canisia Lubrin , and Judith Thompson , and associated faculty Kevin Connolly , Kyo Maclear , and Michael Winter , among others. We offer workshops in the following genres: creative nonfiction, drama, fiction and poetry. Defining characteristics of the program include the innovative plenary courses “Writers on Writing” and “Writers in the World,” a semester-long mentorship with a professional writer, the participation of a wide range of well-established writers from Canada and abroad as associated faculty, mentors and visitors, and alliances with a variety of cultural organizations in the Toronto area. We emphasize reading as essential to the art of writing and promote the idea of an engaged writing practice. We offer students such pedagogical initiatives as the Parkdale Project, the opportunity to design and teach creative writing workshops in downtown Toronto schools. We attract a diverse student body and are proud of the trail-blazing publication and production accomplishments of our growing number of alumni. Through the program, we aim to offer students stimulating, challenging, and engaging ways to shape a writing life.

The Creative Writing MFA takes full advantage of its location in Toronto, an international literary and cultural centre. The program has been designed to provide students with a wide range of opportunities to interact with the community, and especially to connect students with well-established writers from across Canada and abroad as workshop instructors, mentors, and visitors. Our partnership with Harbourfront’s International Festival of Authors is a distinctive feature of the program. Through the IFOA we offer annual Master Classes with authors visiting the festival. We offer additional winter Master Classes and panels on such topics as structuring the novel, teaching writing, and writers and money. Our partnership with the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival offers MFA students annual reading spots at the Festival. We host a monthly program reading series, Speakeasy , in downtown Toronto. We also offer a teaching practicuum, the Parkdale Project : MFA students co-teach six once-a-week writing workshops to Grade Seven and Eight students at Parkdale Public School, or act as solo instructors for two high school level workshop sessions with Parkdale Collegiate students. We offer play reading opportunities for our playwriting students and intensive voice workshops to train students in how to read their work. Additional partnerships with the Humber School for Writers , Humber College , and Toronto theatres provide extraordinary extracurricular, volunteer, and work opportunities for our MFA students.

Program Design

Required courses include three intensive semester-long workshops, two plenary courses (“Writers on Writing” and “Writers in the World”), an individual study course, and a thesis.

Normally, students take one workshop and one plenary course in the first (fall) semester of study; one workshop, or two, in the second (winter) semester; the individual study course in the third (summer) semester; and the other plenary course and a final workshop, if necessary, in the fourth (fall) semester. The remaining two semesters of the two-year program are devoted to the thesis.

NOTE: With permission, MFA students may take one or two courses at the University of Guelph—e.g., MA courses in the School of English and Theatre Studies in which the student has a strong interest and the subject material feeds into work being done within the MFA program.  Normal course requirements for the MFA program may be modified to accommodate this.

About the Courses

(0.5 credits each).

We admit 12-13 students in each cohort. The average workshop size will be between 8 and 12 students.

Generally students take one and sometimes two workshops in their primary genre. Students are required to take at least one workshop outside their area of primary interest. The admissions process is used to identify areas of interest and to ensure a reasonable level of balance within the program.

In making workshop assignments to faculty, we try to ensure that a student working in the same genre twice will do so with different instructors. (The requirement that workshops be taken in at least two genres is important because sustained exposure to and practice in another genre may reveal or develop new creative strengths.)

The workshops are strongly focused on writing, but each also involves a substantial reading component. It is worth noting here that the most consistent and urgent advice given to new writers by established professionals is to read—widely, voraciously, and well. Through the reading component of the workshops, students learn to read as writers. They grow in an understanding of the writer’s craft; they will be able to discuss technique knowledgably and to incorporate insights gained from their reading into the writing they produce for the workshop.

A very important part of the workshops is the interaction between students and the responses they provide to one another’s work; attendance is therefore mandatory. Please note that these are intensive courses. The writing requirement of the workshops is substantial, as is the workload overall. 

Plenary Courses

Plenary courses meet once a week. Student presentations on selected readings make up a significant part of the course.  Student participation is paramount.  There will also be written assignments.  

1) WRITERS ON WRITING

This plenary course allows students to acquaint themselves with and vigorously debate the varied ways in which writers describe their art and practice, and includes readings from such writers as Italo Calvino, Anne Carson, Sheila Heti, Dennis Lee, Harold Pinter, and David Shields, among others. We will examine how writers understand and describe their creative processes, techniques, and aims, and engage with a range of subjects including the competing roles of experience and imagination, the place of theft and influence in creativity, the usefulness of the idea of perfection, questions of representation, including the nature of realism, and the use of formal structures in poetry and prose.

2) WRITERS IN THE WORLD

This plenary course involves students in significant, often highly contentious debates on the role of writing in the world—debates that form a context within which the solitary writer creates his or her own imaginative worlds. Issues to be considered include varying conceptions of the writer’s role and responsibilities, the idea of a national literature, the way value is assigned to a work of literature, transgression in writing, the changing copyright climate, and the impact of the internet on writers’ professional lives. Work by writers including Chinua Achebe, Margaret Atwood, Dionne Brand, J.M. Coetzee, Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie among others will be examined.

Individual Study Course Mentorship Semester 

(0.5 credits).

Great care will be taken to achieve a good match between student and mentor. The mentorship is designed to accommodate the variable learning needs of individual students.  The design and schedule of the individual study course will be arrived at through consultation between the Coordinator, the student, and the mentor. Students work closely with their mentors and have regular contact with them through whatever combination of face-to-face meeting, telephone, mail, e-mail, and/or Skype consultation works best for the individuals concerned. 

(CREDITS ARE NOT ASSIGNED)

Each student will have a thesis advisor and a two-person advisory committee made up of the advisor and one additional faculty member. When it has been determined by the advisory committee that the thesis is ready for examination, the thesis will be evaluated by a three-person examining committee. An oral examination is the final phase of the thesis requirement. The examining committee, whose first and most crucial task is to assess the merits of the thesis itself, will conduct this examination.

School of Graduate Studies

Ma (creative writing).

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• Department of English and Creative Writing

Creative Writing

Creative writing degree programs at the University of Windsor are among the oldest and most innovative in Canada. What makes our creative writing degree programs unique is how the degree combines literature and language coursework with creative writing workshops.

Students graduating BA Honours or BA Combined Honours will have acquired, as part of their creative writing degree and at second, third, and fourth-year levels, intensive creative writing workshop experience gelling around sustained attention to their writing. Students will have been introduced to a range of writing styles and techniques, as well as a range of published authors, international to local.

Future Students

Creative writing.

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Program Details

Admission requirements.

• Program Website (Liberal Arts & Professional Studies)
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When you commit your stories to paper you enter the realm of creative writing. Your portfolio of writing may take many forms — novels, short stories, plays and screenplays, interactive stories, hypertext documents to name a few — and involve elements that are fictional or imaginative.

The program emphasizes literary writing rather than formula writing, and aims to introduce you to the forms and styles of writing which authors, past and present, have created and explored in their works. It will expose you to the history of formal experimentation and growth in particular genres.

As you advance, you'll be encouraged to explore specialized study in one or two genres such as fiction, poetry and playwriting.

Important eligibility information: This program is intended for students with a year of undergraduate studies and is not for direct entry from high school. Students may apply after completing their first 48 credits by presenting a portfolio containing work in both poetry and prose fiction as evidence of writing experience.

Highlights of the creative writing program:

• Many of the graduates of York's Creative Writing program are writers: of poetry, novels, short stories, plays, TV shows, screenplays, and criticism.
• Among them have been winners or finalists for major awards: Canadian Authors Association awards, the CBC Literary Prizes, the Commonwealth Prize, the Governor General's Award, the Pat Lowther Award in poetry, the National Magazine Awards, the Bronwen Wallace Award for Canada’s best emerging writer, the Thomas Morton Prize, and others. Recent graduates are publishing in journals and are active in the literary community, some starting presses and magazines. 
• Learn more about writing by attending the "Creative Writing Readers Series" which provides an opportunity for you to meet and hear contemporary Canadian writers read or perform their own prose or poetry.
• The Creative Writing Faculty awards acknowledge the achievements of writers in the program in poetry and fiction.

Possible Career Paths Editor, novelist, poet, screenwriter

Contact us at [email protected] 

Degrees Offered

Winter entry, summer entry, ways to study, possible career paths.

• screenwriter
• Minimum of one full-year of undergraduate studies
• Portfolio evaluation
• For more information, visit the Creative Writing program website .
• NOTE: this program is not for direct entry.

Minimum Requirements

• Baccalauréat Général with a minimum overall score of 10 (mention passable) from a French lycée accredited by the Ministry of Education or an accrediting agency in France.
• Some programs require a higher GPA. Please review the requirements for your program below.

Required Documents for Preliminary Review

• The following documents are required for your application to be reviewed for a conditional offer of admission. Documents can be uploaded to your MyFile account after you apply. Decisions are typically made 4-8 weeks after all required documents are submitted.
• High School Transcript(s)
• Grade 12 First Trimester Grades for Terminale Year
• Other documents may be required, and are determined by your academic background (please check your MyFile)
• Successful completion of the final year of senior studies.
• Exceptions: Students presenting strong academic profiles with Bachillerato programs from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay & Venezuela will be reviewed on an individual basis for admission consideration.
• Grade 12 Mid-year/Semester 1 Grades
• CSEC awarded by the CXC
• CAPE Unit 1 Examination Results
• CAPE Unit 2 Predicted Grades
• Senior Secondary School Graduation Certificate
• Successful completion of the final year of Senior 3/Grade 12 level of study with a minimum overall average of 75% on all academic courses.
• Grade 12 Mid-year Grade
• Some programs require higher. Please review the requirements for your program below.
• Prerequisite courses should not be below a grade of 4.0 or 70%.
• Grade 12 Semester 1 Grades
• Minimum of two Advanced-level (A2) passes and three GCSE or IGCSE Ordinary-level (O-level) passes.
• Minimum average of “C” is required on Advanced-level and Ordinary-level passes.
• Prerequisite courses must be presented at the Advanced-level.
• Minimum "C" is required for prerequisite courses unless otherwise noted.
• High School Transcript
• Advanced-level (A2) Predicted Grades
• GCSE/IGCSE (O-level) Certificate(s) (e.g. Pearson EdExcel, AQA, Cambridge, British Council, etc.)
• Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) - minimum 6 academic courses
• Successful completion of the Twelfth Year of senior studies with a minimum overall average of 4.0/5.0 required.
• Prerequisite courses should present a minimum grade of "4" to meet program requirements.
• Grade 12 Predicted/Mid-year Grades
• IB Predicted/Expected/Anticipated Grades
• For most programs, minimum IB Diploma point scores of 30 or higher recommended (scores of 28 will be considered) - please check individual program requirement.
• Minimum 4 is required for prerequisite courses unless otherwise noted.
• Some programs require a higher average. Please review the requirements for your program below.
• Prerequisite courses should not be below a grade of 55%.
• Grade X Certificate, and Grade XI Final Transcript
• XII Predicted Grades
• be at least 20 years old by the end of the calendar year of admission to the University;
• have been out of full-time high school studies for at least two years; and
• have attempted less than one full year of studies at an accredited college or university.
• Successful completion of the final year of senior studies
• To gain admission to most programs, senior school Leaving Certificate with a minimum overall score of 70% is required in academic courses.
• Grade 12 graduation with a minimum overall average of "B" on Grade 11 and Grade 12 academic courses is required to be considered for most programs. Some programs require a higher average. Please review the requirements for your program below.
• SAT or ACT scores are not required for students studying in a recognized accredited US curriculum outside the United States, Puerto Rico or Guam.
• SATs/ACTs are considered in combination with high school grades.
• Transfer credit granted for final scores of 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement (AP) exams, depending on the program (maximum 30 credits). Please click here for details.
• Grade 9-12 Semester 1 High School Transcript(s) (with grading scale)
• AP Exam Results (if applicable)

For Fall (September) 2021 and Winter (January) 2022 entry , York University will deem the SAT/ACT as optional for students studying in a recognized accredited US curriculum high school in the United States, Puerto Rico or Guam. However, students who have completed a standardized test are encouraged to submit their test scores as it may support your application for competitive programs. SAT/ACT scores must be sent electronically from the College Board directly to York. Please browse the section below for pre-requisites and detailed admission requirements.

Note: An SAT/ACT test will be required from students who are not enrolled in a recognized accredited US curriculum high school in the United States, Puerto Rico or Guam or have not studied in a formal academic high-school environment.

• West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) or National Examinations Council (NECO) with grades of C4-6 or better are required for most programs.
• Grade 11-12 Semester 1 High School Transcript
• If you have already completed the WAEC or NECO exam, you can provide your scratch card access information for grade verification.

You are required to provide official evidence of academic achievement in secondary education. This can be demonstrated through:

• Final grades under the Ontario curriculum (obtained through correspondence, night school or through TVO)
• Credentials through other curricula, such as results from Advanced Placement (AP) or Advanced-level courses in the General Certificate of Education (GCE). (Students may register to sit for the AP and GCE examinations as private candidates.)

In the absence of final grades in courses:

• You must submit the results of standardized tests such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) with a minimum combined total of 1170 on the Critical Reading and Math components or a composite American College Testing (ACT) score of 24.
• Your application will be reviewed by an admissions sub-committee. If admitted, you will not be eligible for entrance scholarships. You will be considered for continuing student scholarships at the end of your first year of study, if you satisfy those criteria.

You may also be required to provide proof of language proficiency. You will be considered for entrance scholarships on the basis of your overall averages in the six 4U/4M (Ontario curriculum) or equivalent courses.

Creative Writing

Online option, online full-time programs.

Online full-time programs are offered as either Daytime, or a combination of Evenings and Saturdays. Check your program Dates and Times to see what the program commitment will be.

Find out more about Full-Time Online programs

Humber is proud to have the highest graduate employment and employer satisfaction rate of the GTA colleges based on Colleges Ontario’s key performance indicators for college graduates in 2022-2023.

Program Overview

Humber’s Creative Writing graduate certificate program helps you improve your writing from the comfort of home. You’ll work one-on-one with a professional writer-mentor to improve your draft book-length project, learning how to develop plot, character, dialogue, style and more through feedback on your own manuscript.

Humber is noted for its exceptional creative writing mentors including authors of world stature. Past mentors include Martin Amis, Peter Carey, Miriam Toews, David Mitchell, Esi Edugyan, Nino Ricci, Margaret Atwood, Lawrence Hill, Anne Michaels, Edward Albee, Ha Jin and Alistair MacLeod. Recent international authors have included Jenny Offill, Nell Freudenberger and Samantha Harvey.  

We've recently added a playwright and a screenplay writer to our list of available mentors –   giving you the opportunity to complete a large body of work which may be all or parts of a full-length novel, memoir, feature-length screenplay or multi-character play; or a collection of poetry, short fiction or creative nonfiction essays.  

This is a project-based program in which you meet the learning outcomes by working through your own manuscript.  As well, you will attend weekly online classes synchronously or asynchronously to discuss craft, readings and the writing process to support your development.  

At Humber, courses are delivered in a variety of formats:

In-Person - An in-person course is delivered fully on campus.

Online Asynchronous (A) - An online asynchronous course has no fixed class schedule and allows students to engage with the course at different times according to their needs. Faculty provide modules, which are completed independently by the students according to established deadlines.

Online Synchronous (S) - An online synchronous course is delivered fully online and requires faculty and students to participate in real-time according to a fixed schedule. Classes are scheduled for a specific day and time.

Hybrid - A hybrid course is a combination of in-person and online classes and follows a set schedule. Students must be available to attend in-person classes at scheduled times during the semester.

The chart below outlines the delivery options available for each course in this program, by campus. For some academic terms, there may be more than one delivery option available. You’ll be able to select your preferred options when building your course schedule during open enrolment. Preferences for course delivery will be considered on a first come, first served basis. Some Humber programs are also delivered fully online, where all courses are delivered online.

International students: the impact of studying from outside of Canada on Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) eligibility differs significantly based on when you start your program. Please review the PGWP eligibility before choosing your program and course delivery.

Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) at Humber

Work-integrated learning.

Work-integrated learning opportunities prepare you for your future career. You will apply what you’ve learned in class and in real-world environments through a wide range of academic, community and industry partnerships. These work-integrated learning opportunities may include field experiences, professional practicums and co-operative education.

Field Experience

A field experience offers students an opportunity to engage in intensive experiences related to their field of study or career goals to build their skills, knowledge and abilities. Field experiences may be paid or unpaid.

Professional Practicum

Programs requiring a professional practicum offer practice-based experience or work hours for a professional license or certification. Students work under the direct supervision of an experienced professional. Placements are unpaid.

Co-operative Education

Students in co-op programs gain experience through paid work terms in their field of study that become progressively more complex as their skill level increases.

Optional Co-operative Education

Students in co-op programs gain experience through paid work terms in their field of study that become progressively more complex as their skill level increases. The co-op portion of this program is optional.

If you would like to learn more about work-integrated learning at Humber, visit WIL AT HUMBER

The Humber Advantage

• FACULTY BY TERM
• INFO SESSION
• SHORT STORY CONTEST
• SUMMER WORKSHOP
• MA IN CREATIVE WRITING
• SCHOLARSHIPS

Watch the "Power Up Your Credential!" Info Session to learn more about the Creative Writing program.

Check out our Frequently Asked Questions section or read more on How to Apply .

Toronto Star Short Story Contest

Submit your short story online at: The Star Website

Deadline for submissions: February 28, 2024, 5:00 p.m. ET

An esteemed panel of judges will select the three winners from a first round of finalists as determined by Humber School for Writers faculty. The winners will be celebrated and their stories published in the Toronto Star and at The Star Website .

First Prize: $5,000 Plus tuition for one of two great programs at the Humber School for Writers: The Creative Writing Graduate Certificate or the Summer Workshop in Creative Writing.

Second Prize: $2,000

Third Prize: $1,000

Since 1992, the School for Writers has offered an immersive, focused workshop to jump start your creative writing. Mornings are spent in classes with one of Humber’s esteemed writing advisors, and afternoons are devoted to craft and industry talks by faculty, publishing experts and special guests. Whether you’re a beginner or a more experienced writer, there’s something for you in this six-day workshop!

Workshop Rebate

The Creative Writing by Correspondence Program is a complement to the Humber Summer Workshop in Creative Writing, the two together comprising a flexible and affordable alternative to a standard low-residency MFA.

Students who complete the Graduate Certificate are eligible for a rebate for the Summer Workshop, and vice versa. The rebate is valid for three academic years.

“Humber School for Writers was one of my first experiences with writing workshops. I was amazed by how my work jumped to a new level in such a short period of time due to the generosity, experience, and intelligence of my peers and mentors. I said I’d do it again, and I did! Two summers in a row.”

-  Madhur Anand,  Author , A New Index for Predicting Catastrophes

Graduates Offered Advanced Standing in University of Gloucestershire Distance MA in Creative Writing

Humber Creative Writing by Correspondence graduates can work towards a master’s degree from the comfort of their own homes! Thanks to a new arrangement, graduates are eligible for advanced standing in the highly regarded University of Gloucestershire (U.K.) distance MA Creative Writing program. Furthermore, this pathway may lead to a PhD for those who qualify.

Scholarship Support for Aspiring Authors

All scholarships are available to Canadian residents only, and Appel scholarships are available to Ontario residents only. Scholarship applications become available in August and December. Information on how to apply can be found at the link below.

If you are awarded a scholarship, payment will come some weeks after the program begins. You must make payment up front and be reimbursed later.

September 2024 Faculty

Madhur Anand

Madhur Anand's debut book of prose This Red Line Goes Straight to Your Heart (2020, Strange Light/M&S) won the Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction.

Dennis Bock

Dennis Bock is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. His newest novel, The Good German , was published in September 2020 and has been lauded by Margaret Atwood as "a cunning, twisted, compelling tale of deeply unexpected consequences."

Danila Botha

Danila Botha is the critically acclaimed author of two short story collections, Got No Secrets, and For All the Men (and Some of the Women) I've Known, which was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award, The Vine Awards and The ReLit Award.

Trevor Cole

An editor and writer for more than 30 years, Trevor Cole has won nine National Magazine Awards, including three gold medals.

Antonio Michael Downing

Antonio Michael Downing grew up in southern Trinidad, Northern Ontario, Brooklyn, and Kitchener. He is an author, musician and speaker based in Toronto.

Marina Endicott

Trilby Kent

Trilby Kent was born in Toronto, Ontario, and grew up in cities on both sides of the Atlantic. After completing degrees at Oxford University and The London School of Economics, she trained as a maps specialist in the rare books department at Bonhams and pursued journalistic work that took her from Belgium to the Philippines.

Joseph Kertes

Joseph Kertes founded Humber College's creative writing and comedy programs and was the recipient of numerous awards for teaching and innovation.

Judy I. Lin

Judy I. Lin, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of the Book of Tea duology ( A Magic Steeped in Poison and A Venom Dark and Sweet ), was born in Taiwan and immigrated to Canada with her family at a young age.

Evan Morgan

Evan Morgan is a Toronto based writer/director with a background in feature-length and short films.

Alison Pick

Alison Pick is most recently the author of the novel STRANGERS WITH THE SAME DREAM (September 2017).

Richard Scarsbrook

Richard Scarsbrook is the award-winning author of ten books: the novels  Cheeseburger Subversive , Featherless Bipeds , The Monkeyface Chronicles , Nothing Man and The Purple Zero , The Indifference League ,  Rockets Versus Gravity , and  The Troupers , the short story collection  Destiny’s Telescope , and the poetry books  Six Weeks  and  Apocalypse One Hundred .

Shyam Selvadurai

Shyam Selvadurai's first novel  Funny Boy , won the W.H. Smith/ Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Lambda Literary Award in the US. He is the author of  Cinnamon Gardens  and  Swimming in the Monsoon Sea , and the editor of an anthology,  Story-wallah! A Celebration of South Asian Fiction .

Richard Scrimger

Richard Scrimger has written adult novels, opinion pieces, and screenplays, but is best known for his quirky children’s books. There are a couple dozen of those. He’s won an award or two, been shortlisted for lots more, and given writing workshops around the world.

Sarah Sheard

Sarah Sheard, novelist, editor, and multidisciplinary artist, has published numerous personal essays, reviews, short fiction and four literary novels ( Almost Japanese, The Swing Era, The Hypnotist, Krank: Love in the New Dark Times ).

Craig Shreve

Craig Shreve is a fiction author from North Buxton, Ontario. He is a former student in the Humber Creative Writing program (2008).

Antanas Sileika

Antanas Sileika particularly enjoys working with students on humour, historical fiction, and stories set in East and Central Europe. Sileika’s latest memoir is called The Death of Tony , and the one before that was called "dead-on funny" by Miriam Toews.

Cordelia Strube

Cordelia Strube is an accomplished playwright and the author of 11 critically acclaimed novels including Alex & Zee, Teaching Pigs to Sing and Lemon.

katherena vermette

katherena vermette (she/her/hers) is a Red River Métis (Michif) writer from Treaty 1 territory, the heart of the Métis Nation, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Sam Wiebe is the author of the Wakeland novels, one of the most authentic and acclaimed detective series in Canada, including Invisible Dead, Cut You Down, Hell and Gone , and the latest, Sunset and Jericho .

January 2024 Faculty

David Bergen

David Bergen is the author of eight novels and two collections of short stories. His work has been nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Impac Dublin Literary Award, and a Pushcart Prize.

Giles Blunt

Giles Blunt grew up in North Bay, Ontario, a small city similar to the Algonquin Bay of the John Cardinal novels. After studying English literature at the University of Toronto, he moved to New York City, where he lived for the next twenty years, before moving back to Toronto in 2002.

Karen Connelly

Author of twelve books of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, Karen Connelly is a writer, educator and therapist in private practice.

Beverley Cooper

Beverley Cooper is an award-winning playwright, dramaturge and teacher. She has written for TV, film and extensively for CBC radio drama, twice being nominated for Writers’ Guild of Canada Awards.

Elisabeth de Mariaffi

Elisabeth de Mariaffi is the critically acclaimed author of four books: most recently, The Retreat (2021), is a snowbound thriller about a dancer who must separate truth from lies in order to survive a deadly storm at a remote mountain arts retreat.

Adam Foulds

Adam Foulds has been the recipient of a number of literary awards, including the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, the Costa Poetry Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, the South Bank Show Prize for Literature, the E. M. Forster Award, the Encore Award, and the European Union Prize for Literature.

Camilla Gibb

Camilla Gibb is the author of four novels— Mouthing the Words, The Petty Details of So-and-so's Life, Sweetness in the Belly  and  The Beauty of Humanity Movement— and has been the recipient of the Trillium Book Award, the City of Toronto Book Award and the CBC Canadian Literary Award and has been short listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. 

Ashley Little

Ashley Little has written three novels for young adults and two novels for adults. Her work has won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize, been a finalist for the ReLit Award, The City of Vancouver Book Award, and more.

Carrie Mac writes stories that she wants to read. Her latest book is the literary novel Last Winter (Random House, 2023). She has also authored contemporary novels for teens, speculative YA, literary short fiction, and creative non-fiction.

Colin McAdam

Colin McAdam is the author of four internationally acclaimed novels, which have been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the Governor General's Literary Award, and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, among others.

Pamela Mordecai

Pamela Mordecai’s debut novel, Red Jacket , was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Award (2015). She has published seven collections of poetry, five children’s books, and a collection of short fiction, Pink Icing , recently released as an audiobook in ECW's Bespeak Editions.

Donna Morrissey

Donna Morrissey has published six award-winning and nationally best-selling novels through Penguin Canada. She has received awards in Canada, the U.S. and England and her novel, Sylvanus Now was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize.

Waubgeshig Rice

Waubgeshig Rice is an author and journalist from Wasauksing First Nation on Georgian Bay. He has written three fiction titles, and his short stories and essays have been published in numerous anthologies.

Dianne Warren

Dianne Warren is a fiction writer from western Canada. She is the author of six books of fiction, including the novel Cool Water , which won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction in 2010.

January 2025 Faculty

Lana Button

Lana Button is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books for children. Lana’s books have been translated into 5 different languages and have received the Crystal Kite Award, the Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Award and the IBBY Outstanding Book for Young Children.

Sidura Ludwig

Sidura Ludwig is an award-winning author of books for adults and children. Her short-story collection You Are Not What We Expected (House of Anansi, 2020) won the Vine Literary Award for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award.

Carrie Mac writes stories that she wants to read. Her latest book is the best-selling literary novel Last Winter (Random House, 2023). She has also authored contemporary novels for teens, speculative YA, literary short fiction, and creative non-fiction.

Pamela Mordecai’s debut novel, Red Jacket , was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Award (2015).

Alexandra Shimo

Alexandra Shimo has been mentoring writers since 2015. A former editor with Maclean’s, she is the co-author of the bestselling memoir  Up Ghost River: A Chief’s Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History , and author of the memoir  Invisible North: The Search for Answers on A Troubled Reserve .

Expert Faculty

• FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS

David Bezmozgis

David Bezmozgis is an award-winning writer and filmmaker. He is the author of the story collections  Immigrant City  and  Natasha and Other Stories  and the novels  The Betrayers  and  The Free World . David’s stories have appeared in numerous publications including  The New Yorker ,  Harper's ,  Zoetrope All-Story , and The Walrus . His books have been nominated for the Scotiabank/Giller Prize, The Governor General's Literary Award, the Trillium Book Award, and won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award and the National Jewish Book Award. ‹ In the summer of 2010, David was included in  The New Yorker's  20 Under 40 issue, celebrating the twenty most promising fiction writers under the age of forty. ‹ A graduate of the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, David's first feature film,  Victoria Day , premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009. His second feature was an adaptation of his story "Natasha."

David is a professor and the creative director of the Humber School for Writers where he also hosts the writing podcast  Love & Defiance .

Alissa York

Your career.

The main goal of the program is to improve your writing, and publication is a possibility for some. Graduates of this program may use their writing and editing skills in a wide variety of careers and professions in addition to writing books. Some of our graduates write for the web, newspapers, magazines, television   and other media.  

More than 300 Humber School for Writers alumni have published books. Dr. Vincent Lam, who won the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize for his literary debut, Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures , is just one of our distinguished former students. Other alumni have been on the bestseller lists in Canada: Suzanne Desrochers for  Bride of New France , Cathy Marie Buchanan for  The Painted Girls,  Shari Lapena for  The Couple Next Door , and Eva Stachniak for  The Chosen Maiden .  

Related Programs

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Credential: Diploma Length: 4 semesters

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Credential: Ontario College Certificate Length: 2 semesters

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Credential: Ontario Graduate Certificate Length: 2 semesters

Journalists & Writers Programs

Program Availability

Humber is a publicly-funded institution and does not have a public-private partnership. International students graduating from Humber or Humber’s International Graduate School (IGS) are eligible to apply for a Post-Graduation Work Permit .

International Students in Canada who apply for May 2024 start could be eligible for a $1,000 Scholarship*. Apply now

Please note the new International Admissions Process and Provincial Attestation Letters. Read the update

International Students Out of Canada can Apply through Humber International

Recruitment Events

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Program Delivery Types

Block-based: Students select a pre-set weekly schedule of courses that best meets their needs. Block-Based schedules may include in-person, hybrid and online courses.

Course-based: Students create their own schedule of courses from among in-person, hybrid and online options.

Condensed Week - Courses requiring students to come to campus are scheduled over 2-3 days per week. Online courses are scheduled on other days.

Online - Courses are scheduled only online and may be delivered asynchronously, where students study independently or synchronously, where students attend the online class on a specified time and day.

Twilight - In-person, online synchronous and hybrid courses are generally scheduled after 3:00pm.

Twilight-Online: Online synchronous courses are generally scheduled after 3:00 pm.

This program is part of:

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Bachelor of Industrial Design Students Participate in BRP International Design Competition

Wed, May 10, 2023

The Industrial Design program was invited to return and participate in the BRP (Bombardier Recreational Products) International Design Competition!

Industrial Design Third Year Students Design for Modern Living in Umbra/Humber Studio Project

Fri, March 24, 2023

Driven by innovation, Toronto-based Umbra has become a global leader in product design, known for pushing boundaries in its approach to original design.

Annual By The Lake Book Club Scholarship Awarded to Emerging B.C. - Based Writer

Mon, February 27, 2023

Layla Reeves, a Vancouver Island writer and student in Humber's Creative Writing Graduate Certificate program, is the 2022 recipient of a $1,500 scholarship.

Designs Created by Fast Students Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas

Wed, February 01, 2023

Prof. George Paravantes (FMCA) and Dr. Dennis L. Kappen (FAST) proudly unveiled the results of the 2022 ARROW HMI - Humber Industrial Design competition.

Interior Design Students Visit Toronto’s Newest Athletic Fashion Stored

Our Interior Design students headed downtown to visit Toronto’s newest athletic fashion store and its unique design.

Bachelor of Interior Design Students Gain Inspiration From Idea Exchange at Designto

Our 4th year Bachelor of Interior Design students attended Mason Studio for an Idea Exchange as part of DesignTO.

Class of 2022 Bachelor of Industrial Design Program

Wed, June 01, 2022

The Bachelor of Industrial Design program Class of 2022 impressed industry professionals at the in-person Thesis Show themed “Perfectly Imperfect.”

No news at this time.

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Admissions Questions

General enquiries.

Call 416-675-3111 or email [email protected] . If you have already applied, be sure to check your application status on myhumber.ca .

Domestic Applicants Enquiries

Domestic applicants can book a one-on-one advising appointment with an admissions representative.

International Applicants Enquiries

Contact the International Centre for information about full-time programs (including the International Graduate School), how to apply and to follow up on your submitted application.

Program-Specific Questions

Speak to the Program Co-ordinator about the course curriculum, projects and career options.

Alissa York, program co-ordinator 416.675.6622 ext. 3448 [email protected]

Campus Information

Book a campus tour to take a closer look at what it's like to be a student at Humber.

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How To Become An Apprentice

Becoming an apprentice.

Find an employer willing to sponsor you as an apprentice.

Contact the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development to register as an apprentice.

Work with your employer approximately one year before attending Humber.

View Instructions  

Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP)

If you’re in high school – grade 11 or 12 – you can earn co-op education credits through work placements in some skilled trades.

Visit OYAP  

How to Apply

Domestic students.

Applications to Humber are made through ontariocolleges.ca . Be sure to submit your application by the equal consideration deadline of February 1. You may apply after February 1, however, post-February 1 applications will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis depending on the availability of the space in the program.

To check program availability refer to the Campus/Availability listing on Humber’s program pages, search by availability , or ontariocolleges.ca .

To see where you are in the admissions process, visit the Admissions Road Map .

International Students

If you’re an international student, you can apply directly to Humber via our International Centre .

Need Advice?

Program advising appointments.

Get help narrowing down your program options or book a one-on-one pre-enrolment advising appointment with one of our Recruitment Officers.

Transfer & Pathway Advising

Book a virtual appointment with a Student Mobility Advisor learn more about getting Transfer Credit(s) for previous post-secondary experience, Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR), and Pathways options.

Admission Requirements

Admission selection is based on the academic criteria indicated. Meeting minimum eligibility requirements does not guarantee admission.

Admission selection is based on the following five requirements:

To be eligible for admission, you must possess the following:

• A bachelor’s degree, diploma or advanced diploma

Mature Applicants

Diplomas and certificates.

An applicant is considered a mature applicant if they have not completed secondary school or other postsecondary school, and will be 19 or older as of the first day of classes. Humber will invite you for testing to demonstrate that you meet all listed course requirements.

An applicant is considered a mature applicant if they have not completed secondary school or attended postsecondary studies, and will be 21 or older as of the first day of classes. Mature applicants for degree programs will be required to meet course requirements at the U/M level or equivalent.

College Transfer Applicants

An applicant is considered a college transfer applicant if they have completed some or all of a college-level credential. Humber may use a combination of secondary school and/or college courses and grades to determine program eligibility.

An applicant is considered a college transfer applicant if they have completed some or all of a college-level credential. Humber may use a combination of secondary school and/or college courses and grades to determine program eligibility. Applicants must have an overall minimum grade point average (GPA) of 65 per cent in the program. Applicants are required to disclose and provide academic transcripts for all course work completed at the postsecondary level.

University Transfer Applicants

An applicant is considered a university transfer applicant if they have completed some or all of a university-level credential. Humber may use a combination of secondary school and/or university courses and grades to determine program eligibility.

An applicant is considered a university transfer applicant if they have completed some or all of a university-level credential. Humber may use a combination of secondary school and/or university courses and grades to determine program eligibility. Applicants are required to disclose and provide academic transcripts for all course work completed at the postsecondary level.

Cover Letter

Please submit a cover letter describing the single book-length project you intend to work on in the program, your writing experience, and any relevant life experience. The letter should be no more than two pages, double-spaced in 12-point font. Please include your name and email address, and submit as MS Word or PDF.

Writing Sample

Please submit a sample of your writing that is no more than 15 pages in length. Ideally, the writing sample should be taken from the project you intend to work on in the program. If this is not possible, please submit a sample in the same form/genre (e.g., fiction if you intend to work on a novel). The manuscript must be prepared according to professional standards: double-spaced, 12-point font, with name, title and page number on each page. Please submit as MS Word or PDF.

Submission Instructions

English Language Proficiency

All applicants whose first language is not English must meet Humber’s English Language Proficiency Policy .

International Credit Evaluation

Canadian citizens or permanent residents with international education are required to provide a credential evaluation. Note, for international High school education course by course evaluations, ICAS must be used. For international post-secondary education, a WES evaluation must be provided. In situations where you expect to apply for transfer credit, it is recommended that a course by course WES evaluation is completed.

International Academic Equivalency

Admission equivalencies for Humber depend on your country of study. Please enter your location or choose detect my location to see the requirements for your country below.

Applying with an International Baccalaureate (IB)

Post-Admission Requirements

Once you have been accepted, and have confirmed your offer, you may need to complete a further set of requirements related to your program (Post-Admission Requirements).

Equipment & Device Requirements

Fees & financial aid.

The 2024/2025 fee for two semesters is:

• domestic: $3,895.50
• international: $18,833.08

Fees are subject to change.

Fees by Semester

Domestic Fees by Semester

International fees by semester.

*Plus Mandatory Health Insurance fee once per academic year: Fall start - $420 Winter start - $280 Summer start - $140

Financial Aid, Scholarships and Bursaries

Understand the costs associated with coming to Humber and explore resources available from first year to your final year on Student Fees and Financial Resources .

Scholarships

Humber scholarships.

Find out more about scholarships and bursaries that you may be eligible for, visit Student Scholarships . International students can visit International Student Scholarships .

Humber Bursaries

Bursaries are available for Certificate, Diploma and Degree programs primarily based on financial need, visit Humber Bursaries.

External Awards, Bursaries & Scholarships

Find out more information about external scholarships and bursaries, visit External Awards.

Indigenous Student Awards, Bursaries & Scholarships

Humber offers a variety of bursaries and scholarships for Indigenous students, visit Indigenous Student Awards.

Explore Opportunities through Humber Pathways

Humber Pathways include:

• Opportunities to build on your college education and complete your diploma or degree at Humber.
• Degree and graduate study opportunities at other institutions in Ontario, Canada and abroad.

Additional information will be made available to students from their program before the beginning of the Winter term. Courses with in-person requirements will likely also have online components. The delivery mode of some courses is still being determined. Humber may need to change plans for in-person learning, subject to government and public health directives and/or additional health and safety considerations.

You can find a complete list of programs with downloads including program and course details at Current Student Resources  

Students in programs marked as online/in-person will have a combination of those two types of delivery. Additional information will be made available to students from their program in the first week of June. Courses with in-person requirements will likely also have online components. The delivery mode of some courses is still being determined. Humber may need to change plans for in-person learning, subject to government and public health directives and/or additional health and safety considerations.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of the program, a graduate will:

Reflect on editorial feedback to determine core strengths and weaknesses of one’s own work.

Self-evaluate written work focusing on key elements of creative writing such as character, dialogue, plot, theme, setting, imagery and structure/form.

Apply techniques and strategies acquired through editorial feedback, self-evaluation, reading and self-directed learning to revise and improve one’s own writing.

Employ conventions of grammar, punctuation, spelling and other aspects of technical style within the context of narrative/poetic traditions to write in a clear and professional manner.

Revise and improve elements of literary style such as detail, diction, syntax, active voice, rhythm and tone to sustain reader engagement at the level of the sentence/line.

Manage point of view and associated issues of narrative/poetic voice such as the sociocultural identity and reliability of the narrator/speaker to create a consistent, convincing reading experience.

Employ a variety of research methods to support authentic, convincing writing in narrative/poetic forms.

Explore techniques and strategies used in published works to assess for application to one’s own writing.

Identify prevailing genres, forms and submission requirements present in the publishing industry and literary community to discover professional options for writers.

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Creative Writing

About this program.

Have you longed to explore your creative potential?

Embrace the unknown and start your journey here. As part of one of the largest Creative Writing programs in Canada, you can learn the essentials of excellent writing and put them into practice. Whether you aspire to write a novel or short story, explore poetry, pen a script or screenplay, or explore other writing styles, we have the courses you need to improve your skills.

Class sizes and writers workshops are kept small to ensure you receive the individual attention you need to help your writing thrive, whether you take your class in-class or online. 

Courses in the genres listed below can be applied to the Certificate in Creative Writing

• Creative Non-Fiction
• Escritura Creativa en Español
• Literary Fiction
• Multi-genre
• Poetry and Songwriting
• Popular Fiction
• Stage and Screenwriting
• U of T Summer Writing School
• Writing for Children

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Diploma in Creative Writing

The Graduate Program in English is proud to introduce its unique Graduate Diploma in Creative Writing. Focused on developing students’ writing skills, our program trains new scholars in a wide scope of genres, from poetry and prose narrative to literary essays, personal memoirs, and historical biography. 

All of our new Creative courses are open to all students, which means, not that all those who take a creative or literary writing course will go on to complete the diploma, but that all graduate students in English Literature have the opportunity to develop mastery in the writing of distinct literary forms, whether poetic, fictional or those of literary prose, as well as in the critical interpretation of such forms. Our diploma program places future writers in the line of writer-critics that extends in English from Coleridge and Henry James to Maggie Nelson and Billy Ray Belcourt.

Through the writing of fiction and the informed consideration of ideas, students have a chance to think in ways especially of value in our moment, with its transformative technologies, its incursions of the implausible into the real—and its eternal verities. Creative writing allows students to think laterally and vertically, not only absorbing ideas but sounding the self; not just producing shaped arguments but making artifacts that, while containing ideas, aren't contained by them.

The Graduate Program in English at York is an exciting environment to pursue innovative, socially engaging, career-ready education. Contact our Graduate Program Assistant to learn more.

Connect with English

Creative Writing

Program overview.

These programs are offered in English only. All assignments and examinations must be submitted or written in English.

Join one of the more rigorous and comprehensive creative writing programs of its kind. We offer a comprehensive curriculum for you to hone your writing craft with workshops and seminars in a broad range of genres. You will develop practical abilities in at least three creative writing genres (prose fiction, poetry, screen writing, graphic fiction and creative non-fiction), while acquiring a critical understanding of key concepts and a historical awareness of methodologies, techniques and approaches to literary expression. Through our award-winning faculty and our yearly Writer-in-Residence program, you will gain access to some of the most successful writers in Canada, as well as a diverse and supportive writing community.

Minor in Creative Writing

Opportunity to acquire a solid foundation while following a Specialization or a Major in another discipline.

Must be taken in addition to a main program.

Program structure

Course sequence

Certificate in Creative Writing

Can be taken without a main program.

Microprogram in Creative Writing

Only open to students already enrolled in an undergraduate major or honours program at uOttawa. 

Program Structure

The Department of English

Choose the right program structure for you, more information.

• Typical combinations
• Sample courses

Can be combined with most other programs.

Introduction to Writing Prose Fiction (2303)

Introduction to prose forms and fictional story-telling techniques. Students will read exemplary works and relevant criticism and will compose their own works of short fiction.

Advanced Workshop in Prose Fiction (3303)

This is an advanced workshop for fiction writers of intermediate experience. For the duration of the semester, we will work on in-depth explorations of the various stages in the writing journey. This will entail close reading, writing exercises, workshop and peer review, and revision practice.

Writing with Visuals: An Introduction (2307)

Introduction to forms of creative writing such as graphic fiction, concrete poetry, collage, artists' books and illustrated texts that combine written texts and visual materials. Students will read exemplary works and relevant criticism and will create their own short works.

Advanced Workshop in Comics and Graphic Fiction (3307)

Advanced workshop in graphic fiction and comic book writing. Students will work on both the textual and visual dimensions of this popular art form. The focus will be on creative exercises, peer review, and the development of the student's portfolio.

Writer in Residence

Student for a day program

I’ve received a decision

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CREATIVE WRITING

Unlike any other creative writing program in Ontario, it enables students to hone their craft while exploring multiple art and design practices.

Collaborative by nature, our transdisciplinary and transcultural approach enriches imaginations, broadens perspectives and helps to develop each individual writer’s voice.

Our program includes the study of living literary culture and literary art practices and production, and emphasizes the practice, craft and production of spoken, written, visual and verbal texts as well as experimental language forms that exist both inside and outside established genres. We welcome ‘attitude’ translated on the page and off, through performance texts and other media.

This program combines written, performance and visual expression. You’ll participate in:

• An online and print journal
• Symposia, workshops
• Showcasing and public performances
• A book, zine and publications fair
• Field trips to local readings, conferences and festivals
• A digital and analog writing lab and access to sound studio
• A reading series featuring established, emerging and student writers
• Mentorships, as both mentees and later as mentors
• University slam team
• A nurturing and supportive emerging literary community
• Mentorship by faculty

This program is for both new and emerging writers. You’ll become part of a nurturing and supportive literary community. By the end of your degree, you’ll complete a body of work aimed at publication or exhibition to launch your career.

Program Highlights

Admissions requirements.

• For Ontario high school students, a minimum overall average of 70%
• Statement of Intent
• Official transcripts
• Portfolio requirements here
• see detailed academic requirements here

Internships & Experiential learning

OCAD U offers so much more than co-ops because creative careers take many forms. Our career services help you build a professional community, valuable experience and skills you need for a meaningful career. Get access to:

• Short experiential learning placements from among hundreds of organizations
• Creative in-class projects with real-world industry partners
• Exclusive summer internships
• Gallery exhibitions of your work
• Freelance creative opportunities
• Jobs after graduation

At the End of this Program...

At the end of this four-year program, you will earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree.

Jobs You Can Get

Graduates of this program can work in:

• Professional writing
• Artistic practice
• Performance art

What You'll Do in the Program

In first year, you will take art or design studio courses based on your interest as well as:

• Art history
• English class of your choice
• Introduction to History and Practice of Creative Writing
• Research, Reading and Editing for Creative Writers
• Writing in Community

In second year and third year, you will take art, design, social science and humanities courses based on your interest and:

• Creative Writing: Introduction to Four Genres
• Language and the Land
• Nano Publishing: Independent Publications
• Intro to Dub and Spoken Word

In third year you will have options to take classes in art and design that interest you but you’ll focus more on creative writing. Classes include:

• Poetry and Spoken Word
• Non-fiction
• Short Fiction
• Studies in Canadian Literature
• Indigenous Literature
• Publications: Editorial

In fourth year, all students will also have the opportunity to do an independent thesis project and showcase work at OCAD U’s  Graduate Exhibition , the biggest free art and design exhibition in Toronto with over 40,000 visitors.

In all undergraduate programs you can choose to take a minor alongside your major to explore and expand your practice. Minors give you the opportunity to pursue a focused secondary field of study in addition to or sometimes instead of taking electives in your program and can help you look better for employers or in grants or grad school applications.  You don’t need to choose a minor on your application – rather once you start at OCAD U, you’ll be able to choose from over 90 electives that can build towards one of our 25 focused minors.  Learn more about Minor Programs here .

Program Creative Writing Degree earned Bachelors of Fine Arts (Honours) (BFA) Faculty Faculty of Arts & Science Duration 4 years Portfolio required Yes More link View tuition fees and funding

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Meet Blaine Thornton

Student work.

Follow the Creative Writing program on Instagram @ocaducreativewriters.

Meet Creative Writing student Chris Markland

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Contact the Department of English

University of Regina Administration-Humanities Building, AH 313 3737 Wascana Parkway Regina, SK S4S 0A2 Phone: 306-585-4310 Fax: 306-585-5429 E-mail Us Dr. André Magnan Department Head

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Dr. Noel Chevalier Graduate Chair

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M.A. In Creative Writing and Faculty Bios

M.A. with Concentration in Creative Writing: Thesis Option

The MA in Creative Writing (thesis option) is a non-terminal degree. This means that students can choose to pursue an additional, studio-based MFA in Creative Writing, or go on to a PhD in Creative Writing . After course work in both academic and creative writing seminars, students write a thesis in the genre of their choice (poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction). Award-winning faculty offer small classes, personal supervision and professional training. An extra benefit to studying creative writing at the University of Regina is that students can participate in a vibrant local writing community that includes numerous reading series and programs offered by the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, the oldest and most established writers' guild in Canada. The city of Regina offers several opportunities to present creative work, including writing series organized by the SWG and the Regina Public Library, literary events at Queen City Pride, and readings at the Cathedral Village Festival. Regina also has a thriving theatre community, with venues such as The Globe and The Artesian, as well as independent theatre collectives (Listen to Dis, Deaf Crows Collective), and poetry slam/open-mic nights around town.

The creative writing M.A. at the University of Regina offers students an opportunity to enrich their creative endeavours with scholarship. When asked why they’ve chosen to pursue their prospective writing career through academic channels, our students characteristically say, Because I want a critical and theoretical perspective on the literary field I’m entering as a writer. Because it gives structure to my work. Because I want to workshop my writing among peers who are formally knowledgeable about literature. Because I wouldn’t mind teaching a class like this workshop one day. Because I know that at the end of the degree, I will have a book-length manuscript in my hands.

One of the strengths of our M.A. program is its combination of creative and critical elements. While traditional MFA programs focus almost entirely on workshops, our program allows students to engage with creative and critical scholarship on writing. We also offer teaching experience in literature and composition through our T.A. program. In addition to attending workshops, receiving feedback, and commenting on the creative work of their peers, students will also read a mix of literature and criticism. They will learn to analyze writing in diverse forms, both as writers themselves, and as scholars. We offer the best of both worlds. Our aim is to give writers the training they need to position their own work within a genre tradition, and to engage with the history and practice of the writing they’re passionate about. By the end of the program, students will gain a variety of skills, including: editing, teaching, communication, research, strategies for submission, and analysis of their own creative work.

Students in the thesis-stream will take 5 graduate/honors courses, 2 of which must be in the creative writing concentration. Upon completion of course requirements, they will enrol in ENGL 901 [Thesis Project Proposal], and work on a creative thesis proposal with their graduate supervisor. Once this is approved, they will enrol in ENGL 902 and work on producing a manuscript. This period will last for a maximum of 5 semesters, after which they will submit their manuscript to a committee (this may include a mix of academic and creative writing faculty members). The final stage will be discussing their manuscript with an external writer.

M.A. with Concentration in Creative Writing: Project Option

This is similar to the thesis route, but with more of an emphasis on coursework. Students will enrol in 7 graduate-honours courses, 2 of which must be in the creative writing concentration. Students may also choose to take a course outside the Department of English (such as an offering through the Faculty of Media, Art, and Performance, or a course in History). Upon completion of coursework, students will enrol in ENGL 901 and work on a creative project proposal with their graduate supervisor. Once this is approved, they will enrol in ENGL 902 and work on producing a shorter manuscript [30-50 pages]. In addition to their honors supervisor, another creative writing faculty member will examine their manuscript.

Note: Students who enrol in the full coursework stream [10 courses] may choose to take creative writing courses, but will not receive a creative writing concentration.

The department’s creative writing faculty currently includes Michael Trussler, Medrie Purdham, Jes Battis, Jean Hillabold, Jesse Archibald-Barber, Christian Riegel, and Melanie Schnell: novelists, short story writers, poets, playwrights, anthologists and editors. As creative writing instructors, they work to present innovative courses at the graduate level, on subjects like Worldbuilding, Writing the Lyric Self, Writing Fantasy, and Writing Fixed Form Poetry. Certain literature courses (like Michael Trussler’s graduate courses on Experimental Memoir and on Poetics: Theory and Practice) are designed to include interpretive options for both literature and creative writing students, who may respond to course texts creatively or critically.

Between them, faculty members combined experience in publishing across diverse genres, editing collections of creative work, reviewing books, staging plays, and delivering workshops on campus and beyond. They have been recognized with a number of important awards, including high honours in the CBC’s prestigious annual literary competition, multiple nominations and honours at the Saskatchewan Book Awards, work shortlisted for a Best Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy award, a host of journal awards at Arc , Grain , Vallum , Prairie Fire , The Antigonish Review , Contemporary Verse II and The New Quarterly , and inclusions in the Best Canadian Poetry yearbook, as well as publications in Best Erotica .

Faculty Bios

Creative Writing and Research

Jesse Archibald-Barber is from oskana kâ-asastêki. He teaches Indigenous Literatures in English at the First Nations University of Canada, specializing in Saskatchewan Indigenous literary history and early Indigenous literatures in Canada.

Selected Links to Published Works

Short Story: “Beneath the Starry Map.” Mitêwâcimowina: Indigenous Science Fiction and Speculative Storytelling . Ed. Neal Mcleod. Penticton: Theytus, 2016.

Short Story: “ The Bowl Game. ” The Malahat Review: Elusive Boundaries: Mapping Creative Nonfiction in Canada . #193 (Winter 2015)

Poem: “pîsim pimâcihowin / The Sun Voyage” The Canadian Journal of Native Studies 38.1 (2018)

Performance Work:

Artistic Director and co-writer: Making Treaty 4 . Canada 150 Performance, University Theatre, University of Regina, August 24, 2017.

Artistic Director and co-writer: Making Treaty 4 . Student Performance, University Theatre, University of Regina, April 10, 2017.

Producer Assistant: From Up North . Director: Trudy Stewart. Red Jade Productions Inc., 2017. Film documentary.

Co-writer and performer: RIIS from the Ashes . Collective Performance Storytelling Ensemble. First Nations University of Canada, June 23, 2016.

Performer: Music Video for “I Remember” by InfoRed. Director: Brad Bellegarde. Aug. 2015.

Co-writer, director, performer, producer: TransActions: Memorial Dedication . Collective Performance Storytelling Ensemble. First Nations University, Sept. 17, 2015.

Co-writer and performer: TransActions . Collective Performance Storytelling Ensemble. Curtain Razors. Director: Michele Sereda. First Nations University, Oct. 4-5, 2014.

Director and Producer: Two Spirits . Writer: Dominga Robinson. University of Regina. April 2012.

Producer: Two Old Women . Writer: Yvette Nolan. Director: Jennifer Squires. University of Regina. April 2012.

Producer: Performance of Deanne Kasokeo’s Antigone . Writer Deanne Kasokeo. Director: Floyd Favel. First Nations University of Canada, 13 October 2011.

Edited Publications:

Guest Editor: Grain: The Journal of Eclectic Writing 42.4 (2015).

Jes Battis specializes in teaching and writing genre fiction: fantasy, speculative fiction, horror, and procedural crime. They are the author of the Occult Special Investigator Series and Parallel Parks Series , both with Ace/Penguin. Night Child , the first novel in the OSI series, was shortlisted for the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and nominated for the Endeavour Award. Jes has published fantasy-themed work in Strange Horizons , and work on popular culture in the Los Angeles Review of Books . They’ve also published poetry in literary journals such as The Puritan , Poetry is Dead , Contemporary Verse 2 , The Maynard , and T he Capilano Review .

Selected Links to Published Works:

“ Sleepover ,” The Puritan Review .

“ Winter Skips ,” Ghost City Review .

“ The Tribble ,” CV2 .

Jean R. Hillabold (she/her) received a Master’s Degree in English from the University of Regina in 1989, and began teaching creative writing courses for the Faculty of Extension and the Saskatchewan Writers Guild. She was hired to teach first-year literature and composition courses in the University of Regina in the 1990s, and has been an Instructor since the position was created in 1999.

A compilation of 25 of her nonfiction essays about sex, Sex Is All Metaphors (title based on a line in a poem by Dylan Thomas) was released as an ebook in 2011 by the Coming Together project ( eroticanthology.com ). The essays appeared first as a monthly column on the website of the Erotic Readers and Writers Association. She still contributes to the blog of the association: http://www.erotica-readers.blogspot.com

She co-edited OutSpoken: Perspectives on Queer Identities with Dr. Wes Pearce (University of Regina Press 2013). This anthology is based on presentations given by the University of Regina Queer Initiative in previous years. (Her essay, “The Christian Martyr and the Pagan Witness in The Well of Loneliness ” is included.)

Her article, “The Vampire Cult of Eternal Youth” appeared in The Vampire Goes to College: Essays on Teaching with the Undead , edited by Lisa A. Nevarez (North Carolina: McFarland 2014).

Over one hundred of her short stories have appeared in print anthologies, as well as several single-author publications from Lethe Press:

The Princess and the Outlaw: Tales of the Torrid Past (2013) plus The Flight of the Black Swan: A Bawdy Novella (historical fiction set in the 1860s, 2013, also in audio). Her local-colour erotic novel, Prairie Gothic: A Tale of the Old Millennium , is forthcoming from Lethe, and she is working on a sequel. She co-edited Heiresses of Russ 2015 (Lethe), an annual anthology of the year’s best lesbian speculative fiction, with publisher Steve Berman.( lethepressbooks.com )

Current Projects:

A sequel to Prairie Gothic , a collection of steampunk mystery stories featuring Miss Georgina Sherlock of Toronto as told by her companion, Jane Watson, and a collection of fantasy stories about witches.

Medrie Purdham (B.A. Hon, M.A., University of Toronto; Ph.D., McGill University) is an Associate Professor in the Department of English specializing in Creative Writing, Canadian Literature, Poetry and Modern Drama. Her poetry has been widely published in journals, she has been three times anthologized in The Best Canadian Poetry in English (Tightrope), and her book Little Housewolf is forthcoming from Véhicule Press in April of 2021.

Publisher’s blurb: Medrie Purdham's Little Housewolf delves deeply into the world of domestic miniatures, a realm where thimbles, baby teeth, push pins, keyholes, teacups, and wedding rings become meticulously realized scale models of one's terrors and joys. Purdham uses the fine-grained signatures of her poetry--close observation, exact detail, precise sounds--not only to examine childhood and its fascination with size and scale, but also to measure herself against the larger, untamed landscapes she feels increasingly alienated from ("It is all anachronism, / grasses vintage wild"). Marked by bold emotion and arresting imagery, Little Housewolf is a brilliant debut .

Writing Awards

Shortlisted, Arc Poem of the Year (“This is What Happens”) | 2019 2nd place, Arc Poem of the Year (“The Thimble’s Bucket List”) | 2019 Longlisted, Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize, The Fiddlehead | 2018 Longlisted, CBC, Canada Writes (Poetry) | 2016 Shortlisted, Far Horizons Poetry Award, The Malahat Review | 2016 City of Regina Writing Award | 2015 Honourable mention, Short Grain competition, Grain magazine | 2015 48-hour poetry competition, Contemporary Verse 2 ; 3rd place (Poetry) | 2015 48-hour poetry competition, Contemporary Verse 2 ; 3rd place (Poetry) | 2013 48-hour poetry competition, Contemporary Verse 2 ; 2nd place (Poetry) | 2012 Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild, 1st place, Short Manuscript Award (Poetry) | 2009 2nd place, Short-Grain competition ( Grain Magazine ) (Poetry) | 2009 Longlisted for the CBC’s Canada Writes (Poetry) | 2006 The Peterson Memorial Prize in Creative Writing (McGill) | 2003

Christian Riegel Email: [email protected]

Christian Riegel has published poetry in Gaspereau Review , Flood Quarterly , Cooweescoowee , White Wall Review , New Delta Review , and Grain , amongst others, and collaborates with cognitive psychologist Katherine M. Robinson in MDA (Mind/Data/Art) to create digital art from data streams generated by the mind. Their work has appeared on the cover of Body, Space & Technology Journal .

Melanie Schnell has published long and short fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and has written for television. She has received awards for poetry, fiction, and her first novel, While the Sun is Above Us , which was listed as a part of the ELA A 30 curriculum for both public and Catholic schools across Saskatchewan. Her current novel-in-progress is a literary murder mystery set in Canada. Melanie teaches the following creative writing courses face-to-face and online: ENGL 152 (Introduction to Creative Writing), ENGL 252 (Creative Writing) and ENGL 352 (Creative Writing: Fiction). She created and developed ENGL 152, a new introductory creative writing course. Her current and upcoming supervision projects include theses in speculative fantasy and Y.A. literature.

While the Sun is Above Us , Freehand Books

“ Survival ,” Grain Magazine

MICHAEL TRUSSLER has published poetry, short stories, and creative non-fiction. His work chiefly engages with the Anthropocene, the Holocaust and Ekphrasis. His primary literary influences are John Ashbery, Don Coles and Jorie Graham. Much of his work could be described as a verbal equivalent of an Ed Kienholz installation; indeed, often his writing features his own photography, especially Polaroids. Ranging from from highly experimental poetry to realist short fiction, his work has appeared in domestic and international anthologies and journals from the United States and Canada. Two representative poems are below.

Winning three teaching awards (one at the University of Toronto, two at the University of Regina), his teaching reflects his interests listed earlier. He has developed numerous Honours / Graduate courses: some of the more recent ones are Literature and the Anthropocene, Ekphrasis: Theory and Practice; The Experimental Memoir; Zombies and Philosophical Ethics. See below for a sample syllabus.

RECENT POETRY:

"If You Worry About the Globe Spinning Out of Control." Angry Old Man. 7. 2019. https://angryoldmanmagazine.com/michael-trussler/

“Salvador Dali and the Glacier.” Canary. 46 (Fall 2019): http://canarylitmag.org/#860

The Sunday Book. —2nd Place 2020 Saskatchewan Writers Guild: John V. Hicks Long Manuscript Award: Nonfiction.

“As Unnoticed as Possible.” —Honourable Mention. Vallum Award for Poetry 2020.

“Asleep.” Arc. —1st Place for Confederation Poets Prize 2007.

“Four Windows.” —1st Place Vallum Award for Poetry 2006.

Encounters. —Won Regina and Book of the Year, Saskatchewan Book Awards 2006.

“Salva Nos.”The New Quarterly. —1st Prize for Theme Issue

“A Summer Place.” 2004. “The Blue Ball” and “Her Front Yard.” The Antigonish Review. —Two poems won 3rd place in The Great Blue Heron Poetry Contest. 2003.

Work by Our Graduates  

Testimonials

The MA in Creative Writing at the University of Regina gave me two years to concentrate on assembling a manuscript of poems while following some of my literary academic interests. The level of genuine mentorship and support I received not only helped me in terms of technical craft, but created a generative space in which I felt encouraged to follow the poems in new and exciting directions!  - Nathan Mader, MA graduate

The MA in Creative Writing and English at the U of R enabled me to not only take graduate classes in English, but also to complete a manuscript of my own. With options in poetry, fiction, drama, and now nonfiction, students like me can get the opportunity, guidance, and support they need to turn their ideas and dreams into coherent, creative, fulfilling and marketable texts; my memoir is a direct result of working with supervisors like Dr. Grande and Dr. Purdham and of this program.  - Debby Adair, MA graduate

Literary Culture of Regina and Saskatchewan

Sage Hill Writing Experience : In its 27th year, Sage Hill offers writing workshops, colloquiums and an infamous retreat which draws participants internationally and provides professional development to writers at all stages of their careers.

SK Writers/Artist Retreats (Summer, Winter and Facilitated Retreat): Administered by the Saskatchewan Writer’s Guild, retreats are offered several times a year for writers and artists from Saskatchewan, Canada, and beyond.

Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild : The Saskatchewan Writer’s Guild offers to the local writing community several programs, services, awards, professional development workshops, contests, and events, such as the Mentorship program, Write after Lunch, the John V. Hicks Award, the annual conference, etc.

Talking Fresh (Literary Festival) : Talking Fresh is a two-day writers’ festival that targets Regina and a wider Saskatchewan community including aspiring writers and anyone interested in writers and books.

Writing North (Literary Festival) : This annual two-day festival, organized by the Department of English and the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild, is for aspiring writers and anyone interested in books and features panel discussions, writers’ talks and readings.

Vertigo Reading Series : Reading and performance series featuring poems, songs, stories and spoken word, based in Regina.

Online Literary Journal – Roadmaps and Liferafts : Road Maps and Life Rafts is a small online lit mag emerging out of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. The magazine draws in pieces that center on travel and the concept of journeying, whether that journey is a physical journey from place to place, or of personal growth and development.

Trash Talkin’ Literary Conference : An interdisciplinary conference for undergraduate and graduate students on popular culture and creative writing, hosted by students of the University of Regina.

The Word on the Street : The Word On The Street is a non-profit organization that celebrates Canadian reading, writing, and champions literacy primarily through a free, annual outdoor festival.

Cathedral Village Arts Festival : Showcases performance, artwork, and literary readings and workshops in Regina’s arts district.

OMAD Lecture Series : Both creative and scholarly presentations by faculty, staff, and students at the University of Regina.

Sâkêwêwak Annual Storyteller’s Festival : Based in Regina and Saskatoon, this community-based, multidisciplinary arts showcase features Indigenous storytelling and author readings.

Artestian Theatre : Community space and theatre in Cathedral Village, which often put on literary readings and performances.

The Penny University : Bookstore/cafe in Cathedral Village which also hosts literary events.

Gay and Lesbian Community of Regina : The GLCR community space and night-club is involved in hosting performances, drag culture, and fundraising. There are also literary events connected with Queen City Pride , as well as the Queer City Cinema film festival.

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Major in Creative Writing

"We tell ourselves stories in order to live."

-- Joan Didion

Does your love of literature go beyond scholarship? Are you an aspiring author who wants to add a practical, hands-on component to your university education? Then you've come to the right place: UTSC is the only campus at UofT where you can earn a Major in Creative Writing. Our dedicated faculty take a workshop-based, experiential approach to the study and practice of the literary arts. This means that while you learn how classic and contemporary authors pursue their craft, you also take the exciting first steps towards building your own writing practice.

Our Major program places a particular emphasis on professionalization and how to make your way as a writer in the real world. Our teaching faculty are active and award-winning writers themselves, and the program stream culminates in a practical seminar on "Creative Writing as a Profession." You will also benefit from working each year with a new  Writer-in-Residence , and you will have the opportunity to connect with our close-knit and active creative writing alumni network, including recent graduates who have already had their work published.

As a creative writing student you will be part of a vibrant undergraduate community, and have access to a jam-packed calendar of readings, talks, festivals, and other events (just scan  our Events page  to see what's happened in the past and coming up in the future). You can also participate in C.O.W. (our creative writing club), enter contests, and get published in the UTSC arts journal  Scarborough Fair.

There is no better place to immerse yourself in the literary arts than Toronto, the heart of Canada's publishing industry. Join UTSC's growing community of creative writers, and learn how to make your own literary mark on the world.

Here is a route map for navigating the Creative Writing Major (you can expand the map by right-clicking or option-clicking):

How to Apply to the Major in Creative Writing

Students may apply to the Major in Creative Writing after they have completed  ENGA03H3  and have accumulated a minimum of 4.0 credits. Students typically apply at the end of their first year.

To apply, applicants must complete two steps:

1. Applicants must request entry to the program on ACORN during the application period as outlined below.

2. Applicants must submit a portfolio for adjudication during the application period as outlined below.

The Portfolio:

The portfolio must be 15-20 pages of the applicant’s best writing in poetry, fiction (either short stories or selections from a longer work), and/or creative non-fiction. Portfolios may include work completed in ENGA03H3 and/or work completed prior to admission to UTSC. The portfolio must be accompanied by a brief letter of application (1–2 pages) addressed to the Program Advisor in Creative Writing. The letter should discuss the applicant’s experience as a writer, their future goals in the creative writing program, and a work of literature that has inspired them.

Application Periods:

There are two application periods for the Creative Writing Program, one in March/April for students applying at the end of the Winter session (Round 1), and one in June/July for students applying at the end of the Summer session (Round 2). Students should visit the  Office of the Registrar website  for the exact dates of these periods, and make sure to apply on ACORN and submit their portfolios by the end of these periods. (Please note: Creative Writing is considered a “limited enrolment program.”)

How to Submit Portfolios:

Portfolios and letters should be submitted as one document to  [email protected]  by the end of the chosen application period. (Don’t forget: applicants also need to request entry to the program on ACORN by this deadline.) Students who are not successful in their first attempt are eligible to apply again. These students must submit a new portfolio and letter of application by the deadlines outlined above.

A Note on Creative Writing Course Enrolments:

Creative Writing courses at UTSC are usually workshop-based and capped at 20 students. Enrolment is prioritized for students who have taken the prerequisites and are already enrolled in either the Minor or Major in Creative Writing. That said, there is occasionally room in our courses for students who are not studying creative writing intensively. If you are a non-first year student who is not enrolled in the program but would like to apply for a B-level Creative Writing course, please submit a course-specific portfolio (including your student number). Here are the details and contacts:

-  ENGB60 Creative Writing: Poetry I : Email 5-10 pages of poetry to  [email protected] . Please note if you are applying for the F or S term.

-  ENGB61 Creative Writing: Fiction I : Email 5-10 pages of fiction or other prose writing to  [email protected] .  Please note if you are applying for the F or S term.

-  ENGB63 Creative Writing: Non-Fiction I : Email 5-10 pages of non-fiction, fiction, or other prose writing to  [email protected] .

To start your creative writing journey at UTSC:

If you are a first-year student and/or new to Creative Writing, your first step should be to enrol in  ENGA03H3 Introduction to Creative Writing . This is the prerequisite for entry into the Creative Writing program. Most students take this course in their first year, and then apply for entry to the program once they’ve completed it.

If you have any questions, please email:  [email protected] . We are happy to help and look forward to receiving and reading your work!

Program Requirements

Students in the Major must complete  7.5 credits  as follows: 

1. 3.0 credits:

ENGA03H3  Introduction to Creative Writing ENGB60H3  Creative Writing: Poetry I ENGB61H3  Creative Writing: Fiction I ENGB63H3  Creative Non-Fiction I ENGD95H3  Creative Writing as a Profession ENGC86H3  Creative Writing: Poetry II or  ENGC87H3  Creative Writing: Fiction II or  ENGC88H3  Creative Non-Fiction II

2. 2.0 credits to be selected from: 

ENGC04H3  Creative Writing: Screenwriting ENGC05H3  Creative Writing: Poetry and New Media ENGC06H3  Creative Writing: Writing for Comics ENGC08H3  Special Topics in Creative Writing I ENGC24H3  Creative Writing: The Art of the Personal Essay ENGC86H3  Creative Writing: Poetry II (if not already counted as a required course) ENGC87H3  Creative Writing: Fiction II (if not already counted as a required course) ENGC88H3  Creative Non-Fiction II (if not already counted as a required course) ENGC89H3  Creative Writing and Performance ENGD22H3  Special Topics in Creative Writing II ENGD26Y3  Independent Studies in Creative Writing: Poetry ENGD27Y3  Independent Studies in Creative Writing: Prose ENGD28Y3  Independent Studies in Creative Writing: Special Topics

3. 2.5 Additional credits in English

Note:  A maximum of 1.0 credit in creative writing courses may be taken at another campus.

For more details on program requirements, visit the   UTSC Calendar . Questions about the program should be directed to Professor Andrew Westoll ( [email protected] ). 

Interested in learning more about how our courses are structured and how you might develop your own path through your Minor in Creative Writing? Visit our  Routes and Threads  page.

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Go to programs search

Creative Writers are at the heart of our cultural industries. Poets, novelists, screenwriters, playwrights, graphic novelists, magazine writers: they entertain, inform and inspire. For more than 15 years, UBC's Creative Writing program has been educating writers through distance education in a program which complements our long-standing on-campus MFA program.

A studio program with the writing workshop at its heart, the distance MFA focuses on the work created by students as the primary text. Through intensive peer critique and craft discussion, faculty and students work together with the same goal: literary excellence.

The MFA granted to distance students is the same degree as granted to on-campus students, and the same criteria of excellence in multiple genres of study apply.

For specific program requirements, please refer to the departmental program website

What makes the program unique?

UBC's Optional-Residency (Distance) MFA was the first distance education MFA program in Canada and remains the only full MFA which can be taken completely online. It is designed to be uniquely flexible, allowing students across Canada and around the world to study writing at the graduate level while still living in their local communities and fulfilling career and family obligations.

The program is unique globally for its multi-genre approach to writing instruction: students are required to work in multiple genres during the course of the degree. As a fine arts program rather than an English program, students focus on the practice of writing rather than the study of literature. Students may work on a part-time basis, taking up to five years to complete the degree.

My time in the Creative writing grad program at UBC has given me the discipline and focus I need to complete long-form writing pieces and larger poetry projects.

Kwaku Darko-Mensah Jnr.

Quick Facts

Program enquiries, admission information & requirements, program instructions.

The optional residency MFA (distance) program only has a July intake.

1) Check Eligibility

Minimum academic requirements.

The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies establishes the minimum admission requirements common to all applicants, usually a minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at UBC). The graduate program that you are applying to may have additional requirements. Please review the specific requirements for applicants with credentials from institutions in:

• Canada or the United States
• International countries other than the United States

Each program may set higher academic minimum requirements. Please review the program website carefully to understand the program requirements. Meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission as it is a competitive process.

English Language Test

Applicants from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application. Tests must have been taken within the last 24 months at the time of submission of your application.

Minimum requirements for the two most common English language proficiency tests to apply to this program are listed below:

TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language - internet-based

Overall score requirement : 90

IELTS: International English Language Testing System

Overall score requirement : 6.5

Other Test Scores

Some programs require additional test scores such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or the Graduate Management Test (GMAT). The requirements for this program are:

The GRE is not required.

2) Meet Deadlines

3) prepare application, transcripts.

All applicants have to submit transcripts from all past post-secondary study. Document submission requirements depend on whether your institution of study is within Canada or outside of Canada.

Letters of Reference

A minimum of three references are required for application to graduate programs at UBC. References should be requested from individuals who are prepared to provide a report on your academic ability and qualifications.

Statement of Interest

Many programs require a statement of interest , sometimes called a "statement of intent", "description of research interests" or something similar.

Supervision

Students in research-based programs usually require a faculty member to function as their thesis supervisor. Please follow the instructions provided by each program whether applicants should contact faculty members.

Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (Distance) (MFA)

Citizenship verification.

Permanent Residents of Canada must provide a clear photocopy of both sides of the Permanent Resident card.

4) Apply Online

All applicants must complete an online application form and pay the application fee to be considered for admission to UBC.

Tuition & Financial Support

Financial support.

Applicants to UBC have access to a variety of funding options, including merit-based (i.e. based on your academic performance) and need-based (i.e. based on your financial situation) opportunities.

Scholarships & awards (merit-based funding)

All applicants are encouraged to review the awards listing to identify potential opportunities to fund their graduate education. The database lists merit-based scholarships and awards and allows for filtering by various criteria, such as domestic vs. international or degree level.

Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA)

Many professors are able to provide Research Assistantships (GRA) from their research grants to support full-time graduate students studying under their supervision. The duties constitute part of the student's graduate degree requirements. A Graduate Research Assistantship is considered a form of fellowship for a period of graduate study and is therefore not covered by a collective agreement. Stipends vary widely, and are dependent on the field of study and the type of research grant from which the assistantship is being funded.

Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA)

Graduate programs may have Teaching Assistantships available for registered full-time graduate students. Full teaching assistantships involve 12 hours work per week in preparation, lecturing, or laboratory instruction although many graduate programs offer partial TA appointments at less than 12 hours per week. Teaching assistantship rates are set by collective bargaining between the University and the Teaching Assistants' Union .

Graduate Academic Assistantships (GAA)

Academic Assistantships are employment opportunities to perform work that is relevant to the university or to an individual faculty member, but not to support the student’s graduate research and thesis. Wages are considered regular earnings and when paid monthly, include vacation pay.

Financial aid (need-based funding)

Canadian and US applicants may qualify for governmental loans to finance their studies. Please review eligibility and types of loans .

All students may be able to access private sector or bank loans.

Foreign government scholarships

Many foreign governments provide support to their citizens in pursuing education abroad. International applicants should check the various governmental resources in their home country, such as the Department of Education, for available scholarships.

Working while studying

The possibility to pursue work to supplement income may depend on the demands the program has on students. It should be carefully weighed if work leads to prolonged program durations or whether work placements can be meaningfully embedded into a program.

International students enrolled as full-time students with a valid study permit can work on campus for unlimited hours and work off-campus for no more than 20 hours a week.

A good starting point to explore student jobs is the UBC Work Learn program or a Co-Op placement .

Tax credits and RRSP withdrawals

Students with taxable income in Canada may be able to claim federal or provincial tax credits.

Canadian residents with RRSP accounts may be able to use the Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP) which allows students to withdraw amounts from their registered retirement savings plan (RRSPs) to finance full-time training or education for themselves or their partner.

Please review Filing taxes in Canada on the student services website for more information.

Cost Estimator

Applicants have access to the cost estimator to develop a financial plan that takes into account various income sources and expenses.

Career Options

Graduates of the MFA program have found success in varied fields related to writing and communication. The MFA qualifies graduates for teaching at the university level and many graduates have gone on to teach at colleges and universities in Canada, the United States and overseas as well as holding writing residencies. Many publish books and win literary awards. Others go on to work in publishing, and graduates have become book and magazine editors.

Although the MFA is a terminal degree, some graduates go on to further study in PhD programs in the US, UK and Australia.

The Optional-Residency MFA is particularly well suited to teachers: our teacher-students have been able to gain an advanced degree while continuing their careers.

• Research Supervisors

This list shows faculty members with full supervisory privileges who are affiliated with this program. It is not a comprehensive list of all potential supervisors as faculty from other programs or faculty members without full supervisory privileges can request approvals to supervise graduate students in this program.

• Belcourt, Billy-Ray (Fiction; Nonfiction; Poetry)
• Hopkinson, Nalo (Creative writing, n.e.c.; Humanities and the arts; Creative Writing: Speculative Ficton, Fantasy, Science Fiction, especially Other Voices)
• Irani, Anosh
• Koncan, Frances
• Leavitt, Sarah (Autobiographical comics; Formal experimentation in comics; Comics pedagogy)
• Lee, Nancy (Fiction; Creative Writing)
• Lyon, Annabel (Novels, stories and news)
• Maillard, Keith (Fiction, poetry)
• Marzano-Lesnevich, Alex (Nonfiction)
• McGowan, Sharon (Planning of film productions from concept to completion)
• Medved, Maureen (Fiction, writing for screen)
• Nicholson, Cecily (Languages and literature; Poetry)
• Ohlin, Alix (Fiction; Screenwriting; Environmental writing)
• Pohl-Weary, Emily (Fiction; Writing for Youth)
• Svendsen, Linda (Fiction, television)
• Taylor, Timothy (fiction and nonfiction)
• Vigna, John (Novels, stories and news; Fiction, Literary Non-Fiction, Creative Writing)

Related Programs

Same specialization.

• Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (MFA)

Same Academic Unit

• Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Theatre (MFA)
• Master of Fine Arts in Film Production and Creative Writing (MFA)

At the UBC Okanagan Campus

• Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Further Information

Specialization.

Creative Writing combines the best of traditional workshop and leading-edge pedagogy. Literary cross-training offers opportunities in a broad range of genres including fiction, poetry, screenplay, podcasting, video game writing and graphic novel.

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Departments/Programs may update graduate degree program details through the Faculty & Staff portal. To update contact details for application inquiries, please use this form .

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