Target Group and Admission Requirements

This study programme is open to all who would like to clarify their relationship to the writing of imaginative literature. This may include authors with several published works, debutants and writers who have sent in manuscripts to publishers for evaluation as well as people who have never before presented their texts to the public.

Admission will be based on submitted examples of written texts in addition to meeting general admission requirements. The texts may be published or unpublished, or the applicant might prefer to document earlier activity as a writer. In addition to qualifying for university college admission, the applicants must document their ability to produce creative literature. Published and unpublished material will be evaluated in the same manner by the admission committee, which will consist of a representative from the Norwegian Authors’ Union and two representatives from the creative-writing study programme.

The texts should consist of 10-15 pages of prose, or an equivalent amount of poetry/dramatic writing. An applicant may also include a personal letter. All material which the applicant wants to submit to the admission committee must be sent in triplicate. The text examples received will form the basis of the first part of the writing workshop.

Aim of the Programme

The academic year will be a time of experimentation, reflection and acquisition of knowledge associated with creative writing practices - knowledge which must otherwise be gleaned from several different fields of study and professions within the humanities. In the creative writing study programme, these will be unified and serve as guidelines for acquiring insight and understanding of one’s own creative processes. This is why the study programme stresses theoretical subjects as well as practical writing. During the course of the academic year, the students will be given a general view of the current literary situation in Norway. In addition to book writing, we will also examine writing for other media (radio, TV, films, stage-presentations etc.)

It is not expected that all of the students intend to become creative writers. What is more important is their ability to write and their need to develop personal forms of written expression. Of course, the study programme cannot be expected to automatically guarantee success for any subsequent literary efforts.

Further Education opportunities

The study programme comprises 60 ECTS credits and may be included in a Bachelor’s degree on application.

Curriculum and structure

The creative work, “literary production” with subsequent discussion and analysis, are central to the study. The other two main parts of the study programme will provide perspectives on this work, and also knowledge of practical aspects of the writing profession. In this way, a broad overview will be achieved, and individual workshops will provide specialisation within specialised fields.
Overview of some key topics:

• Genre studies
• Meeting with publisher consultants / publisher editors
• Meeting with critics (daily newspapers and / journals)
• Meeting with individual authors
• Children and adolescent literature
• Manuscript work for the theatres
• Psychoanalytic approaches to an understanding of literature
• Text / image. Text / music.
• Literature policies
• Practical manuscript work for works of fiction
• Media seminar

Teaching and Learning Methods

The instruction in the theoretical part of the study programme will be in the form of lectures and group discussions, while the writing workshop will alternate between individual creative work, cooperation in small groups, review of texts in plenary sessions and individual supervision / consultation. One or more experienced authors will participate as leader (s) of the workshop, and this part of the study programme will be characterised more by cooperation and joint experimentation with literary forms, than by traditional teaching methods.
The first semester will be characterised by theoretical and practical issues, while the second semester will provide more room for specialisation within particular areas, and concentration on the progress of students’ own literary project.
External lecturers / guests, with particular expertise in the relevant fields will be used.
The study programme is composed of three main parts, which run in parallel throughout the study programme.
A. Theoretical part
History of style and form, genre knowledge, introduction to literature in our century, trends in Norwegian contemporary literature, current literary debate in Norway.
Literature and society
Literary cycle, historical development of reading, the writer in society, Norwegian policies regarding literary production, structure of publishers, organisation knowledge, dissemination methods.
B. Writing Workshop
Students working with their own texts, literary production with different starting points and subsequent discussion / analysis. Working with individual literary projects.
C. Seminar
Genre Studies, publishing consultant’s role, literature reviews, meeting with selected poets, writers of prose and dramatists, practical manuscript preparation, literature dissemination, radio theatre, television, theatre, film scripts, children’s and adolescent literature, literature policies.
The workshop will offer specialisation within the particular fields - but at the same time seminars will be planned so that the various topics will illumine each other, and provide different approaches. The seminars will alternate between one-day seminars and seminars of two to three days duration. The bulk of the seminar activities will take place at the university college, but excursions may also be arranged.

Theory and Practical Training

Practical writing exercises, analysis, work on individual literary projects.

Assessment Methods

The assessment comprises three parts.
1. Students will be represented by about a 15-page text in a text anthology that the students will produce at the end of the year. The anthology text must be assessed as passed.
2. A written home assignments (minimum 30 pages) must be submitted related to at least three of the topics that the study programme offers teaching in. Students will submit the list of completed home assignments within specified deadlines.
3. Students will have an oral examination in the theoretical part of the curriculum.
The examinations will be assessed as pass / fail.

Minor adjustments may occur during the academic year, subject to the decision of the Dean