English Graduate Program
General Overview
A Friendly and Supportive Program
The size of the program allows UNB to provide an intimate, friendly, mutually supportive, and research intensive learning experience for students. With 19 faculty members from both the Saint John and Fredericton campuses in its Graduate Academic Unit, and more than 50 graduate students, the Department of English at the University of New Brunswick offers small class sizes and personal guidance from instructors and supervisors in the program leading to MA and PhD degrees. We have faculty specialists in most periods and fields. The department boasts talented practitioners and instructors in all major genres of Creative Writing -- fiction, poetry, playwriting, and screenwriting -- as well as expertise in creative non-fiction and travel writing. On the academic side, we have active researchers working in most fields, including Medieval and Early Modern literature, Restoration and 18th-Century literature, Romantic and Victorian literature, Modern (British and American) studies, Canadian and Post-Colonial literature, textual/editorial studies, women's studies, literary and cultural theory, drama, and film. For information on the interests of our graduate faculty, see our Faculty page.
While our PhD program focuses primarily on Canadian, post-colonial, Renaissance, American, and textual/editorial studies, doctoral work in other fields is possible. Our MA program allows for a concentration in either creative or academic writing (in any field). Students in the creative writing stream take a combination of academic and creative courses and write a book-length creative thesis in a genre of their choice. Graduates often go on to publish their work with nationally recognized journals and book publishers. Most doctoral students go on to receive scholarships from the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and a high proportion of students in both academic and creative MA streams have been successful, as well; many MA students also go on to doctoral study at the Canadian or international institution of their choice.
The Library
The Harriet Irving Library has strong resources for scholarly investigation and orders significant works of poetry, fiction, drama, literary biography, criticism, and theory as they are published. In addition, the library’s special holdings in nineteenth- and twentieth-century materials are strong, as are its holdings of primary and secondary materials in Renaissance literature and drama. The library boasts an ever-increasing number of electronic research tools and the state-of-the-art Electronic Text Centre.
Journals
In addition to being the temporary home of Florilegium, the Department is the permanent home of three journals, all of which involve graduate students in their editorial activities: The Fiddlehead, Studies in Canadian Literature, and Qwerty. Our well-established Writer-in-Residence program attracts some of Canada’s most accomplished and personable writers to work directly with students and others in the community, and our popular reading series enables students to hear distinguished writers from across the country present their work.
Creative Writing
The Department of English boasts accomplished creative writers in Ross Leckie (poetry), Mark Anthony Jarman (fiction and creative non-fiction), Rob Gray (film and fiction), Robert Moore (poetry and drama), and Len Falkenstein (drama). Several creative writers have been appointed Honorary Research Associates (HRAs) in English and are available to advise graduate students on their thesis projects; they include Gerry Beirne, Anne Compton, Travis Lane, Kathleen McConnell, Sharon McCartney, Jacques Poitras, Eden Robinson, Matt Robinson, and Anne Simpson. Each year, approximately half of the students admitted to our MA program enrol in our unique, nationally recognized Creative Writing option; these candidates choose either two or three of their six courses from among our Creative Writing workshops. The workshops, usually consisting of 8-10 students, offer supportive, intensive instruction and practice at writing and editing in a particular genre. Students complete the Creative Writing MA by undertaking a substantial creative project in a genre of their choice, supervised by a faculty member or HRA. Numerous graduates - Sheri Benning, Charmaine Cadeau, Craig Davidson, Michael de Beyer, Adam Dickinson, Triny Finlay, Sean Johnston, Holly Luhning, Shane Rhodes, matt robinson, Sue Sinclair, and Darryl Whetter, among others - have published books with respected Canadian publishers shortly after graduating from our Creative Writing MA. Most of these books have been directly based on the author’s UNB thesis. Master’s students in Creative contribute editorial assistance to Canada’s oldest literary magazine, The Fiddlehead, as well as a vibrant graduate-student-run journal, Qwerty.
Canadian and Postcolonial Literature
UNB’s early place at the forefront of Canadian and Commonwealth/postcolonial literature studies (also see “About us”), combined with its outstanding current faculty and library resources, make it an attractive place for graduate students to take courses and undertake research in these areas. The Department boasts a leading journal, the bilingual, biannual Studies in Canadian Literature/Études en littérature canadienne, co-edited by John C. Ball at UNB and Herb Wyile of Acadia University, with editorial assistance performed by graduate students. Several faculty actively research in the areas of Canadian and/or postcolonial literature, including Jennifer Andrews, John Ball, David Creelman, Gwendolyn Davies (retired), Len Falkenstein, Ross Leckie, Robert Moore, Wendy Robbins, and several Honorary Research Associates. With recent theses running the gamut from an ecocritical approach to Don McKay’s poetry to an examination of history in West Indian women’s fiction to a study of feminist humour in Canadian women's fiction to youth in contemporary Atlantic Canadian fiction, the Department of English offers wide-ranging options for innovative and adventurous research in these fields.
Early Modern Studies
In addition to our traditional strengths in Canadian literature and creative writing, UNB is in an excellent position to offer well-supported graduate instruction and supervision in early modern literary studies. The GAU now includes three specialists in this area: Randall Martin, Edith Snook, and Sandra Bell. Collectively, these researchers specialize in several related areas: sixteenth- and seventeenth-century book and manuscript culture; textual theory and scholarly and electronic editing; women's writing, and Renaissance drama and theatre, in particular Shakespeare and Jonson. The Department’s early modern specialists also offer particular strength in research into gender and women’s literary history, with ongoing editorial, critical and cultural history projects in this area.
American Literature
The department has a wide range of scholars who study and teach American literature and is in the process of expanding its course offerings and library holdings in this field. Internationally-renowned scholar Demetres Tryphonopoulos specializes in modernist poetry and has published a number of books on Ezra Pound and related authors. Recent hire Stephen Schryer works on post-World War II American fiction, African-American writing, and twentieth-century U.S. intellectual history. Jennifer Andrews studies native North American culture and literature. Ross Leckie publishes on modern and postmodern American poets, such as Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, and John Ashbery. Robert Moore, a poet and playwright based at our St. John campus, researches twentieth-century American literature and postmodern fiction. Mark Jarman also offers graduate courses in American fiction.
Student Comments
- "UNB was a great experience. The combination of academic and creative streams let me learn about literature from both inside and out, and to produce both scholarly and literary work that I was—and am—proud of. As well, the smaller program meant that I knew every one of my fellow students and every member of the department, and those personal relationships made for a richer experience in every way. I felt like I belonged. It was a wonderful experience. I'm so glad I chose UNB."
- Tony Antoniades, MA (Creative Writing) 2003, currently doing a PhD at the University of Toronto - "I owe much of my current academic success to the University of New Brunswick's Master of Arts in English Literature. The process of researching, writing, and defending a thesis in addition to completing two semesters of coursework deepened my knowledge of and interest in my fields of study (Canadian, Victorian, and Children's Literature), taught me to balance projects of various scales, and prepared me for the writing of my doctoral dissertation. The two-year structure of the program enabled me to build connections with faculty and other students that have been both professionally and personally beneficial."
- Andrea L. Day, MA (Academic) 2008 and BA Hons. (2006), currently doing a PhD at the University of Toronto - "As a graduate student in creative writing at UNB, I felt like a part of a very encouraging literary community. What impressed me most was the close attention my work received from my professors who consistently met with me one-on-one to give thorough and honest critiques of my writing, which is an experience I don't think I will have again to quite the same degree. The personal relationships I developed there were inspiring and meaningful; I feel confident that my professors at UNB will continue to be my mentors throughout my writing career."
- Emily Ruskovich, MA (Creative Writing) 2009, MFA (Iowa) 2010, McCreight Fiction Fellow at University of Wisconsin-Madison (2011-12) - "One of my favourite features of UNB's Creative Writing and English MA is that you both work with first-rate writers and academics in the classroom and have the chance to socialize with them outside of the classroom. In addition, you will also meet countless authors from across Canada through UNB's reading series. Belonging to such a stimulating extra-curricular milieu in my time at UNB was vital to my development as an academic and as a creative writer. I've attended three Canadian universities, and I've known students in graduate programs from across North America, and I can say without hesitation that UNB's English MA is unique for its nurturing environment, for its sense of community."
- Greg Shupak, MA (Creative Writing) 2008, published fiction writer and PhD student at the University of Guelph - "I chose UNB for my master's degree because the MA program offered a variegated academic backing, and the Creative Writing program provided a complement to, rather than a compromise of, the academic stream. The small size of the graduate classes meant that we were integrated as a group both intellectually and socially, and cliques weren't formed based on research area or level of graduate study. The professors in the English Department are great, and are very willing to help students with 'extras' like SSHRC applications and recommendation letters. I know that 'more than a number' is a bit of a cliché, but..."
- Stephanie Yorke, MA (Creative Writing) 2009, currently a Commonwealth Scholar at Oxford University doing a PhD in postcolonial literature and disability studies
