Master of Creative Writing, Publishing and Editing

In this subject, students will explore principles of the craft of writing short fiction, looking at individual narrative techniques such as material and form, plot, conflict and structure, character, point of view and style. Students will read a variety of short fiction texts from the beginning of the modernist era to contemporary fiction.

View detailed information in the Handbook

In this subject, students will be exposed to a rich and thrilling range of Creative Nonfiction – music, science, sport, technology, trauma, family, politics, more – on the road to developing and fine-tuning their own writing skills. Class discussions will tackle ethics and research/narrative techniques. Students will workshop their own writing and be asked to respond to other students’ written work. They will finish the course with an insight into top-class writers’ minds and techniques, and ideas on how to take their own writing to a higher plane.

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This subject introduces students to a broad range of both poetic genres, forms and styles. Students can expect to read poetry by a diverse variety of writers (mostly from the 20th and 21st century), with an emphasis on historically-informed poetic innovation.

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In this subject, students will be introduced to the history of screenwriting and the principles of the craft of writing scripts for screen. Students will develop an understanding of contemporary industrial screenwriting practices. Students will read and respond to a variety of scripts written for screen and will also be required to write a short original screenplay. This subject is highly recommended for students intending to take Advanced Screenwriting and/or Writing Videogames and Live Performance.

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This subject is an introduction to the principles and techniques of scriptwriting for the theatre. A selection of theatre scripts in various styles will be studied, in conjunction with relevant critical material, to enhance the production of an original script. Students will each view a current Melbourne theatre production and review the scriptwriting concept and techniques through blog-posts on a class forum, as well as participating in workshopping of their classmates’ scripts throughout semester. This subject is compulsory for students planning to take Writing Radical Performance in the 3rd year of their studies.

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This subject explores how creative writing practice encounters identity and alterity. Students will engage with the politics of representation through critical theory, intertextual reflexivity and deconstruction of inherited categories of self and other. It addresses the authority of writing and the responsibilities of ethical representation in creative practice. Students will analyse, discuss and critique a variety of textual representations, before applying these ethical considerations and creative methods to their own writing. The subject will be delivered through a series of lectures and creative practice workshops, which focus on developing ethical and engaging writing.

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Novels is a practice-oriented subject to do with how we read and write the novel now. In this subject, we will explore both historical and contemporary examples of the form, reading fiction by Cervantes, Flaubert, Kafka, Plath, Woolf and Butler, alongside more contemporary contributions from Vuong, Wright, Karunatilaka, Miéville, Hamid and Trías. The emphasis is on the opening section of a novelistic work. Students will read a variety of novel openings and at least one full novel selected from the subject’s reading list, and work to develop their own, original novel opening over the course of the semester. We draw inspiration from Michael Ondaatje’s assertion that “The first sentence of every novel should be: Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human. Meander if you want to get town.” Our teaching staff support and encourage students to experiment with new approaches to the novel that acknowledge, challenge and extend on the form’s extraordinary history.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Poetry and Poetics of Writing Back is about how we read and write poetry today. In this subject, we will grapple with notions of canon and legitimacy, inclusivity and exclusivity and think hard about how to write back to them. We will focus on the work of contemporary poets (such as Vuong, Whittaker, Beneba Clarke and Hong) and the many ways in which they’ve re-tooled English, reconstructed language, re-thought poetic form and traditions. In this subject, we will explore the ways in which poetry necessarily lends itself to finding new forms, to an interrogative focus on language, to a profound strangeness, playfulness, and opacity. Using Audre Lorde’s assertion that “the masters tools will never dismantle the masters house” as a springboard, we will search for new linguistic tools with which we can break open and rebuild ossified forms, structures, institutions and ideas to house our writing.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Life writing offers us a powerful entry point into exploring families, bodies, relationships, time, and place and can bring to the page experiences and stories that have been ignored, silenced or forgotten. In the examination and writing of lived experiences and life narratives we can begin to understand our worlds, explore difference and subjectivity, and to tell our own intertwined and relational life stories.

In this subject we pay particular attention to experimental forms of life writing and to queer, indigenous, disabled, and feminist scholarship and writing lineages here and elsewhere. We will be reading, thinking and talking about identity and representation (including self-representation), writing the body, thinking through time and linearity in relation to narrative, power and ethics, the complexities of memory, and the possibilities afforded by different forms of life writing, which include autobiography, essays, memoirs, biographies, diaries, letters, family histories, zines, poetry, etc.

The work we do in this subject is trauma informed and grounded in creative and experimental research, writing, and reading practices. Over the semester we will practice a range of writing and research techniques which include mapping, weaving, writing letters to our future selves, working with archives and special collections, playing with genre and hybrid forms, and working with objects as holders of memory and story to support the production of a folio of original life writing and a critical reflection.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Advanced Screenwriting draws upon a variety of contemporary examples of screenwriting, including writing for film and television, and a range of genres. Students will develop an understanding of how contemporary screenwriting practices and ideals relate to shifting cultural and technological contexts. Through practical workshops, students will enhance their techniques in writing for film and television series, developing a creative project from pitch to screenplay. This subject builds upon skills learnt in the second year Creative Writing subject Writing for Screen.

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This subject engages with the theoretical, practical and technical aspects of creative writing for video games and live performance. Through a rigorous examination of the work of key artists and writing from the 1980s onwards, students will devise concepts for games, performance and enhance their scriptwriting practice. Student will produce a critical essay and two scripts: a solo piece or character monologue; and a script for a game or live performance; as well as workshopping their ideas in class.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject explores the relationship between critical writing and creative writing. Over the course of semester, we’ll read a selection of texts that challenge the boundary between critical and creative writing, and we’ll discuss the relationship between critical schools of thought and students’ own writing practices. We’ll look at critical-creative writing practices on a range of topics and from diverse perspectives including identity, environment, politics, affect, disability, neurodiversity, activism, colonialism, race, gender, queerness and emotion. Weekly exercises will guide students towards producing their own piece of writing which engages with the critical-creative nexus.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject focuses on the structural editing of texts in a range of genres, including instructional, polemical, scholarly and narrative works. Students will learn how to analyse the reading practices characteristic of different genres, and will be given practical experience in editing texts to meet the requirements and expectations of various projected readerships. The subject will also familiarise students with protocols for effective author/editor communication and acquaint them with the ethical and legal responsibilities that govern editors' participation in the publishing process. On successfully completing this subject, students will have a sound grasp of strategies for appraising the rhetoric and structure of texts in a wide range of genres.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject focuses on the key communication skill of editing. It introduces students to the linguistic conventions of editorial English, the use and interpretation of copyediting symbols, and the parameters of a variety of house styles. Students will also learn the principles and practice of editing on screen and the procedures required to ensure editorial transparency and accountability in an electronic environment. The subject offers an overview of the major components of the editing process, with an emphasis on editing for consistency and cohesion. On successfully completing this subject, students will have a sound grasp of the linguistic and procedural aspects of copy-editing.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject will explore writing middle grade and young adult fiction. Students will critically engage with texts from these relatively new literary genres, examine issues of ethics, diversity, representation, identity, voice, and creatively navigate the spaces between childhood and adulthood. Exploring the historical development, trends, characteristics and common misconceptions of writing for young people, this subject will place middle grade and young adult literature in the broader context of literary criticism and cultural studies.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject engages with creative and intellectual concepts concerning an understanding of place (and places) and the relationship between place and individuals, communities and cultural formations. These places may be physical, social or psychological, and can include "natural" landscapes, urban/industrial environments, the genealogies of family, or place and the connections between memory and physical space. This subject asks students to engage with the work of novelists and poets in addition to non-fictional texts to stimulate their own creative writing project. These projects will be developed and workshopped in the seminars. Students will explore the relationship between the creative process and the development of written and performative texts. On completion of the subject, students will have produced a folio of writing that includes prose-fiction, poetry, performance/script or non-fiction.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This course considers the act of representing climate in narrative texts, from environmental and nature writing to the rapidly expanding genre of “cli-fi” (climate fiction). Beginning with an historical overview of writing engaging with concepts of nature, it will move to an examination of a range of genre narratives and interrogate students own relationship to the environments they wish to research and write about. It will consider the role of climate writing in engaging with the idea of future(s) and examine how different forms have, and are, pushing visions/versions of our changing climate. Students will undertake their own project of environmental writing, choosing from a range of genres, including graphic narrative, literary fiction, romance, Young Adult, creative nonfiction, fantasy, horror and science fiction.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Students will read graphic fiction and non-fiction with a focus on 20th century creators such as Lynda Barry, Art Spiegelman, Lee Lai, Alison Bechdel, Chris Ware, Marjane Satrapi, and Shaun Tan. Students will also read into comics theory, cultural theory, and contemporary criticism of the medium, and discuss the history and innovations of this emerging field of creative practice. Students will work to produce their own original graphic narrative: this can be fictional, autobiographical, poetic, or journalistic. Guest educators will present masterclasses on making comics and the local industry. No prior artistic experience is required.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject is designed to provide students with specialised knowledge and skills for research, professional practice and further learning in the field of contemporary Australian literature. Students will develop advanced and integrated understandings of ways of reading and they will produce creative responses to the selected texts for the subject. Ultimately, students will develop expert, specialised cognitive and technical skills in creative writing by reading and analysing significant Australian works.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Students will read a range of fictional and non-fictional narratives written in the late 20th and early 21 st centuries for serial publication, such as Maupin’s Tales of the City books or ABC’s Please Like Me. Students will analyse these texts with a focus on the relationship between serial distribution and storytelling form, and with particular attention given to historical transformations and new developments.

Students will also read critical approaches to serial narrative concentrating on textual forms, genre, criticism, technologies of production and distribution, industrial formations of production and distribution, cultural contexts, and modes of audience engagement. Students will work to devise a concept outline for an original serial narrative for print, online, audio or screen delivery (e.g. online prose series, television series or podcast series), and write selected instalments.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject focuses on writers collaborating with musicians, scientists, visual and sound artists, architects, designers, theatre-makers, activists, historians, psychologists, photographers, film-makers. Collaborations can give birth to genuinely new ways of thinking and seeing the world. When all collaborating parties are fully extended it may spark unexpected, out-of-the-box work. We are interested in creative partnerships that push people beyond their respective comfort zones and that thrive on plurality – not only of art forms and disciplines but of fundamental approaches to research and meaning-making. We will also think deeply about the ethos and ethics of collaboration, about how successful collaborations are structured and kept vital and nourishing. We won’t forget to consider creativity. What happens when we are not alone at various stages of the creative process? Students will be encouraged to imagine and develop collaborations – to bring their talents and skills into fertile and fabulous creative relationships with people outside the field of writing. Students will also collaborate with each other in the development of creative work(s).

View detailed information in the Handbook

Students enrolled in this subject will be assisted to find a placement in a professional working environment. They will work under the guidance of a senior staff member, with additional support from the subject coordinator. The placement will enable students to apply in a practical environment skills developed in their other coursework units. Students will thus gain direct exposure to professional practice in their chosen field. The internship may be undertaken as a practicum at the students' workplace if appropriate.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject provides an overview of the major factors affecting the local and global production, marketing and distribution of books, magazines and electronic publications. It considers the impact of political, social and economic conditions, technological changes, and changing industry practices. Students will gain a critical understanding of professional practices and current issues in various sectors of the industry in the context of global developments.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject introduces students to the principles and practices of writing and editing for digital media. It provides students with an understanding of and practical skills in writing for different online contexts and genres, including websites, online essays, multimedia stories, social media content, and search engine optimisation. Students will apply these skills using their existing disciplinary expertise to develop and creative contribute to platforms focused on their professional industries.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject introduces students to the history of the book and its relationship to changing reading practices. It will focus specifically on the changing technologies and aesthetics of book production, the relationships between reading and other cultural practices, the changing roles of publishers, booksellers and authors, the evolution of libraries as repositories and gatekeepers of approved knowledge, and the role of government in establishing a legislative framework to regulate the book trade.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject introduces students to advanced aspects of writing and editing for digital media through the creation of a digital project with an industry partner. It focuses on the strategic and creative decision-making of editorial practice and digital storytelling. Working within the creative and cultural industries, students will explore multi-platformed editorial approaches; principles of workflow, budgeting, and monetisation; digital software for authoring, editing, and content management; and the creation of text, audio, and video for the internet. Students will gain a practical understanding of industry standards, develop new digital literacies through the creation of a multi-platform project, and the systems, trends and technological developments taking place in the digital media industries.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject teaches students practical skills in creating documents using the industry-standard software, Adobe Indesign through practical workshops that take the student from beginner to intermediate skill levels. It also introduces students to the concepts and practice of print production and design, and outlines the underlying principles of publishing design and page layout, the characteristics of good typesetting, the interrelationship of images, space, colour and text and the importance of design briefs. Through reference to the history of printing, this subject will extend students’ understanding of the impact of changing technologies on typography, graphic design and production processes, enabling them to develop a critical awareness of trends in the field. A brief insight to some of the specific design and publishing challenges of ePublishing is also provided.

Please note: Students should subscribe to Adobe Indesign via Adobe Creative Cloud for the duration of the subject in order to be able to complete assignments out of class time.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject provides an overview of magazine writing, editing and publishing, with special emphasis on the skills needed to successfully produce magazines today. We examine how magazine editors conceive of audiences, and how they create print and digital magazines that serve the needs and desires of those audiences. Students will study how editors turn ideas into stories, and work with the magazine production team to give a story its final form. Students will learn how writers pitch ideas to editors, and to research and write magazine feature stories. We study the commercial aspects of magazine publishing – advertising, sales, marketing and promotion – and investigate innovative magazine business models in a time of great change and disruption in publishing. We examine how a magazine develops from concept to finished product, including launch proposal, project planning, scheduling and budgeting. Our focus is not solely on print, but on the magazine as a form that continues to evolve in response to social and technological change.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject addresses ethical issues and legal constraints related to working in the arts and culture sector, including publishing for print and digital media. It will review existing ethical codes and the mechanisms established to police them, as well as offering an overview of how practices are shaped by law relating to such matters as intellectual property, contracts, negligence, privacy, defamation and respect for cultural differences. On successfully completing this subject, students will have gained an understanding of a wide range of ethical and legal considerations for their professional practice.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject involves travel to New York to undertake a six-week intensive program at Columbia University. The program will involve instruction by senior figures in the global publishing industry.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject introduces students to the processes by which book publishers evaluate proposals and build their lists. Through seminars and hands-on workshops, students are introduced to the business and management aspects of book publishing that underpin list-building, and to the processes involved in selecting and commissioning titles, researching potential markets, building a distinctive list, choosing formats (print and digital), and providing effective commentary on work in progress. The subject also examines the management of publishing enterprises, including project costing, production management and quality control, distribution, management of suppliers, the negotiation of contracts, and the sale of subsidiary rights. On successfully completing this subject, students will have acquired advanced skills in manuscript appraisal, a detailed knowledge of the characteristics of a successful book publishing list, and a wide-ranging understanding of financial and management systems in the publishing industry.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject will introduce students to the principles and practices associated with the development and structural editing of a range of texts from four of five specialised genres: fiction, trade non-fiction, children’s books, genre fiction and educational publishing. Students will be presented with manuscripts across the featured genres by staff and guest lecturers with expertise in the relevant field/s. Each genre will be covered in detail over two or three weeks of the semester. On successful completion of this subject students will have acquired advanced skills in manuscript appraisal and editing.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject provides an overview of the global publishing industry, examining global book production, translation, the international rights market, multi-media adaptation of books, conglomerate publishing companies, and global practices of reception. Students will gain a critical understanding of professional practices and the issues that define book publishing on a global scale.

This subject compliments PUBL90003 The Contemporary Publishing Industry (which gives students a general overview of the contemporary book publishing sector) and focuses more specifically on the global book trade and the way that professional publishing practice, in myriad forms, happens across national borders.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject introduces students to research skills for students planning, researching and writing a thesis in the School of Culture and Communication. Research Principles and Practices Graduate explores traditional and contemporary research practices and the differing methodological approaches guiding research practices in the School of Culture and Communication. It explores key research principles and practices including: defining an academic field, establishing a research question, identifying key words and key texts, developing a literature review, preparing and presenting a research proposal. Research Principles and Practices Graduate provides students with specific research methodologies and academic practices that will facilitate their research projects. It will also provide information about copyright, ethics and the conduct of ethical research.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The student will negotiate a suitable project with a supervisor, and attend meetings and supervision sessions as required. Enrolment in the thesis is across two consecutive semesters and students must enrol in the subject in each semester to ensure they are meeting the full 50 point requirement for the year-long subject.

To be eligible to enrol in the minor thesis, all students must submit a 300 word thesis proposal on a relevant topic for approval by the course coordinator at least 2 weeks prior to the semester of enrolment in the thesis.

Students admitted into the minor thesis must be in the final 100 points of their degree, with an average of H2A (75%) prior to enrolment in the thesis.

Thesis students must also enrol in the subject ARTS90032 Research Principles & Practices Graduate concurrently with CWRI90015.

View detailed information in the Handbook

The student will negotiate a suitable project with a supervisor, and attend meetings and supervision sessions as required. Enrolment in the thesis is across two consecutive semesters and students must enrol in the subject in each semester to ensure they are meeting the full 50 point requirement for the year-long subject.

To be eligible to enrol in the minor thesis, all students must submit a 300 word thesis proposal on a relevant topic for approval by the course coordinator at least 2 weeks prior to the semester of enrolment in the thesis.

Students admitted into the minor thesis must be in the final 100 points of their degree, with an average of H2A (75%) prior to enrolment in the thesis.

Thesis students must also enrol in the subject ARTS90032 Research Principles & Practices Graduate concurrently with CWRI90015.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Students in this subject will devise, plan, develop and complete an independent major creative project in a writing genre of their choice including but not limited to prose fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, scriptwriting, graphic narrative. Students will produce drafts of work in progress, engage in peer feedback, workshops, and present readings. In the intensive component, they will participate in seminars conducted by experienced writers and professionals. Students will gain knowledge of creative strategies, themes and exercises in relation to the development of their Major writing project. Students will build foundations for their creative writing practice and graduate writing careers

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject gives students hands-on experience of publishing through the Publishing program’s teaching press, Grattan Street Press, and teaches reflective learning techniques to consolidate the development of project management skills. Working under the supervision of a staff member, a student will produce two substantive publishing projects, equivalent to 6500 words of written assessment. The projects will be part of two larger team publishing projects led by staff and based in the teaching press. Students will also complete a journal or essay analysing their experience of publishing project management in a team environment (2500 words), and contribute to a team presentation of project outcomes (equivalent to 1000 words).

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject inducts students into short-deadline workflows and projects in an operational publishing house. Over five days, students undertake writing and publishing projects in the Publishing program’s teaching press, Grattan Street Press, under the supervision of academic staff, and to deadline, as part of the teaching press’s ongoing publication schedule. Students also participate in two masterclasses with leading authors and/or editors, designed to refine writing and editing skills employed in book publishing.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Working under the supervision of a staff member, a student will produce two substantive publishing projects, equivalent to 5,000 words of written assessment. The project will be part of a larger team publishing project which is led by staff and based in the program’s teaching press.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject explores the relationship between critical writing and creative writing. Over the course of semester, we’ll read a selection of texts that challenge the boundary between critical and creative writing, and we’ll discuss the relationship between critical schools of thought and students’ own writing practices. We’ll look at critical-creative writing practices on a range of topics and from diverse perspectives including identity, environment, politics, affect, disability, neurodiversity, activism, colonialism, race, gender, queerness and emotion. Weekly exercises will guide students towards producing their own piece of writing which engages with the critical-creative nexus.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject focuses on the structural editing of texts in a range of genres, including instructional, polemical, scholarly and narrative works. Students will learn how to analyse the reading practices characteristic of different genres, and will be given practical experience in editing texts to meet the requirements and expectations of various projected readerships. The subject will also familiarise students with protocols for effective author/editor communication and acquaint them with the ethical and legal responsibilities that govern editors' participation in the publishing process. On successfully completing this subject, students will have a sound grasp of strategies for appraising the rhetoric and structure of texts in a wide range of genres.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject focuses on the key communication skill of editing. It introduces students to the linguistic conventions of editorial English, the use and interpretation of copyediting symbols, and the parameters of a variety of house styles. Students will also learn the principles and practice of editing on screen and the procedures required to ensure editorial transparency and accountability in an electronic environment. The subject offers an overview of the major components of the editing process, with an emphasis on editing for consistency and cohesion. On successfully completing this subject, students will have a sound grasp of the linguistic and procedural aspects of copy-editing.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject will explore writing middle grade and young adult fiction. Students will critically engage with texts from these relatively new literary genres, examine issues of ethics, diversity, representation, identity, voice, and creatively navigate the spaces between childhood and adulthood. Exploring the historical development, trends, characteristics and common misconceptions of writing for young people, this subject will place middle grade and young adult literature in the broader context of literary criticism and cultural studies.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject engages with creative and intellectual concepts concerning an understanding of place (and places) and the relationship between place and individuals, communities and cultural formations. These places may be physical, social or psychological, and can include "natural" landscapes, urban/industrial environments, the genealogies of family, or place and the connections between memory and physical space. This subject asks students to engage with the work of novelists and poets in addition to non-fictional texts to stimulate their own creative writing project. These projects will be developed and workshopped in the seminars. Students will explore the relationship between the creative process and the development of written and performative texts. On completion of the subject, students will have produced a folio of writing that includes prose-fiction, poetry, performance/script or non-fiction.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This course considers the act of representing climate in narrative texts, from environmental and nature writing to the rapidly expanding genre of “cli-fi” (climate fiction). Beginning with an historical overview of writing engaging with concepts of nature, it will move to an examination of a range of genre narratives and interrogate students own relationship to the environments they wish to research and write about. It will consider the role of climate writing in engaging with the idea of future(s) and examine how different forms have, and are, pushing visions/versions of our changing climate. Students will undertake their own project of environmental writing, choosing from a range of genres, including graphic narrative, literary fiction, romance, Young Adult, creative nonfiction, fantasy, horror and science fiction.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Students will read graphic fiction and non-fiction with a focus on 20th century creators such as Lynda Barry, Art Spiegelman, Lee Lai, Alison Bechdel, Chris Ware, Marjane Satrapi, and Shaun Tan. Students will also read into comics theory, cultural theory, and contemporary criticism of the medium, and discuss the history and innovations of this emerging field of creative practice. Students will work to produce their own original graphic narrative: this can be fictional, autobiographical, poetic, or journalistic. Guest educators will present masterclasses on making comics and the local industry. No prior artistic experience is required.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject is designed to provide students with specialised knowledge and skills for research, professional practice and further learning in the field of contemporary Australian literature. Students will develop advanced and integrated understandings of ways of reading and they will produce creative responses to the selected texts for the subject. Ultimately, students will develop expert, specialised cognitive and technical skills in creative writing by reading and analysing significant Australian works.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Students will read a range of fictional and non-fictional narratives written in the late 20th and early 21 st centuries for serial publication, such as Maupin’s Tales of the City books or ABC’s Please Like Me. Students will analyse these texts with a focus on the relationship between serial distribution and storytelling form, and with particular attention given to historical transformations and new developments.

Students will also read critical approaches to serial narrative concentrating on textual forms, genre, criticism, technologies of production and distribution, industrial formations of production and distribution, cultural contexts, and modes of audience engagement. Students will work to devise a concept outline for an original serial narrative for print, online, audio or screen delivery (e.g. online prose series, television series or podcast series), and write selected instalments.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject focuses on writers collaborating with musicians, scientists, visual and sound artists, architects, designers, theatre-makers, activists, historians, psychologists, photographers, film-makers. Collaborations can give birth to genuinely new ways of thinking and seeing the world. When all collaborating parties are fully extended it may spark unexpected, out-of-the-box work. We are interested in creative partnerships that push people beyond their respective comfort zones and that thrive on plurality – not only of art forms and disciplines but of fundamental approaches to research and meaning-making. We will also think deeply about the ethos and ethics of collaboration, about how successful collaborations are structured and kept vital and nourishing. We won’t forget to consider creativity. What happens when we are not alone at various stages of the creative process? Students will be encouraged to imagine and develop collaborations – to bring their talents and skills into fertile and fabulous creative relationships with people outside the field of writing. Students will also collaborate with each other in the development of creative work(s).

View detailed information in the Handbook

Students enrolled in this subject will be assisted to find a placement in a professional working environment. They will work under the guidance of a senior staff member, with additional support from the subject coordinator. The placement will enable students to apply in a practical environment skills developed in their other coursework units. Students will thus gain direct exposure to professional practice in their chosen field. The internship may be undertaken as a practicum at the students' workplace if appropriate.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject provides an overview of the major factors affecting the local and global production, marketing and distribution of books, magazines and electronic publications. It considers the impact of political, social and economic conditions, technological changes, and changing industry practices. Students will gain a critical understanding of professional practices and current issues in various sectors of the industry in the context of global developments.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject introduces students to the principles and practices of writing and editing for digital media. It provides students with an understanding of and practical skills in writing for different online contexts and genres, including websites, online essays, multimedia stories, social media content, and search engine optimisation. Students will apply these skills using their existing disciplinary expertise to develop and creative contribute to platforms focused on their professional industries.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject introduces students to the history of the book and its relationship to changing reading practices. It will focus specifically on the changing technologies and aesthetics of book production, the relationships between reading and other cultural practices, the changing roles of publishers, booksellers and authors, the evolution of libraries as repositories and gatekeepers of approved knowledge, and the role of government in establishing a legislative framework to regulate the book trade.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject introduces students to advanced aspects of writing and editing for digital media through the creation of a digital project with an industry partner. It focuses on the strategic and creative decision-making of editorial practice and digital storytelling. Working within the creative and cultural industries, students will explore multi-platformed editorial approaches; principles of workflow, budgeting, and monetisation; digital software for authoring, editing, and content management; and the creation of text, audio, and video for the internet. Students will gain a practical understanding of industry standards, develop new digital literacies through the creation of a multi-platform project, and the systems, trends and technological developments taking place in the digital media industries.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject teaches students practical skills in creating documents using the industry-standard software, Adobe Indesign through practical workshops that take the student from beginner to intermediate skill levels. It also introduces students to the concepts and practice of print production and design, and outlines the underlying principles of publishing design and page layout, the characteristics of good typesetting, the interrelationship of images, space, colour and text and the importance of design briefs. Through reference to the history of printing, this subject will extend students’ understanding of the impact of changing technologies on typography, graphic design and production processes, enabling them to develop a critical awareness of trends in the field. A brief insight to some of the specific design and publishing challenges of ePublishing is also provided.

Please note: Students should subscribe to Adobe Indesign via Adobe Creative Cloud for the duration of the subject in order to be able to complete assignments out of class time.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject provides an overview of magazine writing, editing and publishing, with special emphasis on the skills needed to successfully produce magazines today. We examine how magazine editors conceive of audiences, and how they create print and digital magazines that serve the needs and desires of those audiences. Students will study how editors turn ideas into stories, and work with the magazine production team to give a story its final form. Students will learn how writers pitch ideas to editors, and to research and write magazine feature stories. We study the commercial aspects of magazine publishing – advertising, sales, marketing and promotion – and investigate innovative magazine business models in a time of great change and disruption in publishing. We examine how a magazine develops from concept to finished product, including launch proposal, project planning, scheduling and budgeting. Our focus is not solely on print, but on the magazine as a form that continues to evolve in response to social and technological change.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject addresses ethical issues and legal constraints related to working in the arts and culture sector, including publishing for print and digital media. It will review existing ethical codes and the mechanisms established to police them, as well as offering an overview of how practices are shaped by law relating to such matters as intellectual property, contracts, negligence, privacy, defamation and respect for cultural differences. On successfully completing this subject, students will have gained an understanding of a wide range of ethical and legal considerations for their professional practice.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject involves travel to New York to undertake a six-week intensive program at Columbia University. The program will involve instruction by senior figures in the global publishing industry.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject introduces students to the processes by which book publishers evaluate proposals and build their lists. Through seminars and hands-on workshops, students are introduced to the business and management aspects of book publishing that underpin list-building, and to the processes involved in selecting and commissioning titles, researching potential markets, building a distinctive list, choosing formats (print and digital), and providing effective commentary on work in progress. The subject also examines the management of publishing enterprises, including project costing, production management and quality control, distribution, management of suppliers, the negotiation of contracts, and the sale of subsidiary rights. On successfully completing this subject, students will have acquired advanced skills in manuscript appraisal, a detailed knowledge of the characteristics of a successful book publishing list, and a wide-ranging understanding of financial and management systems in the publishing industry.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject will introduce students to the principles and practices associated with the development and structural editing of a range of texts from four of five specialised genres: fiction, trade non-fiction, children’s books, genre fiction and educational publishing. Students will be presented with manuscripts across the featured genres by staff and guest lecturers with expertise in the relevant field/s. Each genre will be covered in detail over two or three weeks of the semester. On successful completion of this subject students will have acquired advanced skills in manuscript appraisal and editing.

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This subject provides an overview of the global publishing industry, examining global book production, translation, the international rights market, multi-media adaptation of books, conglomerate publishing companies, and global practices of reception. Students will gain a critical understanding of professional practices and the issues that define book publishing on a global scale.

This subject compliments PUBL90003 The Contemporary Publishing Industry (which gives students a general overview of the contemporary book publishing sector) and focuses more specifically on the global book trade and the way that professional publishing practice, in myriad forms, happens across national borders.

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The student will negotiate a suitable project with a supervisor, and attend meetings and supervision sessions as required. Enrolment in the thesis is across two consecutive semesters and students must enrol in the subject in each semester to ensure they are meeting the full 50 point requirement for the year-long subject.

To be eligible to enrol in the minor thesis, all students must submit a 300 word thesis proposal on a relevant topic for approval by the course coordinator at least 2 weeks prior to the semester of enrolment in the thesis.

Students admitted into the minor thesis must be in the final 100 points of their degree, with an average of H2A (75%) prior to enrolment in the thesis.

Thesis students must also enrol in the subject ARTS90032 Research Principles & Practices Graduate concurrently with CWRI90015.

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The student will negotiate a suitable project with a supervisor, and attend meetings and supervision sessions as required. Enrolment in the thesis is across two consecutive semesters and students must enrol in the subject in each semester to ensure they are meeting the full 50 point requirement for the year-long subject.

To be eligible to enrol in the minor thesis, all students must submit a 300 word thesis proposal on a relevant topic for approval by the course coordinator at least 2 weeks prior to the semester of enrolment in the thesis.

Students admitted into the minor thesis must be in the final 100 points of their degree, with an average of H2A (75%) prior to enrolment in the thesis.

Thesis students must also enrol in the subject ARTS90032 Research Principles & Practices Graduate concurrently with CWRI90015.

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This subject introduces students to research skills for students planning, researching and writing a thesis in the School of Culture and Communication. Research Principles and Practices Graduate explores traditional and contemporary research practices and the differing methodological approaches guiding research practices in the School of Culture and Communication. It explores key research principles and practices including: defining an academic field, establishing a research question, identifying key words and key texts, developing a literature review, preparing and presenting a research proposal. Research Principles and Practices Graduate provides students with specific research methodologies and academic practices that will facilitate their research projects. It will also provide information about copyright, ethics and the conduct of ethical research.

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Students in this subject will devise, plan, develop and complete an independent major creative project in a writing genre of their choice including but not limited to prose fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, scriptwriting, graphic narrative. Students will produce drafts of work in progress, engage in peer feedback, workshops, and present readings. In the intensive component, they will participate in seminars conducted by experienced writers and professionals. Students will gain knowledge of creative strategies, themes and exercises in relation to the development of their Major writing project. Students will build foundations for their creative writing practice and graduate writing careers

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This subject gives students hands-on experience of publishing through the Publishing program’s teaching press, Grattan Street Press, and teaches reflective learning techniques to consolidate the development of project management skills. Working under the supervision of a staff member, a student will produce two substantive publishing projects, equivalent to 6500 words of written assessment. The projects will be part of two larger team publishing projects led by staff and based in the teaching press. Students will also complete a journal or essay analysing their experience of publishing project management in a team environment (2500 words), and contribute to a team presentation of project outcomes (equivalent to 1000 words).

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This subject inducts students into short-deadline workflows and projects in an operational publishing house. Over five days, students undertake writing and publishing projects in the Publishing program’s teaching press, Grattan Street Press, under the supervision of academic staff, and to deadline, as part of the teaching press’s ongoing publication schedule. Students also participate in two masterclasses with leading authors and/or editors, designed to refine writing and editing skills employed in book publishing.

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Working under the supervision of a staff member, a student will produce two substantive publishing projects, equivalent to 5,000 words of written assessment. The project will be part of a larger team publishing project which is led by staff and based in the program’s teaching press.

View detailed information in the Handbook