English Department - University of Canterbury

English Department - University of Canterbury Nau mai! As a community we look to learn from each other - students, academic staff and professional staff alike. Thank you for your cooperation.

This is the official page of the English Programme at the University of Canterbury Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand. We offer courses and supervision in a broad variety of fields, and our department has a history of innovative and distinguished scholarship. We have a strong programme in the more 'traditional' areas of English, such as the study of li

terature (including novels, short stories, poetry, drama and Shakespeare) and creative writing. Members of our department are experts in New Zealand, Pasifika, American and European literature(s), as well as in movements such as Romanticism and Postcolonialism. We also have specialists in more recent and interdisciplinary fields such as young adult and children’s fiction, science fiction and dystopia, horror and the supernatural, popular culture, critical sexualities, critical animal studies, digital literary studies and cultural studies. We are proud of our interdisciplinary and community connections. We house the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies, teach the core courses for UC’s Cultural Studies programme and are involved in the Digital Humanities programme. We host the Ursula Bethell Residency in Creative Writing, which is co-funded by Creative New Zealand. Our academics teach into and offer supervision within other departments and programmes. We also house the Cinema Studies programme, who teach into our offerings at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. If you are interested in studying with us, whether you're starting out or are interested in a higher degree such as an MA (a Masters of Arts by research), an MWRIT (a Master of Writing), or a PhD, we'd love to hear from you. This page is tended by Erin Harrington (UC lecturer), with contributions provided by academic staff, professional staff, students, and members of the community.

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This week poet and creative writing senior lecturer Vana Manasiadis appeared at a very full event at the Great Hall in T...
11/09/2026

This week poet and creative writing senior lecturer Vana Manasiadis appeared at a very full event at the Great Hall in The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora with our colleagues Patrick O'Sullivan (Classics) and Peter Field (History), discussing the enduring appeal of The Odyssey. They talked about how Nolan has adapted it to speak to 21st century audiences: the film’s directorial and narrative choices, where it succeeds and where it stumbles, its relation to its Homeric model, what is at stake in retelling a 3,000 year-old myth, and more... Thanks to all who came along, especially the large numbers of Classic teachers and students from schools around the city, and to Peter for supplying the speakers with some wine.

More big news this week - congratulations to our colleagues in Philosophy Department at the University of Canterbury, Li...
09/09/2026

More big news this week - congratulations to our colleagues in Philosophy Department at the University of Canterbury, Lizzie and Carolyn, for finally completing this ridiculous puzzle in the Karl Popper 6th floor tea room. They've done about 95% of the work on this over at least 6 months / 84 years, with occasional assistance from less hardy folk, continuing even when they were offered something less infuriating because philosophers never surrender. Thanks or no thanks to Chevy for dropping this in at the end of last year.

It's been a really big weekend at WORD Christchurch for many of our us, but we're particularly proud of the launch of Em...
06/09/2026

It's been a really big weekend at WORD Christchurch for many of our us, but we're particularly proud of the launch of Emergence, the new collection of writing from the Master of Writing programme, which took place last Thursday night at The Piano. The collection, which features work from 26 writers, was edited by Juliette Sauvage, with support from Vana Manasiadis, Paul Millar, Dan Bedggood and Nicholas Wright, and officially launched at a sold out event by our last Ursula Bethell writer in residence, Shehan Karunatilaka. It was wonderful to be able to celebrate this event with many of the contributors, their whānau, and wider members of the English programme's community, right at the time we've had the 100th enrolment in the MWRIT programme. Thanks to Aaron Beehre for his beautiful design and Canterbury University Press for publishing the work. You can find the collection at UBS - University Bookshop Canterbury and other bookstores, or CUP's website. Click through to the comments for a link to a piece in The Press last week about the collection.

Happy WORD Christchurch week! We were really happy to see such a great write up about our last Ursula Bethell writer in ...
30/08/2026

Happy WORD Christchurch week! We were really happy to see such a great write up about our last Ursula Bethell writer in residence, Shehan Karunatilaka, who is appearing across the festival.

Hot off The Press, read all about the witty and brilliant Shehan Karunatilaka - WORD guest and Christchurch local. Tickets are still available for all his sessions at the festival THIS WEEK.

A special hat tip to our partners University of Canterbury, AKA the reason we've got so many amazing writers who have moved to our city.

21/08/2026

🚨DEADLINE EXTENDED🚨 Applications for the University of Canterbury / Creative New Zealand Ursula Bethell Writer in Residence positions for 2027 are currently open. The closing date has been *extended* by a week - applications now close Sunday 30 August. Please click through for more info.

We're so proud of MWRIT alumna Charlotte Bell, whose first book One Year Out, published by Folly Press, has been receivi...
21/08/2026

We're so proud of MWRIT alumna Charlotte Bell, whose first book One Year Out, published by Folly Press, has been receiving rave reviews up and down the country. Congratulations Charlotte! If you want to see why people are so excited about the book, you can find copies with our friends at UBS - University Bookshop Canterbury.

This is publication week for pip adam's new novel kluge! pip wrote much of this while with us as one of the University o...
20/08/2026

This is publication week for pip adam's new novel kluge! pip wrote much of this while with us as one of the University of Canterbury / Creative New Zealand 2024 Ursula Bethell Writers in Residence. The book combines the form and tone of a stand up comedy special with language in the style of AI chatbots to tell a story the last days of a tech company and its all-powerful owner, all threaded through with questions about what it means to have a body. Ngā mihi nui pip! If you want to know more, here's pip in conversation with Kathryn Ryan on Nine to Noon on RNZ.

While writing her latest novel on a dystopian world, badly behaving tech billionaires, and artificial intelligence, Pip Adam's writing took a turn. She discovered her previous works had been stolen by Meta's large language model. In her new novel kluge, the narrator looks back, from 120 years in the...

Congratulations to creative writing student Indigo Tomlinson, who is one of the featured poets at the Canterbury Poets' ...
19/08/2026

Congratulations to creative writing student Indigo Tomlinson, who is one of the featured poets at the Canterbury Poets' Collective's even Lambing Season tomorrow night. If you are keen to head along info is in the image - and there's an open mic for people aged 15-25 too.

Attention creative writers! Applications for the prestigious 2026 MacMillan Brown Prize for Writers are now open. This p...
10/08/2026

Attention creative writers! Applications for the prestigious 2026 MacMillan Brown Prize for Writers are now open. This prize recognises excellence in English composition by current and recent undergraduate students of the University of Canterbury. Three prizes are available: a first prize with a value of $2000, a second prize with a value of $1000 and a third prize of $500.

Applicants must submit an original piece of writing of their own sole composition, either unpublished or published, which deals imaginatively with any theme: an essay, a short story, a poem or group of poems, or a short play. The total length of the submission must not exceed 2,500 words. Only one submission of works is permitted in each application round.

For further information and to apply, please refer to the Scholarships website and search for ‘MacMillan Brown Prize for Writers’. (Please note: In order to ‘Apply’, you will need to log into the Scholarships portal via your myUC account.)

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Level 6, Karl Popper Building, University Of Canterbury, University Drive
Christchurch
8041

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