Christine Anne Foley
Student spotlight details
Christine Anne Foley, who studied on the part-time MSt in Creative Writing, owes the publication of her debut novel 'Bodies' to the long evenings she spent at Rewley House, collaborating with her fellow writers.
'Before enrolling on the Master's in Creative Writing I completed a degree in English Studies at Trinity College Dublin. I took Creative Writing as my main elective in my final year, and it was through this module that I heard about the world of Creative Writing masters' degrees. I was young and still finding my voice and the option of studying the craft for another two years was both terrifying and exhilarating.
'One of the most wonderful aspects of the MSt is how it forces you to go outside your comfort zone. I was safe and cosy, locked into my prose writing, but exploring other forms like theatre really opened me up to a whole other world, a world of collaborative writing and creation. It was during the MSt that I wrote and produced my very first play.
'The weekend retreats at Rewley House are an aspiring writer’s dream, you are surrounded by your peers, all at different stages of their writing journey, and you just live in this bubble for three days, learning so much from each other. This was definitely the highlight of the programme for me.
'I owe so much to my two years at Oxford and I am delighted to say that my debut novel Bodies which is being published by John Murray Press in August 2023 would not have happened if it hadn’t been for the long evenings in Rewley House digesting the classes with my professors and peers.
'To anyone considering taking the course I would say two things. Firstly, come to it with an open mind, you may walk in a poet and walk out a playwright. Secondly, be ready and willing to read your classmates’ work because this where you really learn how to write.'
