Creative Writing – BA (Honours)

At a glance

Prepare for a career as a writer with a course that develops your prose, scriptwriting and poetry, as well as your creative thinking. You are taught by widely performed and published poets, scriptwriters and novelists who give you real insights into essential writing processes.

Key points
• Prepare for a career as a writer.• Gain from the experience of successful poets, scriptwriters and novelists.
• Go on overseas study exchanges to partner universities such as the Sorbonne, Paris.
• Support and develop your writing through the study of language and literature.

What is creative writing?
Creative writing is a distinct academic field within English studies. It incorporates the practice or craft of writing fiction, poetry, drama, and non-fictional prose, such as memoir or biography. It also develops the critical skills of students as reviewers and develops their knowledge of their literary heritage and the contemporary culture in which their own work is situated.

This course

Develop your prose, scriptwriting and poetry, as well as your knowledge of literary culture on a course led by widely performed and published poets, scriptwriters and novelists.

You explore and develop writing skills in prose, drama and verse, and your understanding of what it means to be a writer, through workshops, seminars and tutorials. In your final year you work on a major project in your chosen genre as well as receiving advice on making a living as a writer from authors and industry figures.

We have a well published and professional writing team whose work includes scriptwriting for prime time soap and drama programmes, short stories, novels, poetry, and memoir.

Learning best practice directly from writers, you• explore and extend your style by acquiring the professional habits of drafting and reflection
• learn to analyse texts and complementary art forms from the writer’s point of view
• apply the lessons learnt to your own work

Through reading literary texts and developing an English-language toolkit, you enhance your own abilities as a writer and develop transferable skills.

You have the chance to study overseas on one of our creative writing exchanges. These include places at the Sorbonne, Paris and Carnegie-Mellon, in the US. You can also enhance your career prospects as a writer by gaining professional experience on work experience placements with community writing groups, the local press, in-house publishing and working with non-governmental organisations.

Well-trained writers find employment in all sectors and are employed wherever writing is a core requirement, especially in advertising, the media, and education as well as the wider creative industries.

Key areas of study
As well as workshops and tutorials to develop your creative writing, you study modules on making creative use of English language, literature-based modules to help you situate your work within contemporary literary fields, and making a living as a writer.

Internationally acclaimed teaching team
Our internationally acclaimed tutors include
• novelist, short-story writer and playwright Jane Rogers (Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; Arthur C. Clarke Award-winner)
• poet Maurice Riordan (former editor of Poetry London)
• prize-winning poet and memoirist Conor O’Callaghan
• award-winning children’s writer and performer David Harmer
• Forward-Prize-nominated poet Chris Jones
• script-writer and theatre director Mike Harris
• writer of literary detective fiction, James McCreet
• environmental poet and editor, Harriet Tarlo
• award-winning TV dramatist and novelist, John Milne

Together our professional writing team publish and teach in all areas of contemporary literary practice.