ObjectivesThis Creative Writing programme aims to enable students to develop their own creativity and produce a substantial portfolio of original writing as they engage with the best contemporary work being published.
Entry requirementsEntry requirements Normally a 2:1 degree from a UK university or equivalent and evidence of writing ability. A sample of not more than ten pages of original writing must be submitted with all applications. An IELTS score of 7 or equivalent.
Academic titleMA/PgDip Creative Writing
Course descriptionGeneral programme structure
An integrated framework of study in contemporary writing and recent theory informs each module in the creative writing programme, which is led by writers published in the field. Seminars, designed to encourage maximum participation from students, are based on the writers" workshop as an arena for the critical reception and imaginative development of students" work.
The modular scheme allows students to follow their own specialisms, but also encourages writers to take on the intellectual challenge of exploring the unfamiliar in various literary forms. Completing four modules (including core modules: workshop practice and research for writers) results in a PgDip award which also qualifies students to write a creative MA dissertation. The dissertation is a supervised project of original writing such as: a collection of stories, a section of a novel, a full-length play/film script, narrative non-fiction, or a collection of poems.
Staff include Tony Lopez, author of 20 books including False Memory, a 2003 book of the year in the Guardian and New Statesman; Anthony Caleshu, author of The Siege of the Body and a Brief Respite; novelist and biographer Martin Goodman, author of Slippery when Wet, On Sacred Mountains, I was Carlos Castaneda, on Bended Knees and many others; and Mary Jacobs, our life-writing specialist who is currently working on a project on Sylvia Townsend Warner.
Detailed programme structure
-Workshop practice
-Research for writers
-Fiction (theory and practice)
-Dramatic writing
-Poetics
-Life writing