MA Creative Writing

Course overview

Creative writers express thoughts, feelings and emotions through words and can inform, provoke, captivate, inspire and move. You approach creative writing from a variety of perspectives – including fiction, poetry, life writing and drama – to explore how writers operate and how you can become an independent writer.

Drawing on our pool of talented, published writers and academics, you accumulate credit towards your chosen award at your own pace. This highly successful course also offers the chance to learn how to teach creative writing in schools or in the community. This programme is campus-based and taught by blended learning, with some face-to-face sessions and some taught online.

How you are assessed:

Each taught 30-credit module is assessed against clear learning outcomes through written assignments, usually consisting of both creative work and some critical or reflective work. In addition to the taught modules, you produce a final project (60 credits) in your chosen form and genre.

Career opportunities:

MA Creative Writing graduates go on to a wide choice of professions and careers. Apart from the more obvious routes of publishing, editing and freelance writing, many works in the wider creative industries (television, journalism, new media) or in workplaces that require advanced writing skills.

The practical and flexible design of the course means that it is also highly suited to teachers wishing to up-skill their portfolios in relation to the new Creative Writing A level; writers developing their teaching and workshopping skills to work in the community; and those using writing in therapy, healthcare and other professional settings.

If your job has a requirement to work on live briefs and projects with an imaginative or research element, you will also find the transferable skills offered by this MA a natural fit.

Although the course will help you if you want to develop a career using writing, many students take our MA to extend their skills for their own personal development and fulfilment.