BA (Hons) English Literature and Creative Writing

Do you have a story to tell, or have you always wanted to be a writer? Perhaps you want to learn how to be a critical reader or gain a greater understanding of the craft of writing.

|Studying English Literature and Creative Writing with us will help you find your voice, whether as a poet, playwright, novelist, or scholar of literature.

This joint course combines the study of literature with the practice of creative writing. Studying literature will give you a greater understanding of how literary texts work, while this improved critical insight will help you put principles into practice in your own creative writing.

We offer a stimulating and supportive place in which to explore your ideas, hone your craft, and understand literary texts. Our creative writing modules are taught by lecturers who are themselves award-winning practitioners and who bridge the gap between creative and academic approaches to literature. They include our poetry lecturer Wayne Holloway-Smith, winner of the Poetry Society’s Geoffrey Dearmer Prize, and Seamus Heaney Prize nominee.

Study abroad

For aspiring writers, living in another country can provide wonderful raw material, inspiring and stimulating their work. For our students, it is a natural step from studying global literature to go out into the world and experience it for real. All our students have the option to take a year’s study abroad at one of our many partner institutions across the world. Your year will broaden your horizons and enhance your understanding of the literature of other cultures – it may even inspire your dissertation or future published work.