ma creative writing reading list

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Creative Writing MA (Distance Learners)

Reading lists online.

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Welcome to Reading Lists Online

Your module reading list contains details of items like books, journals, web pages or databases. These items have been selected for you by your module leaders, so when you are doing coursework the reading list is the best place to start.  Reading Lists Online (RLO) allows you to easily  access these selected resources.

Lists can be accessed through your modules on Blackboard. Y ou can also search for your reading list using the RLO search box below, just type in your module code or module title. The RLO search box is also available from the library website.

You can see whether the item on your reading list is available online or in print with the View Online or View Availability buttons. 

View Online means we have access electronically and you just need to click on the button to access it.

View Availability means we do not have it electronically but we may have the item in print.

Just click on the View Availability button to see further details of how to access the book. 

Book Jackets

Images are displayed to help you identify the book you need on the shelves.

Mobile and Tablet Friendly

It is easy to access reading lists on the go and for you to find the resources you need wherever you are.

Personalising your reading lists

You can sign into RLO and create your own profile. This will allow you to access some of the advance features, such as adding notes and reading intentions to your lists.

• Setting reading intentions and writing personal notes
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• Last Updated: Aug 16, 2024 3:04 PM
• URL: https://libguides.tees.ac.uk/creative_writing_ma

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Creative Writing MA

• Full-time: 12 months
• Part-time: 24 to 36 months
• Start date: September 2025
• UK fees: £9,250
• International fees: £24,300
• Entry requirements: 2:1

Course overview

Would you love to see your name in print? Are you curious about the creative industries? Or maybe there’s a poem or novel in you that's waiting to come out?

You will be supported to develop your creative work, and learn about the process of writing and publishing from expert staff who are published poets and authors themselves.

We will explore contemporary poetry, fiction and hybrid forms of writing (which cross genres), as well as building on your own critical writing skills. This broad analysis of technique and form will put you in a strong position to pursue a career in writing and the creative arts.

We also offer placements and internships to enhance your professional experience in sectors including publishing, marketing, charity, journalism, theatre, teaching, museums and heritage, events and libraries. Placements are flexible; you choose the duration and number of hours that best fit around your studies and other commitments.

Why choose this course?

Get ‘off the page’.

With Nottingham’s culture and activities , including Writing East Midlands , Nottingham Writers’ Studio , and Five Leaves Bookshop

Explore opportunities

in a  UNESCO City of Literature

Practice your skills

write for  Impact Magazine , the  Nottingham Poetry Exchange , or  The Letters Page  journal

Ranked 10th

for grade point average among 92 universities, and 7th in the Russell Group.

Research Excellence Framework 2021

Course content

Pre-arrival reading lists will be sent out with registration information before you join your course, where available.

This course is made up of 180 credits. 

Full-time students complete six modules across the year, before completing the dissertation over the summer.

Part-time students complete three taught modules in the first year of study, then three in their second, before turning to the dissertation.

All classes take place during weekdays.

• Core modules
• Optional modules
• Dissertation

There are five core creative writing modules, worth 20 credits each:

Develop your fiction through exercises and analysis of point of view, narrative voice, dialogue, and plot, among other techniques.

Expand your poetic range by playing with different approaches to form, exploring a range of creative techniques and sharpening your interpretive skills.

You will be encouraged to reflect on your writing output and incorporate the critiques of others when editing and developing your work.

This module is worth 20 credits. 

One of the key things you need to be able to do as a writer is critique and contextualise your own work.

This not only involves being able to edit and draft your work, it also includes understanding the wider influences from other literary and non-literary works.

These skills are really important when it comes to writing the critical essay – something you have to do alongside the creative work on the course. Yet, this module also explores how criticality itself offers new kinds of creative forms and approaches too, breaking down the traditional divide between prose, poetry and creative non-fiction.

You will explore:

• How to critically examine your own creative work
• How to write a critical essay
• New hybridic forms of writing that cross traditional boundaries (for example, prose, poetry and non-fiction) such as autofiction and autotheory
• New writers of creative, critical and hybridic work

This module is worth 20 credits

Investigate the complex relationships between writer, genre and creative industries.

In considering the production of prose and poetry, we will study the role of:

• booksellers
• literary events

Your assessment consists of a portfolio of either prose or poetry, or a combination of the two, as well as a critical essay.

This module is worth 20 credits.

Explore in depth how to write effective and compelling fiction.

Through in-class discussion and weekly readings and exercises, this module pushes and extends your own craft and technique.

Along the way, you’ll explore how to approach short story, flash fiction and novel writing. You’ll also be introduced to a range of secondary and critical texts that will help you deepen your own understanding of form, genre and style.

You will discover:

• key prose-writing techniques, including point of view, characterisation, dialogue and setting
• a range of form and genre, and the techniques and approaches that are relevant to them
• a range of critical texts that deepen and extend your understanding of prose writing technique

Explore a range of poetic conventions, and the contexts in which poetry is produced, whilst developing your own poetic style. 

Through the ‘practitioner’ approach, you are not only supported in your craft but encouraged to work towards submitting your work for publication. 

The reading list for this module includes: 

• poetry magazines
• new writers’ anthologies
• debut poetry collections
• poetry in performance 

You will select one 20-credit optional module (chosen during enrolment). Examples include:

This module represents a course in cognitive poetics. It aims to understand the meanings, emotions and effects of literary reading based on our current best understanding of language and mind. This means drawing on insights developed in cognitive science, especially in psychology and linguistics. You will also develop skills in stylistics and critical theory.

Cognitive poetics attempts to find answers to the following questions:

• How is it that different readers interpret the same literary work differently?
• How can we care emotionally about fictional people in books?
• How do some literary works make you cry, or laugh, or be fearful or joyous?
• How do we understand the minds of other people, real and imaginary?
• How do literary works create atmosphere, tone, and ambience?
• Does reality and fictionality matter?
• How does language create worlds?

You do not need to have a background in both linguistics and literary studies – either area will be perfect preparation for your exploration of cognitive poetics. You will be taught in a small-group two-hour tutorial discussion.

This module studies the representation of fictional consciousness.

Character consciousness has become so fundamental to any narrative, that we hardly think about the problems involved in representing another person's mind.

On this module, you will:

• explore in depth techniques for the presentation of consciousness in novels and other fictional texts
• learn about the linguistic indices associated with the point of view of characters and the various modes available to a writer for the presentation of characters' thoughts and perceptions
• examine the style of narrative texts that portray consciousness and study the theories that explain their methods
• consider the historical development of consciousness presentation techniques

The module is worth 20 credits.

Gain a practical introduction to the world of contemporary publishing, including:

• small presses
• online writing
• digital narratives
• social media

You will explore the landscape of contemporary publishing, both offline and online, and study the practical skills needed to research, write, edit, and publish writing across a range of forms and platforms.

The module is structured around practical writing tasks, working towards a real-world publication project which will form the basis for your assessment. You will be taught through a mixture of lecture-style content on relevant topics and practice-based workshops.

Alongside the module, you also have the opportunity to take up a work placement with The Letters Page , the School of English's own literary journal.

It has often been suggested that the idea of literary history – a narrative that understands, classifies and explains the English literary past – is an impossibility.

The relationship between literature and the history of the time of its creation is an equally vexed and productive question. We will look at various ways in which literature has combined with the study of history and also how histories of literature have been constructed.

Topics explored include:

• The development of the literary canon
• Periodicity
• Inclusions and exclusions
• Rediscoveries
• Representation

You will also look at the ways in which literary biography relates to the creation of literary histories. We will introduce key topics in the area and apply them to a variety of types of literature, and the myriad critical ways in which such literature has been viewed, both in its immediate moment and retrospectively.

This module considers a major English literary genre and its critical heritage. It also demonstrates that medieval English romance narratives can be set in complex and profound critical relationship to each other and to other artistic media.

You are encouraged to explore how reading Middle English romance texts can:

• equip us with vocabulary and concepts to discuss the cultural specificities of the literary representations of romance, love and chivalry in this period
• represent public and private identities
• ask questions regarding individuality and selfhood that arise in literature produced in a volatile period of religious and social uncertainty and dissent

These are all issues that now define the Middle Ages for modern scholars.

Study key work in narratology from literary, stylistic and sociolinguistic perspectives.

 We will explore narrative texts in terms of:

• temporal organisation
• characterisation
• point of view

You will examine both literary and non-literary narratives and gain an understanding of the historical development of narrative techniques.

Explore how writers of the modernist period responded to an age of dramatic change, and new formations in society, politics and art.

This was an an age in which revolutionary developments in science, technology, philosophy and psychology prompted the formation of radically new understandings of the self and the world.

Studying a range of literary, dramatic, cultural and critical texts, we consider the individual and collective nature of the formulation of radical aesthetics. We will be discussing modernist and avant-garde approaches to such subjects as:

• Subjectivity and consciousness
• Community and identity: gender, race, nation
• Experimental form and the literary marketplace

We will study these texts in relation to the many relevant contexts of the period, as well as by the light of more recent critical and theoretical approaches that continue to make new the work of the moderns.

This module looks at various authors, movements, and genres in the history of English poetry, from 1500 to the present.

You will gain an overview of certain key chronological areas, and case studies of more specific movements or ideas. Themes and areas of focus may include:

• late medieval
• religious verse
• poetry and science
• Epicureanism
• verse epistles
• gender and recovery
• 'minor' poets and failure
• Empire and Romanticism
• the dramatic monologue
• modernist poetics

Explore a range of modern drama, all themed around the idea of riot.

We will explore the phenomenon of the riot, examining how it is defined and how it might relate to other kinds of western performance event.

• Analyse the way that riots have both been triggered by, and represented in, an assortment of other performances
• Compare and contrast material from a range of different chronological periods and across a range of different genres

Although this module is largely focused on dramatic texts, it gives you the opportunity to consider an assortment of other performance events. For example, we will analyse the drama of Synge and O’Casey, the ballet of Stravinsky and Nijinsky, and the performance poetry of Linton Kwesi Johnson.

Explore the changing meanings of Shakespeare’s plays across text, stage and screen.

The module examines three plays in depth, looking at their literary interest (from textual history and sources to thematic concerns and characterisation) and their performative possibilities on stage and in film. The module is redesigned each year to take advantage of what theatres are currently staging.

By approaching the plays from multiple angles, you will discover the varied potential for reinterpretation and recreation that each text offers.

You will build on seminar discussions to develop your own project question about:

• the interpretive possibilities that the plays offer
• the choices made by specific interpreters of the text

Your project will be developed in consultation with tutors to consider the interplay of performance and text.

Every published document that we read, be it a novel, poetry anthology, or magazine article, has been through a complex process of evolution and editing. This module introduces you to how texts are transmitted from ‘author’ to audience.

We will consider:

• modes of transmission, both manuscript and print
• modes of representation, including scholarly editions and anthologies, both print and digital
• editorial theory and practice, including ‘best text’, genetic editing and single witness

You are encouraged to apply questions of editing to your own areas of interest, and work through the practicalities of producing an edition yourselves.

The book, handwritten or printed, was as innovative and pervasive a technology in the Middle Ages as electronic technologies are in our own time.

This module introduces the study of the book as physical ‘artefact’ and world-changing technology.

We will cover:

• methods of construction and compilation
• handwriting and early printing techniques
• reading marginalia as well as text

You will also be introduced to the benefits and applications, as well as the problems, of applying an understanding of the artefact to the texts contained within.

During the summer, you will complete a 14,000-word creative writing dissertation. This is a major piece of independent research, and you will be allocated a supervisor who is a specialist in your chosen area.

You could choose to do a series of poems or short stories, a piece of non-fiction, or an excerpt from a novel. Your supervisor will guide you through the writing of your project through to completion.

This module is worth 60-credits.

Learning and assessment

How you will learn.

• Group study
• Guest speakers

Teaching consists of workshops in poetry and fiction led by prize-winning writers  Professor Jon McGregor ,  Matthew Welton ,  Thomas Legendre ,  Dr Lila Matsumoto  and  Dr Spencer Jordan .

Students are taught in small seminar groups, so there is plenty of opportunity for discussion of ideas and development of our students as researchers.

MA Dissertation Preparation Day

This is an opportunity for students to learn more about the challenges of a larger-scale research project, about supervision and support, and about the resources available to Masters researchers. It is also a social occasion, bringing together our postgraduate students as an academic community. 

More about the Dissertation Preparation Day

How you will be assessed

• Creative writing

Most modules are assessed by written work of varying lengths, corresponding with the content and weighting of the module.

Your course tutors provide detailed comments on assignments.

For your creative writing assessment, this will consist of a portfolio. Depending on the module, this could include poetry, a short story or stories, an excerpt from a novel, or something more experimental that crosses genre or form.

Towards the end of your studies, you will complete a 14,000-word dissertation. This is a major piece of independent research, and you will be allocated a supervisor who is a specialist in your chosen area. You will produce an original piece of work in a medium of your choosing: you could produce a set of poems, a piece of fiction, or a series of short stories, for instance. You will also write a critical essay.

Your dissertation supervisor will provide advice and guidance to help you select your area of study, and offer close supervision and support as you complete your research.

Contact time and study hours

During the autumn semester, there will be approximately six hours of workshops per week for full-time students. Part-time students can expect around half of this contact time per week.

You may also arrange one-to-one tutorials with your tutors. Outside of this time, you will be expected to conduct independent study, whether reading, researching, or writing.

Entry requirements

All candidates are considered on an individual basis and we accept a broad range of qualifications. The entrance requirements below apply to 2025 entry.

• Home / UK students
• EU / International students

Alternative qualifications

Applicants will be asked to submit an example of their written work. You will be contacted by the university with full details of how to submit this.

The School of English welcomes writers of poetry, fiction, or a combination of the two. In reading the writing samples, we are looking for work that indicates that its author would be able to succeed on the course. There is no restriction on the subject matter of the writing sample. We only require that it is your own work.

You will be asked for either:

• no more than 3,000 words of prose fiction (this could be one story, a group of stories, or an extract from a longer piece)

Meeting our English language requirements

If you need support to meet the required level, you may be able to attend a presessional English course. Presessional courses teach you academic skills in addition to English language. Our  Centre for English Language Education is accredited by the British Council for the teaching of English in the UK.

If you successfully complete your presessional course to the required level, you can then progress to your degree course. This means that you won't need to retake IELTS or equivalent.

For on-campus presessional English courses, you must take IELTS for UKVI to meet visa regulations. For online presessional courses, see our CELE webpages for guidance

Visa restrictions

International students must have valid UK immigration permissions for any courses or study period where teaching takes place in the UK. Student route visas can be issued for eligible students studying full-time courses. The University of Nottingham does not sponsor a student visa for students studying part-time courses. The Standard Visitor visa route is not appropriate in all cases. Please contact the university’s Visa and Immigration team if you need advice about your visa options.

We recognise that applicants have a variety of experiences and follow different pathways to postgraduate study.

We treat all applicants with alternative qualifications on an individual basis. We may also consider relevant work experience.

If you are unsure whether your qualifications or work experience are relevant, contact us .

Our step-by-step guide covers everything you need to know about applying.

Where you will learn

Library facilities - school of english.

• manuscripts from the 12th-15th centuries and books in Old and Middle English, Old Icelandic, Viking Studies, and runology
• the  English Place-Name Society  library and archive
• Hallward Library's  DH Lawrence archive (containing Lawrence family papers, manuscripts, first editions, and books owned by Lawrence)
• the Cambridge Drama Collection (over 1,500 items including plays and works about the British theatre from 1750-1850)

Social Science and Arts Graduate Centre

The Graduate Centre for postgraduate students in the Arts and Social Sciences is available on the first floor of Highfield House, next to the Trent Building. Accessible 24/7, this space provides computer stations, a social area with informal seating and areas where students can work individually or in groups. 

The Centre also offers support for students interested in developing their own ideas in the form of seminars, conferences, events, and socials.

University Park Campus

University Park Campus  covers 300 acres, with green spaces, wildlife, period buildings and modern facilities. It is one of the UK's most beautiful and sustainable campuses, winning a national Green Flag award every year since 2003.

Most schools and departments are based here. You will have access to libraries, shops, cafes, the Students’ Union, sports village and a health centre.

You can walk or cycle around campus. Free hopper buses connect you to our other campuses. Nottingham city centre is 15 minutes away by public bus or tram.

Digital Transformations Hub

As a researcher you have full access to the  Digital Transformations Hub  and can use our equipment and software for free.

Qualification	MA
Home / UK	£9,250
International	£24,300

Additional information for international students

If you are a student from the EU, EEA or Switzerland, you may be asked to complete a fee status questionnaire and your answers will be assessed using guidance issued by the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) .

These fees are for full-time study. If you are studying part-time, you will be charged a proportion of this fee each year (subject to inflation).

Additional costs

All students will need at least one device to approve security access requests via Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). We also recommend students have a suitable laptop to work both on and off-campus. For more information, please check the equipment advice .

You'll be able to access most of the books you’ll need through our libraries, though you may wish to buy your own copies of core texts. There is a Blackwell's bookshop on University Park campus.

Funding opportunities for Faculty of Arts students

There are additional funding opportunities available to you as a Faculty of Arts student.

Other sources of funding

There are many ways to fund your postgraduate course, from scholarships to government loans.

We also offer a range of international masters scholarships for high-achieving international scholars who can put their Nottingham degree to great use in their careers.

Check our guide to find out more about funding your postgraduate degree.

• Careers advice
• Job prospects

We offer individual careers support for all postgraduate students .

Expert staff can help you research career options and job vacancies, build your CV or résumé, develop your interview skills and meet employers.

Each year 1,100 employers advertise graduate jobs and internships through our online vacancy service. We host regular careers fairs, including specialist fairs for different sectors.

International students who complete an eligible degree programme in the UK on a student visa can apply to stay and work in the UK after their course under the Graduate immigration route . Eligible courses at the University of Nottingham include bachelors, masters and research degrees, and PGCE courses.

Graduate destinations

This course is designed to develop a range of transferable professional skills, including:

• Analytical reasoning
• Communication
• Self-motivation
• Time-management
• Developing and presenting complex ideas

Our graduates have moved into a diverse range of careers, working as:

• Teachers and lecturers
• Copywriters
• Journalists
• Communications officers
• Digital marketers
• Proofreaders

"I loved my time at Nottingham, and the high quality tuition I received definitely lifted my writing to a level that got it noticed by agents and editors, and was the stepping off point for my career as a published author. The MA really did what it said on the tin: it made me understand the internal workings of fiction and, without doubt, made me a better writer."

- Clare Harvey, Creative Writing MA graduate and professional author

Career progression

75% of postgraduates from the School of English secured graduate level employment or further study within 15 months of graduation. The average starting salary was £20,796*

*HESA Graduate Outcomes 2020. The Graduate Outcomes % is derived using The Guardian University Guide methodology. The average annual salary is based on graduates working full-time within the UK.

There are a range of public engagement opportunities open to students in the School of English.

You may also apply to gain editing experience through The Letters Page online journal.

"I’ve always had the aspirations and dreams to work within the publishing industry. I was never sure what specific role I would want or how it would happen. But working with The Letters Page definitely cemented my desire to be a part of that industry…And now I am!"

- Mandy Baker , Creative Writing MA graduate, completed a placement with The Letters Page

Related courses

English studies ma, english literature ma.

The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) is a national grading system, introduced by the government in England. It assesses the quality of undergraduate teaching at universities and how well they ensure excellent outcomes for their students in terms of graduate-level employment or further study.

This content was last updated on Monday 24 June 2024. Every effort has been made to ensure that this information is accurate, but changes are likely to occur given the interval between the date of publishing and course start date. It is therefore very important to check this website for any updates before you apply.

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MA Creative and Life Writing

Content navigation menu, why study ma creative and life writing at goldsmiths.

Have you got a story to tell? Or poems that you want to shape into a collection? This Masters degree will help you develop your creative writing practice. You’ll experiment with a wide variety of forms to help you discover your preferred mode of writing.

• You may be writing regularly; you may be returning to it after concentrating on your career. Whatever your background, if you're serious about your writing, this postgraduate course can help you to develop your practice.
• Our students bring with them a lively range of interests, cultures and experiences. We welcome students of any age who share the drive to take their writing seriously.
• You’ll have the chance to experiment with different forms – poetry, the novel, short story and life writing – and to specialise in one of those areas, and you will receive expert guidance in each field.  Read work by our students .
• Some seminars will be taken by visiting writers who will talk about their work, introduce you to different theories of creative writing and engage you in discussion about their writing. Recent visitors have included  Ali Smith , Caryl Phillips, Claire Keegan and Daljit Nagra.
• We host weekly readings and discussions organised by our Writers Centre, together with occasional visits from editors, literary agents and organisers of literary projects.
• The Pat Kavanagh Prize is presented annually to an outstanding graduate from the programme. The £500 prize, created in memory of the much-admired literary agent, is awarded by a team of her colleagues at United Agents. This has been the catalyst for publication by several previous winners.

Contact the department

If you have specific questions about the degree, contact Stephen Knight .

1 year full-time or 2 years part-time

Entry requirements

You should have (or expect to be awarded) an undergraduate degree of at least second class standard in a relevant/related subject. You might also be considered if you have relevant experience and can show that you have the ability to work at postgraduate level. See Entry Requirements below

Home - full-time: £9630 Home - part-time: £4815 International - full-time: £17690

English and Creative Writing

The programme is taught in person, via workshops and seminars, which are usually taught on one day each week. However, we cannot confirm this will be the case for the next academic year as timetables are not published till just before the start of term.

Full-time students 

You will take two modules each Autumn and Spring Term (four in total), and each module is taught via 2.5-hour sessions.

Part-time students 

You take the same modules, but one per term, over the course of two years. There are also tutorials, the timing of which is flexible as they are scheduled with the tutor directly.

What you'll study

You will participate in twelve one-on-one tutorials throughout the year.

You'll also take three compulsory modules over the course of the programme:

-->

Module title	Credits
Workshop in Creative and Life Writing Presentations of their work to each other, with an account of their aims and approach, forms one important element. The students meet a range of practices, concerns and, techniques. The workshop is also the place where the issues raised in the Contemporary Contexts module are further debated in relation to the students’ own practice. -->	30 credits
Contemporary Contexts for Creative and Life Writing Topics raised in this module are wide-ranging and might include: As in the workshop, you’ll be asked to consider works by significant contemporary writers in relation to your own writing practice. -->	30 credits
Creative and Life Writing Portfolio -->	60 credits

Note about optional modules (if available): The above is indicative of the typical modules offered, but is not intended to be construed or relied on as a definitive list of what might be available in any given year. The module content and availability is subject to change.

You also choose one option module. Full-time students take the module in the second term, while part-time students take it in the second term of their second year.

You can choose from these specialist workshops, or an option module from the list of MA options offered by the Department of English and Creative Writing including topics such as European Avant-Garde, Postmodernist Fiction, or Re-writing Sexualities.

-->

Module title	Credits
Specialist Workshop in an Aspect of Creative and Life Writing (Fiction Option) The sessions will be split into two parts: Areas to be covered will include: Particular emphasis will be placed on the idea of the writing process. Every writer works differently. There is no set way of creating fiction, but it is the discovery and development of a process that works for you that will enable you to fully realise your ideas, and the module intends to help you on your way to a greater understanding of your own method. -->	30 credits
Specialist Workshop in an Aspect of Creative and Life Writing (Life Writing Option) -->	30 credits
Specialist Workshop in an Aspect of Creative and Life Writing (Poetry) -->	30 credits
Specialist Workshop in an Aspect of Creative and Life Writing (Writing for Children/Young Adults Option) -->	30 credits

Assessments

Assessment is by the submission of four pieces of writing of 5,000 words each – either an essay, or, for workshops, a piece or pieces of creative or life-writing – plus a critical account of how you have structured and developed your work.

You will also be assessed on a portfolio (maximum of 20,000 words) containing a piece or pieces of creative or life-writing together with a critical account of how you have structured and developed your work.

In all cases, the number of words applies to prose. 

Student work

Take a look at Goldfish, an annual journal showcasing work by writers on the programme, including short stories, poetry and life writing. 

Written, curated and published entirely by students, every year Goldfish showcases exciting new voices.

Where this degree can take you

Graduates of this programme include writers Tom Lee,  Lucy Caldwell ,  Ross Raisin ,  Amy Sackville , Rohan Kriwaczek,  Evie Wyld ,  Sara Grant ,  Naomi Foyle ,  Bronia Kita ,  Claire Adam , Lijia Zhang,  Luiza Sauma ,  Ashley Dartnell  and  Suzanne Joinson  and the poets Emily Berry, Andy Spragg, Kate Potts, Jack Underwood, Abigail Parry, Anthony Joseph, Katrina Naomi and Matthew Gregory.

Among them they've won or been shortlisted for awards including:

• Desmond Elliott Prize 2019
• The Sunday Times/EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2012
• Rooney Prize for Literature 2011
• Dylan Thomas Prize 2008 and 2011
• The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award 2009
• John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2009 and 2010
• Several Eric Gregory Awards
• Guardian First Book Award
• New Writing Ventures Prize
• Several Betty Trask Awards

Other graduates have gone on to work in publishing (for example, as senior commissioning editors), journalism, public relations, teaching, advertising, the civil service, business, industry, and the media.

The MA will enable you to develop transferable skills, including: enhanced communication and discussion skills in written and oral contexts; the ability to analyse and evaluate different textual materials; the ability to organise information, and to assimilate and evaluate competing arguments.

Find out more about  employability at Goldsmiths . 

You should have (or expect to be awarded) an undergraduate degree of at least second class standard in a relevant/related subject. 

You might also be considered for some programmes if you aren’t a graduate or your degree is in an unrelated field, but have relevant experience and can show that you have the ability to work at postgraduate level.

We consider applications from candidates without literary backgrounds. In this case, we would focus on the applicant's relevant experience, the quality of their portfolio and evidence of wider reading. Applicants from a non-literary background often bolster their CV with short creative writing courses, to demonstrate written skills and the ability to work in a team.

International qualifications

We accept a wide range of international qualifications. Find out more about  the qualifications we accept from around the world.

If English isn’t your first language, you will need an IELTS score (or  equivalent English language qualification ) of  7.0 with a 7.0 in writing and no element lower than 6.5  to study this programme. If you need assistance with your English language, we offer a range of  courses that can help prepare you for postgraduate-level study .

How to apply

Apply directly to Goldsmiths using our online application system

Before submitting your application you’ll need to have:

• Details of  your academic qualifications
• The  email address of your referee  who we can request a reference from, or alternatively a copy of your academic reference
• Copies of  your educational transcripts   or certificates
• A  personal statement  – this can either be uploaded as a Word Document or PDF, or completed online.  Please see our guidance on writing a postgraduate statement
• You must also submit  a portfolio of your creative or life writing  with your application - see below for details

You'll be able to save your progress at any point and return to your application by logging in using your username/email and password.

You must submit a portfolio as part of your application. This can include two or three short stories, 12-20 poems, or several extracts from a novel. You can include a combination of genres in your portfolio to reflect your writing practice, with a mixture of short stories, poems, extracts from a novel or larger piece, and life writing.

There's no set word limit, but we'd recommend no more than 3,000 words of prose.

Please make sure portfolios are in 12pt font with double-line spacing.

When to apply

We accept applications from October for students wanting to start the following September. There is no fixed deadline for submitting your online application. 

However, please note that due to the popularity of the programme and the large number of applications, places fill up quickly. We aim to process applications within three months of receipt of receiving your full application, including references. This may take longer during busier periods and holidays.

We encourage you to complete your application as early as possible, even if you haven't finished your current programme of study. It's very common to be offered a place that is conditional on you achieving a particular qualification. 

If you're applying for funding, you may be subject to an application deadline.

For more information about the programme please contact  the Department of English and Creative Writing.

Selection process

As part of the selection process, you may be invited to an online or in-person interview. Occasionally, we'll make candidates an offer of a place on the basis of their application and qualifications alone.

Find out  more about applying .

Fees and funding

Annual tuition fees.

These are the PG fees for students starting their programme in the 2024/2025 academic year.

• Home - full-time: £9630
• Home - part-time: £4815
• International - full-time: £17690

If your fees are not listed here, please check our postgraduate fees guidance or contact the Fees Office , who can also advise you about how to pay your fees.

It’s not currently possible for international students to study part-time under a student visa. If you think you might be eligible to study part-time while being on another visa type, please contact our Admissions Team for more information.

If you are looking to pay your fees please see our guide to making a payment .

Funding opportunities

Use the Goldsmiths scholarships finder below to find out what funding you may be eligible for. 

Paying your fees

Find out about paying your tuition fees .

If you are a UK student you may be eligible for a  postgraduate loan .

Meanwhile our Careers Service  can also offer advice on finding work during your studies.

Additional costs

In addition to your tuition fees, you'll be responsible for any additional costs associated with your course, such as buying stationery and paying for photocopying. You can find out more about what you need to budget for on our  study costs page .

There may also be specific additional costs associated with your programme. This can include things like paying for field trips or specialist materials for your assignments.  Please check the programme specification  for more information.

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Creative Writing MA

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Course overview

Take a tour of our School

Get a taste for life in the School of English as Masters student Alex takes you on a tour of the School building as well as some campus highlights.

The MA in Creative Writing offers the opportunity to develop your skills in creative writing within the context of a School of English with a long and distinguished history in creative writing. The course appeals both to those who wish to deepen and broaden their creative writing practice, and to those who are working towards a single publishable piece of work.

With expert guidance from teaching staff who are actively engaged in producing and publishing creative writing, you will engage with a wide variety of literary genres, including poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. You will also have the chance to develop your literary and critical skills more broadly.

Throughout the course, you will be able to explore areas of personal interest and participate in workshops to hone your skills in diverse forms of writing.

You will also produce an independent research project, which can be dedicated to a single creative idea, or which might comprise a portfolio of your creative writing, according to your interests.

Our expertise

The School of English has a long and prestigious history in creative writing. Creative Writing at Leeds has a great history of alumni and former staff, including Wole Soyinka, Geoffrey Hill, JRR Tolkien, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Hannah Copley, Luiza Sauma, literary agent Caroline Hardman, and our recent Douglas Caster Poetry Fellows Helen Mort, Anthony Vahni Capildeo and Malika Booker.

Our current staff includes Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, JR Carpenter, Kimberly Campanello, Campbell Edinborough, Zaffar Kunial, Alison Peirse, Sarah K. Perry, Jay Prosser, Jess Richards, Ross Raisin, Caitlin Stobie and John Whale. Our practices and passions run across creative and critical writing. They include: visual and experimental poetry; eco poetics; the contemporary novel and contemporary lyric poem; literature and medicine; disability studies; autofiction; and transgender memoir.

We are home to the University of Leeds Poetry Centre, which brings together the University’s strength and heritage in creative writing. It hosts regular poetry readings by visiting international poets and supports a poetry reading group.

Our creative writing community benefits from partnerships with llkley Literature Festival, Leeds Playhouse and Leeds Grand Theatre. We also support a thriving range of events and workshops with visiting writers.

Specialist resources

The University of Leeds Library is one of the UK's major academic research libraries. It has extensive holdings to support your studies, including English Literature Collections that have been designated of national and international importance.

Our Special Collections offer a huge range of rare books, manuscripts and art, as well as the archives of poets like Tony Harrison, Geoffrey Hill and Simon Armitage, and literary publications such as Stand and The London Magazine.

Other highlights include materials relating to novelists like Arthur Ransome, Angela Thirkell, Melvyn Bragg and Sophie Hannah, and critics like George Wilson-Knight and Bonamy Dobrée. The library also holds original manuscripts by the Brontë family.

Take a 360 tour around our libraries:

Brotherton Library Laidlaw Library Edward Boyle Library

Course details

The MA in Creative Writing covers a range of literary forms, including poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction genres.

The course develops your skills as a creative practitioner. It also explores the history, generic conventions and experimental possibilities of creative literary forms. Through the Creative Writing core module you will learn about key practices in and approaches to creative writing, which you will then expand on through optional modules that allow you to tailor your studies to suit your interests and career ambitions. Optional modules include offerings in Creative Writing and English Literature, alongside modules in digital media and performance in the School of Performance and Creative Industries. Your research project will apply and expand upon what you have learned in these core and option modules.

Through your research project you will gain experience of creative practice as research. You will write a creative research project on a subject of your choice with support from a specialist supervisor and with access to the outstanding research resources of the University's Brotherton Library.

Hear from our students

In this student panel our current Masters students discuss why they chose Leeds and what it's like to study a Masters in the School of English.

The list shown below represents typical modules/components studied and may change from time to time. Read more in our terms and conditions .

Most courses consist of compulsory and optional modules. There may be some optional modules omitted below. This is because they are currently being refreshed to make sure students have the best possible experience. Before you enter each year, full details of all modules for that year will be provided.

For more information and a list of typical modules available on this course, please read MA Creative Writing (Full Time) in the course catalogue.

For more information and a list of typical modules available on this course, please read MA Creative Writing (Part Time) in the course catalogue.

Year 1 compulsory modules

Module Name	Credits
Approaches to Creative Writing	30
Creative Writing Research Project	60

Year 1 optional modules (selection of typical options shown below)

Module Name	Credits
The Long Poem: Self, Land, Witness	30
So Where do you come from? Selves, Families, Stories	30
Writing Poetry	30
Writing Prose Fiction	30
Caribbean and Black British Writing	30
Romantic Identities: Literary Constructions of the Self, 1789-1821	30
Writing Places and Identities	30
Medical Humanities: Representing Illness, Disability, and Care	30
The Digital & English Studies	30
Postcolonialism, Animals and the Environment	30
Shakespeare's Tyrants	30
Planetary Aesthetics: Animism, Mimesis and Indigeneity	30
Digital and Intermedial Storytelling	30
Script Development for Film and Television	30

For more information please read MA Creative Writing (full time) or MA Creative Writing (part time) in the course catalogue.

Learning and teaching

You’ll have weekly seminars or workshops in each module where you discuss the themes and issues arising from your reading and writing. You’ll have the opportunity to share your writing and receive feedback on work-in-progress. You’ll be able to enhance your learning by attending the wide range of seminars and talks by visiting speakers and creative writers that we arrange throughout the year.

Independent study is a vital part of the degree, as it allows you to build your skills and explore your own ideas as an academic researcher and a creative writer.

On this course you’ll be taught by our expert academics, from lecturers through to professors. You may also be taught by industry professionals with years of experience, as well as trained postgraduate researchers, connecting you to some of the brightest minds on campus.

Assessment for this programme includes both creative and critical reflection on your creative practice. Modules are assessed either by a combination of these equivalent to 4,000 words, or by a single essay of around 4,000 words. While formal assessment tends to take place at the end of the module, during term you may also be expected to submit work in progress in order to gain feedback, or give presentations in your seminars.

The research project is typically a 9,000-word (or poetry equivalent) creative writing project with a 3,000-word critical reflection.

Entry requirements

A bachelor degree with a 2:1 (hons) in English literature or Creative Writing, or a degree scheme that includes a significant proportion of English Literature or Creative Writing content, or a related subject. You will also submit a Creative Writing sample comprising approximately 1,000 words of prose or 3 pages of poetry (or a portfolio combining both genres). This gives us a chance to get to know some of the writing you have produced so far to help us determine suitability for this course.

Applications from those with degrees in other subjects may be considered on an individual basis, along with the sample you will submit.

We accept a range of international equivalent qualifications. Contact the Postgraduate Admissions Office for more information.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in each component. For other English qualifications, read English language equivalent qualifications .

Improve your English

International students who do not meet the English language requirements for this programme may be able to study our postgraduate pre-sessional English course, to help improve your English language level.

This pre-sessional course is designed with a progression route to your degree programme and you’ll learn academic English in the context of your subject area. To find out more, read Language for Arts and Humanities (6 weeks) and Language for Social Science and Arts: Arts and Humanities (10 weeks) .

We also offer online pre-sessionals alongside our on-campus pre-sessionals.  Find out more about our six week online pre-sessional .

You can also study pre-sessionals for longer periods – read about our postgraduate pre-sessional English courses .

How to apply

Please see our How to Apply page for information about application deadlines.

You will need to apply for a place before applying for any scholarships, so check the deadlines for available scholarships on our website .

The ‘Apply’ link at the top of this page takes you to information on applying for taught programmes and to the University's online application system.

If you're unsure about the application process, contact the admissions team for help.

Documents and information you need

You’ll need to upload the following documents when completing the online application form:

A transcript of your completed BA degree or grades to date

A personal statement of around 500 words in response to the questions asked in the supporting statement section of the application form. It is important that you consider and respond to these questions.

A Creative Writing sample comprising approximately 1,000 words of prose or 3 pages of poetry (or a portfolio combining both genres)

If English is not your first language, you’ll need to submit proof of your English language results (eg IELTS).

We do not generally request references, unless further information is required to support the assessment of your application.

We will decide whether to offer you a place based on your application form, personal statement, transcripts, predicted or actual degree results and, where appropriate, any additional documentation requested.

The Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures receives very large numbers of high-quality applications and regrets that it cannot make offers to all of its applicants. Some particularly popular schools may have to reject many that hold the necessary academic qualifications.

Read about visas, immigration and other information in International students . We recommend that international students apply as early as possible to ensure that they have time to apply for their visa.

Admissions policy

University of Leeds Admissions Policy 2025

This course is taught by

School of English

Postgraduate Administrator

Email: [email protected] Telephone:

UK: £12,000 (Total)

International: £25,250 (Total)

For fees information for international taught postgraduate students, read Masters fees .

Read more about paying fees and charges .

Part-time fees Fees for part-time courses are normally calculated based on the number of credits you study in a year compared to the equivalent full-time course. For example, if you study half the course credits in a year, you will pay half the full-time course fees for that year.

Additional cost information

There may be additional costs related to your course or programme of study, or related to being a student at the University of Leeds. Read more on our living costs and budgeting page .

Scholarships and financial support

If you have the talent and drive, we want you to be able to study with us, whatever your financial circumstances. There may be help for students in the form of loans and non-repayable grants from the University and from the government.  Find out more at Masters funding overview .

The School of English also offers a range of scholarships for taught postgraduate study. Find out more on our Scholarships page .

Career opportunities

This course will equip you with advanced transferable skills which are valuable in a wide range of careers.

You’ll be a confident researcher who can work independently as well as within a team. You’ll be a strong communicator, both verbally and in writing, and be able to think critically and analytically. In addition, you’ll have a strong level of cultural and critical awareness, and you’ll be able to look at a situation from different points of view.

All of these qualities are attractive to employers across sectors, and you’ll be well equipped to pursue a career in a wide range of fields depending on your interests. These could include teaching, journalism, publishing, advertising, broadcasting and law. Many of our graduates also progress to PhD-level study and you’ll be in a good position to develop a career in academia. Students from our programmes have gone on to have successful careers as literary agents, journalists and researchers, as well as to become published novelists and award-winning poets.

Careers support

Leeds for Life is our unique approach to helping you make the most of University by supporting your academic and personal development. Find out more at the Leeds for Life website .

We encourage you to prepare for your career from day one. That’s one of the reasons Leeds graduates are so sought after by employers.

The Careers Centre and staff in your faculty provide a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate. Find out more about Careers support .

Whether you're looking to pursue further study, change career, or stand out in the competitive graduate job market, you'll receive expert support in applying the skills you've developed in your chosen career.

Watch: Careers support at Leeds

Find out more about the careers and employability support that you'll receive as a student in the School of English.

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English literature ma, postcolonial studies ma, rankings and awards, qs world university rankings by subject.

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Creative Writing

Application options include:

Course Overview

This MA Creative Writing gives you the chance to better understand the craft of writing and gain valuable constructive criticism from other writers and experts who are as serious about developing your work as you are. It is ideal if you want to develop your practice as a writer and work toward publication and/or sustaining a career in the industry.

Why choose this course?

• Our MA is highly respected nationally and internationally and we have a growing list of published and prizewinning authors whose work started life in our seminars, recently including Abi Daré, JJ Bola, Lily Dunn, Annalie Grainger, Louise Hare, Sally Hinchcliffe, Vanessa Onwuemezi, Melody Razak and Saba Sams.
• You will study the art of writing with a faculty of acclaimed authors, which include Julia Bell, Luke Williams and David Eldridge, to name a few.
• You will benefit from the experience and expertise of a team who have been running this creative writing course for almost 20 years enabling diverse cohorts of students to develop as writers across genres and to support their careers.

What you will learn

On this MA Creative Writing you will deepen your knowledge of reading and writing and the possibilities of literature across all forms and genres, as well as developing critical and professional skills relevant to the workplace.

You will take core modules which focus your attention on the fundamentals of writing and then choose option modules which give you the opportunity to diversify your practice and experiment in more specialist areas and concerns including:

• writing for video gaming
• screenwriting
• playwrighting
• memoir writing
• creative non-fiction
• genre fiction.

How you will learn

In workshops, tutorials and supervisions you will benefit from close and attentive readings of your work. In lectures and seminars, we consider issues of craft, expression and meaning within the context of how you see the world, how we theorise writing and contextualise our work within broader traditions. You will build on existing skills and develop new techniques and approaches to writing under the tutelage of published authors who are experts in your specialism.

Entry to the course is based on the submission of a portfolio of creative work, and candidates whose work shows promise will be invited for interview.

Discover the career opportunities available by taking Creative Writing (MA).

Key information and modules

Creative writing ma: 1 year full-time, on campus, starting october 2024.

Central London

Creative Writing MA: 2 years part-time, on campus, starting October 2024

Creative writing: january start ma: 2 years part-time, on campus, starting january 2025, pathways for creative writing (ma).

This course has additional Pathways to offer you the chance to specialise depending on your interests and career goals.

• Creative Writing and Contemporary Studies (MA)

Find another course:

• Birkbeck was ranked 2nd in the UK for its English Language and Literature research in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.
• We have close links between the MA and the Centre for Conte mporary Literature at Birkbeck, which runs a wide variety of talks and conferences in this field. In addition to working with the established and award-winning writers who teach the degree, you will have contact with industry professionals, such as publishers and literary agents, who offer a series of platform discussions in the summer term.
• The Mechanics' Institute Review, MIROnline , is a forum for the most exciting new writing in short fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction selected from students on this course and beyond. It runs regular live literature events and offers you publishing and editing opportunities.
• Birkbeck is located in the heart of literary London, in Bloomsbury, WC1. You could be studying in a building that was once home to Virginia Woolf and frequented by members of the Bloomsbury Group. The building houses our own creative hub which includes the Peltz Gallery , the Gordon Square Cinema and a theatre and performance space .
• We have a range of scholarships available to enable talented students on low incomes to study with us, such as the Sophie Warne Fellowship . Once you have secured a place on the course you will be invited to apply for these awards. We offer a number of bursaries for postgraduate students .

Birkbeck makes all reasonable efforts to deliver educational services, modules and programmes of study as described on our website. In the event that there are material changes to our offering (for example, due to matters beyond our control), we will update applicant and student facing information as quickly as possible and offer alternatives to applicants, offer-holders and current students.

Most of our courses are taught in the evenings, however some of our courses offer a daytime timetable. Where there is an option to attend daytime teaching sessions, this is stated in the Key Information section under Attendance.

Entry Requirements

A second-class honours degree (2:2 or above, though this requirement may be waived if you can demonstrate exceptional talent), a personal statement (to be submitted with your application form) and a portfolio of prose writing of no more than 3000 words.

Your portfolio should be a section of a novel with a synopsis, a couple of short stories or a combination of the two. Please note that poetry, children’s fiction, journalism, screen- or playwriting are not appropriate submissions for this MA. Students are selected on the basis of their portfolio and statement, an interview (selected candidates only) and their degree.

Portfolio guidelines:

• Submit application.
• Wait up to 48 hours.
• Submit writing portfolio (Word or PDF) by logging into your MyBirkbeck profile, then going to the ‘Manage my application’ link and attaching the document.

Applications are reviewed on their individual merits, and your professional qualifications and/or relevant work experience will be taken into consideration positively. We actively support and encourage applications from mature learners.

On your application form, please list all your relevant qualifications and experience, including those you expect to achieve.

Apply now  to secure your place. The earlier you apply, the sooner your application can be considered and you can enrol. You do not need to have completed your current qualification to start your application.

English language requirements

If English is not your first language or you have not previously studied in English, the requirement for this programme is the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Test) score of 6.5, with not less than 6.0 in each of the sub-tests.

If you don't meet the minimum IELTS requirement,  we offer pre-sessional English courses and foundation programmes  to help you improve your English language skills and get your place at Birkbeck.

Visit the International section of our website to find out more about our  English language entry requirements and relevant requirements by country .

Visa and funding requirements

If you are not from the UK and you do not already have residency here, you may need to apply for a visa.

The visa you apply for varies according to the length of your course:

• Courses of more than six months' duration: Student visa
• Courses of less than six months' duration: Standard Visitor visa

International students who require a Student visa should apply for our full-time courses as these qualify for Student visa sponsorship. If you are living in the UK on a Student visa, you will not be eligible to enrol as a student on Birkbeck's part-time courses (with the exception of some modules).

For full information, read our visa information for international students page .

Please also visit the international section of our website to find out more about relevant visa and funding requirements by country .

Please note students receiving US Federal Aid are only able to apply for in-person, on-campus programmes which will have no elements of online study.

Credits and accredited prior learning (APL)

If you have studied at university, you may have accumulated credits through the modules you studied. It may be possible to transfer these credits from your previous study to Birkbeck or another institution.

Creative Writing MA: 1 year full-time or 2 years part-time, on campus, starting in academic year 2024-25

Academic year 2024–25, starting october 2024.

Part-time home students: £5,400 per year Full-time home students: £10,800 per year Part-time international students : £9,915 per year Full-time international students: £19,830 per year

Creative Writing: January start MA: 2 years part-time, on campus, starting in academic year 2024-25

Academic year 2024–25, starting january 2025.

Part-time home students: £5,400 per year Part-time international students : £9,915 per year

Students are charged a tuition fee in each year of their course. Tuition fees for students continuing on their course in following years may be subject to annual inflationary increases. For more information, please see the College Fees Policy .

If you’ve studied at Birkbeck before and successfully completed an award with us, take advantage of our Lifelong Learning Guarantee to gain a discount on the tuition fee of this course.

Discover the financial support available to you to help with your studies at Birkbeck.

International scholarships

We provide a range of scholarships for eligible international students, including our Global Future Scholarship. Discover if you are eligible for a scholarship .

At Birkbeck, most of our courses are taught in the evening and all of our teaching is designed to support students who are juggling evening study with work and other commitments. We actively encourage innovative and engaging ways of teaching, to ensure our students have the best learning experience.

Teaching may include formal lectures, seminars, and practical classes and tutorials. Formal lectures are used in most degree programmes to give an overview of a particular field of study. They aim to provide the stimulus and the starting point for deeper exploration of the subject during your own personal reading. Seminars give you the chance to explore a specific aspect of your subject in depth and to discuss and exchange ideas with fellow students. They typically require preparatory study.

In addition, you will have access to pastoral support via a named Personal Tutor.

Methods of teaching on this course

Teaching is seminar-based. Each session is generally two hours, and there are further regular one-to-one tutorials throughout the year.

Key teaching staff on this course

Staff who may teach on this MA include successful, published authors and practitioners such as:

• David Eldridge
• Richard Hamblyn
• Jonathan Kemp
• Luke Williams

Teaching hours

Our evening hours are normally between 6pm and 9pm (6-7.30pm and 7.30-9pm). Some programmes also offer teaching during the day and this will be clearly signposted to you where it is available.

On our taught courses, you will have scheduled teaching and study sessions each year. Scheduled teaching sessions may include lectures, seminars, workshops or laboratory work. Depending on the modules you take, you may also have additional scheduled academic activities, such as tutorials, dissertation supervision, practical classes, visits and field trips. On our taught courses, the actual amount of time you spend in the classroom and in contact with your lecturers will depend on your course, the option modules you select and when you undertake your final-year project (if applicable).

Alongside your contact hours, you will also undertake assessment activities and independent learning outside of class. The amount of time you need to allocate to study both for taught sessions (this might include online sessions and/or in-person sessions) and personal study will depend on how much you are studying during the year and whether you are studying full time or part time.

Birkbeck’s courses are made up of modules and allocated ‘credit’. One credit is equivalent to ten hours of learning time. Modules are usually in 15, 30 or 60 credit units. A 15-credit module will mean around 150 hours of learning, including taught sessions and independent study or group work. This is spread out over the whole period of that module and includes the time you spend on any assessments, including in examinations, preparing and writing assessments or engaged in practical work as well as any study support sessions to help you in your learning.

On our distance-learning and blended-learning courses, discussion, collaboration and interaction with your lecturers and fellow students is encouraged and enabled through various learning technologies.

Timetables are usually available from September onwards and you can access your personalised timetable via your My Birkbeck Profile online (if you have been invited to enrol).

Indicative class size

Class sizes vary, depending on your course, the module you are undertaking, and the method of teaching. For example, lectures are presented to larger groups, whereas seminars usually consist of small, interactive groups led by a tutor.

Independent learning

On our taught courses, much of your time outside of class will be spent on self-directed, independent learning, including preparing for classes and following up afterwards. This will usually include, but is not limited to, reading books and journal articles, undertaking research, working on coursework and assignments, and preparing for presentations and assessments.

Independent learning is absolutely vital to your success as a student. Everyone is different, and the study time required varies topic by topic, but, as a guide, expect to schedule up to five hours of self-study for each hour of teaching.

Study skills and additional support

Birkbeck offers study and learning support to undergraduate and postgraduate students to help them succeed. Our Learning Development Service can help you in the following areas:

• academic skills (including planning your workload, research, writing, exam preparation and writing a dissertation)
• written English (including structure, punctuation and grammar)
• numerical skills (basic mathematics and statistics).

Our Disability and Dyslexia Service can support you if you have additional learning needs resulting from a disability or from dyslexia.

Our Counselling Service can support you if you are struggling with emotional or psychological difficulties during your studies.

Our Mental Health Advisory Service can support you if you are experiencing short- or long-term mental health difficulties during your studies.

Assessment is an integral part of your university studies and usually consists of a combination of coursework and examinations, although this will vary from course to course - on some of our courses, assessment is entirely by coursework. The methods of assessment on this course are specified below under 'Methods of assessment on this course'. You will need to allow time to complete coursework and prepare for exams.

Where a course has unseen written examinations, these may be held termly, but, on the majority of our courses, exams are usually taken in the Summer term, during May to June. Exams may be held at other times of the year as well. In most cases, exams are held during the day on a weekday - if you have daytime commitments, you will need to make arrangements for daytime attendance - but some exams are held in the evening. Exam timetables are published online.

Find out more about assessment at Birkbeck, including guidance on assessment, feedback and our assessment offences policy.

Methods of assessment on this course

Four short creative pieces with critical essays (67%). A dissertation (15,000 words) in one of the following genres: a novella, novel or collection of short stories, with a preface of 3000 words (33%).

Careers and employability

On successfully graduating from this MA Creative Writing, you will have gained an array of important transferable skills, including:

• strong creative and critical skills
• a sophisticated use of written and spoken English
• an advanced ability in engaging with ideas and developing your own opinions and arguments
• facility and precision in the use of analytical tools
• strong skills and initiative in collecting and organising complex materials and writing up clear, well-presented reports or fluent critical arguments
• adaptability, resilience and initiative.

Graduates can pursue career paths in areas such as:

• copywriting
• narrative design

Birkbeck Creative Writing graduates include:

• Niki Aguirre
• Sarah Alexander
• Laura Allsop
• Iphgenia Baal
• Phoebe Blatton
• Mary Lynn Bracht
• Nicole Burstein
• Tray Butler
• Melissa De Villiers
• Liz Fremantle
• AJ Grainger
• Jules Grant
• Emma Henderson
• Sally Hinchcliffe
• Heidi James
• Keith Jarrett
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Course structure

Course structure listing, course structure and modules for creative writing ma: 1 year full-time or 2 years part-time, on campus, starting october 2024.

You must complete modules worth a total of 180 credits, consisting of:

• two compulsory modules (30 credits each)
• two option modules (30 credits each)
• a 15,000-word dissertation (60 credits).

Compulsory modules

• Creative Non-Fiction
• Writing and Reading Seminar

Option modules

• Contemporary Writing 2: Genre
• Introduction to Playwriting
• Introduction to Screenwriting
• Poetry Workshop
• Writing The Self
• Writing Workshop

MA Creative Writing Dissertation

• Dissertation MA Creative Writing

Course structure and modules for Creative Writing: January start MA: 2 years part-time, on campus, starting January 2025

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Creative writing and critical reading

Introduction.

This free course, Creative writing and critical reading , explores the importance of reading as part of a creative writer’s development at the postgraduate (MA) level. You will gain inspiration and ideas from examining other writers’ methods, as well as enhancing your critical reading skills. A diverse range of examples will cover the genres of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and scriptwriting. You will be able to listen to professional writers discussing the creative process in relation to their reading habits. You will also have the opportunity to apply the insights you have gleaned to your own writing, by producing a short creative piece in your chosen genre.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course MA in Creative Writing [ Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. ( Hide tip ) ] .

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• Credits measure the student workload required for the successful completion of a module or qualification.
• One credit represents about 10 hours of study over the duration of the course.
• You are awarded credits after you have successfully completed a module.
• For example, if you study a 60-credit module and successfully pass it, you will be awarded 60 credits.
• MA in Creative Writing

This qualification is an opportunity to develop your skills as a writer in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction and scriptwriting for film, radio and the stage. You'll be able to write in a genre of your choice and experiment with at least one other through practical and inspiring activities. You’ll work towards producing a substantial piece of your own creative writing to a professional standard. You'll also hone your practice through sharing, reading and critiquing the writing of your peers in online forums. You’ll work towards producing a substantial piece of your own creative writing to a professional standard.

DON’T MISS OUT REGISTER BY 12 SEPTEMBER

Join over 60,000 students who’ve registered for courses starting this autumn.

• Develop writing skills and awareness of approaches to writing
• Progress and hone sophisticated writing skills in at least one genre
• Gain a sound knowledge of, and ability in, a secondary genre
• Engage in sharing, critiquing and reviewing a variety of writing by your peers.

Study for free We’ve a limited number of scholarships available to UK students for the 2023/24 academic year. If you’re passionate about creative writing, you could be eligible for an Open Futures Scholarship. To apply, visit our Creative Writing Scholarship page. Applications close on 24 July 2023.

How to register

Select the module you will study first, read the full description, and follow the instructions to register.

To gain the 180 credits you require for this qualification, you must study the modules in the order shown below and pass part 1 before progressing to part 2:

Compulsory modules	Credits	Next start
	60	05 Oct 2024
	120	05 Oct 2024

Please note that MA Creative Writing part 2 (A803) is worth 120 credits. Module fees for postgraduate modules are based on the number of credits you study. Therefore the fee for this 120-credit postgraduate module will be double that for the 60-credit module MA Creative Writing part 1 (A802).

You should note that the University’s unique study rule applies to this qualification. This means that you must include at least 60 credits from OU modules that have not been counted in any other OU qualification that has previously been awarded to you.

Learning outcomes, teaching and assessment

The learning outcomes of this qualification are described in four areas:

• Knowledge and understanding
• Cognitive skills
• Practical and professional skills

If you’ve successfully completed some relevant postgraduate study elsewhere, you might be able to count it towards this qualification, reducing the number of modules you need to study. You should apply for credit transfer as soon as possible, before you register for your first module. For more details and an application form, visit our Credit Transfer  website.

On completion

On successful completion of the required modules you can be awarded the Master of Arts in Creative Writing, entitling you to use the letters MA (CW) (Open) after your name. You will have the opportunity of being presented at a degree ceremony.

If you leave the programme before you qualify for a degree you can qualify for a  Postgraduate Certificate in Humanities (C20)  after successfully completing 60 credits.

Regulations

As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the qualification-specific regulations below and the academic regulations that are available on our Student Policies and Regulations  website. 

We regularly review our curriculum; therefore, the qualification described on this page – including its availability, its structure, and available modules – may change over time. If we make changes to this qualification, we’ll update this page as soon as possible. Once you’ve registered or are studying this qualification, where practicable, we’ll inform you in good time of any upcoming changes. If you’d like to know more about the circumstances in which the University might make changes to the curriculum, see our Academic Regulations or contact us . This description was last updated on 19 March 2024.

You must hold a UK honours degree (or equivalent), preferably with at least a 2:1 classification. Although your degree does not need to be in Creative Writing or a closely related subject, you will need some knowledge of the subject to successfully complete this qualification, as the MA in Creative Writing assumes all candidates have the knowledge and skills usually acquired by pursuing the subject at undergraduate level. Please note that this is not a qualification for those who are just starting to write creatively

If your degree is not in Creative Writing or a closely related subject, we strongly recommend that you read the preparatory work indicated on the MA Creative Writing part 1 . Alternatively, you could undertake our open-access creative writing courses on OpenLearn  and FutureLearn to ensure your skills (writing, reading, editorial, reflective, analytical) are at an appropriate standard.

If you don’t have a Creative Writing degree, please also make sure that you provide evidence of your experience of writing when you apply – whether through short courses, workshops, or publications.

How long it takes

Most students study the MA in Creative Writing part-time, completing 90 credits a year over two years. Typically, this means 20–25 study hours each week.

You must complete the MA in Creative Writing within 10 years.

Career relevance

If you wish to pursue a freelance writing career this Masters degree will equip you with necessary writing and editorial skills, as well as equipping you with a raft of highly valued transferable communication and collaborative skills necessary to the modern writer’s usual portfolio of occupations.

If you are aiming for an academic career in higher education, this qualification will provide a route towards a higher level research or writing practice degree (e.g. PhD), which is essential for such a career. A Masters degree can help to enhance your career prospects as a teacher in secondary and higher education (HE); most HE creative writing teaching now demands an MA in the subject.

If your aim is to enter professions associated with the media, culture, creative or knowledge industries, or if you already have a career in one of these areas and are seeking a further qualification as a means of career development, then a Masters degree, supplemented by relevant skills and experience, can prove invaluable. This degree is pertinent to those careers that directly call upon knowledge of the craft of writing, editing and critiquing (for instance, journalism, publishing, copywriting). It may also be relevant for careers that demand skills in the creative use and analysis of texts of various sorts, critical thinking and organisation, and understanding of culture in a broad sense.

Careers and Employability Services have more information on how OU study can improve your employability.

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Department of English and Comparative Literature

Reading List

The MFA Comprehensive Exam requires students to write three essays: two in the primary and one in the secondary genre. For the exam you should be prepared to cite approximately 8 works in the primary (approximately 4 per essay) and 4 works in the secondary. In order to be prepared for a variety of essay prompts, students should read widely in both genres—certainly more than the 12 works from the reading lists you will cite on your exam, perhaps 35-50 works or authors. In consultation with their thesis directors, students will devise a personalized list consisting of selections from the lists below as well as additional works of comparable literary quality that they find pertinent to their writing and/or scholarship.

You will confer with your adviser several times during the semester prior to taking the exam to develop your final version of your reading list. Only works on this personalized, advisor-approved list may be cited on the exam.

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah.

Anderson, Sherwood. Winesburg, Ohio.

Atwood, Margaret, The Handmaid’s Tale.

Babel, Isaac. Red Cavalry.

Baldwin, James. Giovanni’s Room; “Sonny’s Blues.”

Bambara, Toni Cade. Gorilla, My Love.

Barth, John. Lost in the Funhouse.

Barthelme, Donald. 60 Stories.

Beatty, Paul, The Sellout.

Bellow, Saul. Herzog; Seize the Day.

Borges, Jorge Luis. Labyrinths.

Bronte, Charlotte, Jane Eyre.

Butler, Octavia, Kindred.

Calvino, Italo. Cosmicomics.

Carter, Angela. The Bloody Chamber; Wise Children.

Carver, Raymond. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.

Cheever, John. Stories of John Cheever.

Chekhov, Anton. Anton Chekhov’s Short Stories.

Coetzee, J.M. Waiting for The Barbarians.

Coover, Robert. Pricksongs and Descants.

Danticat, Edwidge. The Farming of the Bones.

DeLillo, Don. White Noise.

Diaz, Junot. Drown.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations.

Doctorow, E.L. Ragtime.

Ducornet, Rikki. The Jade Cabinet.

Egan, Jennifer. A Visit from the Goon Squad.

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man.

Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine; LaRose.

Faulkner, William. Absalom, Absalom; As I Lay Dying.

Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary.

Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Gaitskill, Mary. Bad Behavior.

Gibson, William. Neuromancer.

Gordimer, Nadine. July’s People.

Hamson, Knut. Hunger.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Collected Stories.

Hurston, Zora Neale, Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go.

James, Henry. The Portrait of a Lady.

James, Marlon. The Book of Night Women.

Johnson, Denis. Jesus’ Son.

Jones, Edward P. All Aunt Hagar’s Children; The Known World.

Joyce, James, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; Ulysses.

Kafka, Franz. In the Penal Colony; The Metamorphosis.

Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies.

Lalami, Laila. The Moor’s Account.

Lee, Chang-Rae. Native Speaker.

LeGuin, Ursula. The Left Hand of Darkness; The Wind’s Twelve Quarters

Li, Yiyun. A Thousand Years of Good Prayers.

Lispector, Clarice. The Hour of the Star.

Malamud, Bernard. The Magic Barrel.

Marcom, Micheline Aharonian. Three apples fell from heaven.

McBride, James. The Good Lord Bird.

McCarthy, Cormac. Blood Meridian; The Road.

McCullers, Carson. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

McPherson, James Alan. Hue and Cry.

Mitchell, David. Cloud Atlas.

Moore, Lorrie. Birds of America.

Morrison, Toni. Beloved; Song of Solomon.

Mosley, Walter. Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned.

Mueenuddin, Daniyal. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders.

Munro, Alice. Selected Stories.

Murakami, Haruki. The Elephant Vanishes; The Wind-up Bird Chronicles.

Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita.

Naylor, Gloria. The Women of Brewster Place.

Nguyen, Viet Thanh. The Sympathizer.

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried.

O’Connor, Flannery. Complete Stories.

Ondaatje, Michael. The English Patient.

Paley, Grace. Collected Stories.

Papadiamantis, Alexandros. The Murderess.

Phillips, Jayne Anne. Black Tickets.

Poe, Edgar Allan. Selected Short Stories.

Pynchon, Thomas. The Crying of Lot 49.

Robinson, Marilynne. Housekeeping.

Roth, Philip. Portnoy’s Complaint.

Rushdie, Salman. Midnight’s Children.

Russell, Karen. St Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.

Saramago, José. Blindness.

Saunders, George. Civilwarland in Bad Decline.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein.

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony.

Singer, Isaac Bashevis. The Collected Stories.

Smith, Zadie. On Beauty.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath.

Stoker, Bram. Dracula.

Strout, Elizabeth. Olive Kitteridge.

Tartt, Donna. The Secret History.

Thuy, Le Thi Diem. The Gangster We Are All Looking For.

Toole, John Kennedy. A Confederacy of Dunces.

Ward, Jesmyn. Salvage the Bones.

Wells, H.G. Time Machine; The War of the Worlds.

Welty, Eudora, Collected Stories.

West, Nathanael. Miss Lonelyhearts.

Wharton, Edith. Age of Innocence.

Whitehead, Colson. The Intuitionist.

Wideman, John Edgar. Sent For You Yesterday.

Williams, Joy. The Quick and the Dead.

Woolf, Virginia, Mrs. Dalloway.

Wright, Richard. Native Son.

Abbey, Edward. Desert Solitaire.

Ackerman, Diane, A Natural History of the Senses.

Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Saint Augustine. Confessions.

Baldwin, James. Notes of a Native Son.

Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone.

Berry, Wendel. Recollected Essays.

Bryson, Bill. A Walk in the Woods.

Capote, Truman, In Cold Blood.

Carson, Rachel, Silent Spring.

Cofe, Judith Ortiz, Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood.

Conroy, Frank. Stop-Time.

Conway, Jill Ker. The Road from Coorain.

Didion, Joan, Slouching toward Bethlehem, The White Album, The Year of Magical Thinking.

Dillard, Annie, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, An American Childhood.

Eggers, Dave. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Ehrlich, Gretel. The Solace of Open Spaces.

Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches you and You Fall Down, At Large and At Small.

Grann, David. Killers of the Flower Moon.

Haley, Alex, and Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

Hemingway, Ernest. A Moveable Feast.

Hersey, John. Hiroshima.

Hillenbrand, Laura, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.

Hubbell, Sue. A Country Year: Living the Questions.

Karr, Mary, Liar's Club: A Memoir.

Kincaid, Jamaica. My Brother, A Small Place.

Kingsolver, Barbara, High Tide in Tucson.

Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior.

Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air.

Least Heat Moon, William. Blue Highways.

Lewis, C.S. Surprised by Joy.

Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac.

Lopez, Barry, Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape.

Macdonald, Helen. H is for Hawk.

Markham, Beryl. West with the Night.

Matthiessen, Peter. The Snow Leopard.

McBride, James. The Color of Water.

McCourt, Frank, Angela's Ashes.

McFee, John. Coming into the Country.

Mailer, Norman, The Armies of the Night.

Muir, John. Mountains of California.

Nabokov, Vladimir. Speak, Memory.

Noah, Trevor. Born a Crime.

Norris, Kathleen. Dakota: A Spiritual Geography.

Orwell, George. A Collection of Essays.

Pirzig,Robert. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Rodriguez, Richard. Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez.

Sarton, May. Journal of a Solitude.

Sedaris, David. Me Talk Pretty One Day.

Smith, Patti. Just Kids.

Sontag, Susan. Against Interpretation and Other Essays.

Stegner, Wallace, Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs.

Stein, Gertrude, Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.

Steinbeck, John. Travels with Charley, The Log from the Sea of Cortez.

Styron, William, Darkness Visible.

Terkel, Studs. Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression.

Thomas, Lewis. The Lives of a Cell

Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

Wallace, David Foster, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and  Arguments

Welty, Eudora. One Writer’s Beginnings.

White, E.B. Essays of E. B. White.

Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns.

Williams, Terry Tempest. Refuge: An Unnatural History of Time and Place.

Wolfe, Tom, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff.

Wolff, Tobias, This Boy's Life.

Wolff, Virginia, A Room of One's Own.

Wright, Richard. Black Boy

Ai. Vice: New and Selected Poems.

Ali, Agha Shahid Rae. Partly: New and Selected Poems 2001 - 2015.

Aamons, A. R. Selected Poems.

Armantrout, Rae. Partly: New and Selected Poems 2001 - 2015.

Ashbery, John. Selected Poetry.

Auden, W.H. Selected Poems.

Balakian, Peter. Ozone Journal.

Berryman, John. Selected Poems.

Bidart, Frank. Half Light: Collected Poems 1965 - 2016.

Bishop, Elizabeth. The Complete Poems, 1927-1979.

Bukowski, Charles. Essential Bukowski Poetry.

Chin, Marilyn. Portrait of Self as Nation: New and Selected Poems.

Clifton, Lucille. Collected Poems.

Collins, Billy. Sailing Alone Around the Room, New and Selected Poems.

Crane, Hart. Ed. Marc Simon. The Complete Poems.

Creeley, Robert. Selected Poems.

Cullen, Countee. Collected Poems.

Dickinson, Emily. Selected Poems.

Doty, Mark. Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems.

Dove, Rita. Selected Poems.

Dunn, Stephen, New and Selected Poems.

Edson, Russell. The Tunnel: Selected Poems of Russell Edson.

Eliot, T. S. Selected Poems.

Frost, Robert. Selected Poems.

Gilbert, Jack. Collected Poems.

Ginsberg, Allen. Selected Poetry: 1947-1995.

Gioia, Dana. 99 Poems: New and Selected.

Hacker, Marilyn. Selected Poems: 1965 - 1990.

Harjo, Joy. How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems 1975 - 2002.

Hass, Robert. The Apple Trees at Olema: New and Selected Poems.

Hayes, Terrance. American Sonnets for My Once and Future Assassin.

Herrera, Juan Felipe. Half the World in Light: New and Selected Poems.

Hughes, Langston. Selected Poems.

Hugo, Richard. Making Certain It Goes On: Collected Poems.

Jackson, Major. Roll Deep: Poems.

Jeffers, Robinson. The Wild God of the World:An Anthology of Robinson Jeffers.

Justice, Donald. Collected Poems.

Kinnell, Galway. New Selected Poems.

Kizer, Carolyn. Cool, Calm, and Collected.

Koch, Kenneth. Selected Poems.

Komunyakaa, Yusef. Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems.

Kyger, Joanne. As Ever: Selected Poems.

Lee, Li-Young, Behind My Eyes.

Levertov, Denise. Collected Poems.

Levine, Philip. New Selected Poems.Lowell, Robert. Selected Poems.

Long Soldier, Layli. Whereas: Poems.

Major, Clarence. From Now On: New and Selected Poems.

Merrill, James. Selected Poems: 1946-1985.

Merwin, W. S. Migration: New and Selected Poems.

Milosz, Czeslaw. The Collected Poems, 1931-1987.

Moore, Marianne. Complete Poems.

O'Hara, Frank. The Selected Poems of Frank O'Hara.

Philips, Carl. Quiver of Arrows: Selected Poems 1986 - 2006.

Plath, Sylvia. Collected Poems.

Pound, Ezra. New Selected Poems and Translations.

Rankine, Claudia. Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric.

Rexroth, Kenneth. Complete Poems.

Rich, Adrienne. Adrienne Rich's Poetry and Prose, Norton Critical Edition.

Roethke, Theodore. The Collected Poems.

Rukeyser, Muriel. Selected Poems.

Simic, Charles. New and Selected Poems.

Smith, Tracy K. Life On Mars: Poems.

Snyder, Gary. No Nature: New and Selected Poems.

Soto, Gary. New and Selected Poems.

Stafford, William. The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems.

Stern, Gerald. This Time: New and Selected Poems.

Stevens, Wallace. The Palm at the End of the Mind: Selected Poems.

Tate, James. Selected Poems.

Trethewey, Natasha. Monument: Poems New and Selected.

Whalen, Philip. Selected Poems.

Whitman, Walt. Selected Poems.

Williams, William Carlos. Selected Poems.

Wright, James. Above the River: Complete Poems.

Vuong, Ocean. Night Sky With Exit Wounds.

Yeats, William Butler. Collected Poems.

Young, Kevin. Blue Laws: Collected and Uncollected Poems 1995 - 2015.

Playwriting/Screenwriting

Akhtar, Ayad. Disgraced . Albee, Edward. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf . Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot . Brecht, Bertolt. The Good Woman of Setzuan . Chekhov, Anton. The Cherry Orchard . Chowdhury, Shayok Misha. Public Obscenities . Deavere Smith, Anna. Twilight Los Angeles .

Drury, Jackie Sibblies. We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884–1915 . Fornes, Maria Irene. Fefu and Her Friends . Fugard, Athol, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona. Sizwe Bansi Is Dead . Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun . Hudes, Quiara Alegría. Water by the Spoonful . Ibsen, Henrik. Ghosts . Ionesco, Eugene. The Bald Soprano . Jacobs-Jenkins, Branden. An Octoroon . Joseph, Rajiv. Gruesome Playground Injuries .   Jung, Hansol. Wolf Play . Kaufman, Moisés. The Laramie Project . Khoury, Sylvia. Selling Kabul . Kushner, Tony. Millennium Approaches . McCraney, Tarell Alvin. In the Red and Brown Water . McDonagh, Martin. The Beauty Queen of Leenane . Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman . Molière. Tartuffe . Murphy, Joe and Joe Robertson. The Jungle . Nagle, Mary Kathryn. Manahatta . Nguyen, Qui. Vietgone . Nottage, Lynn. Ruined . O'Neill, Eugene. Long Day's Journey into Night . Padmanabhan, Manjula. Harvest . Parks, Suzan Lori. Topdog/Underdog . Pinter, Harold. The Birthday Party . Reza, Yasmina. Art . Sartre, Jean Paul. No Exit . Shepard, Sam. True West . Shaw, George Bernard. Candida . Shekar, Madhuri. A Nice Indian Boy . Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. The School for Scandal . Shakespeare, William. Hamlet . Sophocles. Oedipus Rex . Stephens, Simon. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime . Stoppard, Tom. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead . Toossi, Sanaz. English . Valdez, Luis. Zoot Suit . Vogel, Paula. How I Learned to Drive . Waller-Bridge, Phoebe. Fleabag . Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest . Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire . Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie . Wilson, August. Joe Turner's Come and Gone . Yee, Lauren. Cambodian Rock Band .

All About Eve.

The Bicycle Thief

Casablanca.

Citizen Kane.

The Grapes of Wrath.

North by Northwest.Rear Window.

Rules of the Game.

Seven Samurai.

Singin' in the Rain.

Stagecoach.

Wild Strawberries.

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MA Creative Writing / Course details

Year of entry: 2024

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Course description

Study on our MA Creative Writing master's course and you'll be part of the prestigious Centre for New Writing, where we bring together world-famous writers to teach people how to produce novels, short stories, creative non-fiction, poems and screenplays.

It's a place where talented writers and critics can meet to exchange ideas and opinions. The Centre is founded on the simple but important principle that good writing and good reading go together.

The course will see you study literary technique through reading and discussing the work of other contemporary writers in seminars, and you will have the opportunity to develop your own work via regular workshops and individual tutorials. Writers may choose to work on writing a novel and/or short stories and/or creative non-fiction and/or poems.

You'll benefit from seminars with Jeanette Winterson, workshops in fiction and poetry writing led by published, award-winning writers, and intensive, one-to-one instruction from writers-in-residence.

You will also have access to Literature Live, a fortnightly reading series bringing the best contemporary novelists and poets to Manchester, skills-related sessions delivered by professionals in the publishing industry, and regular visits from literary agents and editors.

We work with talented, committed students - whatever their style or genre - and we pride ourselves on giving students detailed, individual feedback both in writing and face-to-face.

Special features

Literature events

Manchester Literature Festival holds literary events across Manchester throughout the year, many in partnership with the University. The Centre for New Writing also hosts a regular public event series, Literature Live, which brings contemporary novelists and poets to the University to read and engage in conversation.

Find out more about literature in Manchester .

The Manchester Anthology

As an MA student at the Centre for New Writing, you will get the opportunity to have a piece of fiction or poetry published in The Manchester Anthology when you graduate.

Learn from experts

You will have the opportunity to engage in masterclasses and regular events with world-renowned Professor of Creative Writing, Jeanette Winterson. We also host a series of talks by visiting agents from the publishing industry.

Find out more about our people .

Teaching and learning

You will learn through a variety of teaching methods depending on the units you choose, including seminars, lectures and independent study.

Please note that both the full and part-time options are taught between 9am to 5pm. We do not offer evening classes. 

Coursework and assessment

All writing workshops meet for two to three hours per week, and are worth 30 credits. You will also be offered three individual half-hour tutorials per semester to discuss the progress of your writing. Each workshop is assessed by a portfolio of poetry or fiction.

Seminars meet for three hours per week and are also worth 30 credits. They will usually be assessed by one 6,000-word essay or the equivalent.

Over the summer, you will complete a 'dissertation' of 12,000 to 15,000 words of fiction or 15-20 poems. This is worth 60 credits.

Course unit details

You will undertake units totalling 180 credits. Core units combine to make 120 credits, with the remaining 60 credits allocated to the dissertation.

There are no mandatory units as part of this course. Students are required to choose a combination of workshops and seminars based on their individual focus, either poetry or fiction writing.

You may choose to take two workshops - one in fiction writing and one in poetry - or you may take one workshop and one seminar. Typical seminars will be The Art of Short Fiction and Poetics.

Students wishing to focus on poetry writing will take a poetry workshop and a seminar on Contemporary Poetry.

Students wishing to focus on fiction writing will take a fiction writing workshop and a seminar in Contemporary Fiction.

Dissertation

Your dissertation will comprise 15,000 words of your own fiction writing, or 16 to 25 poems.

Course unit list

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

Title	Code	Credit rating	Mandatory/optional
	ENGL60010	60	Mandatory
	ENGL70041	30	Optional
	ENGL71212	30	Optional
	ENGL71411	30	Optional
	ENGL71512	30	Optional
	ENGL71611	30	Optional
	ENGL71721	30	Optional
	ENGL71732	30	Optional
	ENGL71742	30	Optional
	ENGL71831	30	Optional

Take your inspiration from one of the best university libraries in the country, as well as the Whitworth Art Gallery, the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama and the special collections at the John Rylands Library, which include Shakespeare folios, a Gutenberg Bible and extensive modern literary archives.

Attend lectures and exhibitions at the internationally renowned Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies, as well as cutting-edge research talks at the English Research Seminar and Critical MASS: the American Studies research seminar.

Away from campus, the city of Manchester is home to an excellent network of public libraries , as well as a wealth of literary and arts institutions, venues and attractions such as the Portico Library , the International Anthony Burgess Foundation , Elizabeth Gaskell's House , HOME and Chetham's Library .

You will also find independent publishers such as Carcanet Press, Comma Press, Cillian Press and Saraband in Manchester, along with bookshops such as Blackwell's (which is located on campus), Waterstones, Chorlton Bookshop and Chapter 1 Books.

Manchester Literature Festival holds events featuring an array of authors each year, while other literary events also take place around Manchester throughout the year, including talks and spoken word events.

Learn more about our facilities .

Disability support

• Postgraduate Taught Courses

Creative Writing (MA)

/ Postgraduate Taught /

Start date:

September 2024

1 year (full-time)  2 years (part-time)

Please add an additional year if undertaking the Professional Experience Year: integrated 2-year masters

Number of credits: 

Anyone willing to develop can achieve their full potential here. Our cutting-edge Creative Writing MA is at the forefront of literary MA provision in the UK.

Did you know.

Creative Writing ranked 1st in London for Learning Resources (National Student Survey 2024).

Roehampton's in-house Fincham Press provides opportunities for you to see your writing published, and gain hands-on experience of the publishing process. 

Professional Experience Year

This course also offers the option of a Professional Experience Year. This programme combines dynamic career modules with flexible placement opportunities. After completing your first year of study, you'll then complete a full year of Professional Experience training as part of your degree. This will give you real career experience. This unique opportunity offers you distinct paths to build your expertise. If your chosen degree offers a full-time professional placement, you can opt for that pathway. Alternatively, you can complete our Professional Experience Year and still build the professional skills you need for your future. 

Find out more about our Professional Experience Year  

Graduate with a creative, professional skillset.

This incorporates studying;

• Popular, long-running modules: Writing for Young Readers ,  Short Stories   and   Novel, which explore writing in a variety of forms, all with the aim of helping you produce compelling, contemporary work of a publishable standard. 
• Creative Contexts   and  Archives and Research, which will enable you to situate your work among other contemporary writers and enlarge your research skills. 

Throughout the programme, you will be working with established, successful writers, all of whom are here to help you take your writing to the next level. Successful writers who have graduated from the programme include Holly Pester, Rachel Knightley, and Nikki Dudley.

You can also develop your professional skills by auditing the modules Copywriting and The Business of Writing.

A course built around your ambitions. 

Here you can study and write literary fiction, fantasy, dark & transgressive fiction, horror, thriller and domestic noir, and you can write in a wide variety of forms. All modules are taught by published writers, and Roehampton's post-graduate experience is among the best in the country.

Come here to do your best writing. Come here with the aim of being published.

This year we have two new modules which respond to the growing demand for a wider range of contemporary writing.  Genre Fiction  is for writers of fantasy, horror and crime.  Dark & Transgressive Writing  works with erotic, hybrid, and dystopian fictions. More people than ever are reading fantasy fiction. Erotic writing is no longer a niche genre. Horror and Dark Fiction is part of mainstream popular culture. Crime and dystopian fiction are a vast and creative area.  

Alongside writing for publication, graduates of this programme may pursue careers in journalism, copywriting and arts management.

‘My lecturers really care about all of us succeeding in our chosen careers. They encourage me to push myself and experiment with my writing, which is also helping prepare me for a career in publishing’.

Samantha Jo Gale, MA Creative Writing

Get a real taste of our campus, community and what it’s like to study at Roehampton

UK postgraduate students apply through our direct application system.

Specific entry requirements

A second-class honours degree is normally required but non-standard applications are also welcome, and applicants are invited to submit a portfolio of writing, consisting of approximately 2000 words of prose (Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Journalism) or 15 pages of poetry. Please upload your portfolio of writing on the online application form, which can be found by clicking the 'apply for the course' button.

General entry requirements

UK students

September 2024 entry tuition fees (UK)

MA	£9,188	£4,824
PGDip	£6,125	£3,216

*average fee per year

We offer a wide range of scholarships and bursaries. See our 2024 financial support pages for UK students .

We also provide other ways to support the cost of living, including free buses and on-campus car parking, hardship support and some of the most affordable student accommodation and catering in London. Find out more about how we can support you .

International postgraduate students apply through our direct application system.

International students

September 2024 entry tuition fees (international)

MA	£17,325	£9,096
PGDip	£11,550	£6,064

We offer a wide range of scholarships and bursaries. See our 2024 financial support pages for international students .

Need help or advice before applying?

Arts, humanities and social sciences, integrating the creative dynamism of arts and digital industries with the deep-rooted traditions of humanities and social sciences..

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Next entry: Sept 2024 • 1 year (full-time), 2 years (part-time)

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• MA Creative Writing

Creative Writing

Join our community of internationally renowned, award-winning writers at the Manchester Writing School, where collaboration and experimentation are at the heart of what we do.

Course overview

At the heart of the Manchester Writing School are our masters programmes in Creative Writing, available to study on campus in Manchester, city of literature, or from anywhere in the world by as part of our dynamic international online distance learning community. 

On our Master of Arts (MA) Creative Writing programme, you will explore and practice techniques and styles of modern and contemporary writing and apply these through the development of your own creative work. You will undertake a taught element blending writing workshops with reading units and option units, and then complete your studies through submission of an extended piece of writing from a proposed full-length book or script. 

You will specialise in one of the following routes: Novel (including Short Fiction), Po...

What you need to know

• When does the course start? September 2024 January 2025

1 year full-time (campus) 2 years part-time (campus or online)

Students can begin studying in January or September.

• Where will I study this course? Manchester , Online

Features and benefits

"One of the greatest pleasures of my working life continues to be the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University, a department with a real sense of family, achievement and celebration, and an ethos of nurturing and innovation." Professor Carol Ann Duffy DBE – Creative Director of the Manchester Writing School

Course information

At the heart of the Manchester Writing School are our masters programmes in creative writing, available to study on campus in Manchester, and also from anywhere in the world via online distance learning.

MA Creative Writing can be tailored to suit your writing preferences by following a specialist route in novel (including short fiction), poetry, writing for children & young adults, scriptwriting (for stage, screen or radio) or creative non-fiction. Watch our playlist to find out more about each route.

This MA blends writing workshops, where you produce and develop your own work-in-progress with regular feedback from tutors and fellow students, with reading courses, which look at the techniques, forms and styles used by a range of writers in modern and contemporary literature. All students also take 30 credits of optional units and can choose from a range of creative writing units or options from courses across arts and humanities subjects. The final piece of work for the MA is the dissertation – an extended piece of creative writing from a proposed full-length book or script. 

The MA is available to complete in one year full-time or two years part-time. The novel and poetry routes are available to study on campus (full-time or part-time) or online (part-time only). The writing for children and creative non-fiction routes are online (part-time) only. The scriptwriting route is available to study on campus only.  We have intakes to the programme in September and January each year. 

Visit the Manchester Writing School website for more information, including profiles of staff and published students, news, events and projects.

Please visit our scholarships page for information on funding opportunities .

The programme leader for this course is James Draper . 

Classes for core Workshop and Reading units take place in the evenings (6-8pm UK time) during the autumn and spring semesters. Full-time students take all of their units in a single year and usually have classes two evenings per week. Part-time students spread these units over two years (study pattern may vary depending on specialist route) and usually have classes one evening per week. All students also take 30 credits of optional units and can choose from a range of creative writing units or options from courses across arts and humanities subjects. The MA concludes with the submission of the Creative Dissertation, completed through independent study with one-to-one support from a Dissertation Supervisor.

Creative Dissertation (60 credits)

This unit will build on and progress material produced during the Workshop units. You will compile and edit your creative writing into a substantial, continuous extract from a proposed longer work-in-progress and provide a Genesis Document: an account of the origins of and inspirations for your writing.

Reading Unit 1 (30 credits)

This route-specific unit looks at the forms, themes, styles and techniques used by a range of writers in literature. Outstanding writing is considered in terms of composition, process and presentation, and its relevance to your own work-in-progress. 

The Workshop (2 x 30 credits)

Workshops are led by established practitioners in the specialist literary field (Novel, Poetry, Writing for Children/Young Adults, Scriptwriting or Creative Non-Fiction), giving you a committed editorial readership of professionals and peers, and generating and developing material for a proposed full-length book or script. It is expected that the creative work generated will eventually contribute to your Creative Dissertation.

Option units

Creative project (30 credits).

On this unit, you will be asked to devise, scope, plan, conduct, report and reflect on a creative project of your own choosing. The project should involve a significant stretch from your core work on the programme and explore a new practice. This can be either working in a writing discipline different to your main route through the course, or by adapting or applying your work in a new context.

Green Writing (30 credits)

This unit will explore how creative writers can engage with ecological emergency during a time of crisis. The unit will examine different approaches to writing about nature, ecology and the environment, and demonstrate ways to respond creatively to contemporary climate science. You will study key texts in the field and produce your own original creative work using techniques drawn from those materials, learning how to bring traditionally ‘non-fiction’ perspectives into the realm of fiction.

Reading Unit 2 (30 credits)

Remaking games: creativity, play and communication (30 credits).

This unit explores the theory and practice of hacking and making games as a research method and mode of creative practice. It considers the intersection between creative writing and game design. In the unit we introduce students to reading and making games as a new methodology that combines creative and critical thinking with public engagement and impact at the point of research. For creative writers, the unit helps develop new ways to explore narrative and storytelling through interactive fiction, videogames and analogue games. You will develop new communication skills as part of the research process, creating games to share with other students and wider audiences as a way of engaging the public with your research.  

Teaching Creative Writing (30 credits)

This unit introduces techniques for developing and delivering creative writing workshops in a range of settings and considers how to encourage would-be participants to produce original writing in a variety of styles and genres. Consideration of key pedagogic theories and analyses of demonstrations will offer background context and enable critical reflection on workshop practice.

The Industry (30 credits)

You will learn and acquire practical information about various aspects of the publishing, literary, arts and related industries through seminars and Q&A sessions with guest speakers. These may include agents, editors, publishers, publicists, booksellers, directors, producers, broadcasters, filmmakers, freelancers, performers, artists and illustrators. This unit is designed to give you a broad overview of the state of the industry, as well as some specialist knowledge about opportunities available for those working in your specialist area, as you complete your manuscript.

Writing About Relationships (30 credits)

This course unit explores writing about love and partnership and is designed to help you gain confidence, avoid cliché and improve the quality of your prose style as you write about human relationships and intimacy. 

Study and assessment breakdown

10 credits equates to 100 hours of study, which is a combination of lectures, seminars and practical sessions, and independent study. A masters qualification typically comprises of 180 credits, a PGDip 120 credits, a PGCert 60 credits and an MFA 300 credits. The exact composition of your study time and assessments for the course will vary according to your option choices and style of learning, but it could be:

• Full-time 34% lectures, seminars or similar; 0% placement; 66% independent study
• Part-time 34% lectures, seminars or similar; 0% placement; 66% independent study
• Full-time 100% coursework; 0% practical; 0% examination
• Part-time 100% coursework; 0% practical; 0% examination

Placement options

The Manchester Writing School is one of the UK's leading schools of creative writing. It is also home to ground-breaking outreach activities, international writing competitions, a series of city-wide literary events, innovative publishing projects, the Manchester Children's Book Festival , and Manchester Poetry Library . These activities provide you with many opportunities to get involved and develop your experience in a number of exciting directions.

Whether you've already made your decision about what you want to study, or you're just considering whether postgraduate study is right for you, there are lots of ways you can meet us and find out more about postgraduate student life at Manchester Met.

• a virtual experience campus tour
• chats with current students

Taught by experts

Your studies are supported by a department of committed and enthusiastic teachers and researchers, experts in their chosen field.

We often link up with external professionals too, helping to enhance your learning and build valuable connections to the working world.

Entry requirements

Application is by submission of an online form including a personal statement, and a sample of your own creative work. Your application should be tailored to one of our specialist routes: Novel, Poetry, Writing for Children & YA, Scriptwriting or Creative Non-Fiction. You can apply online here: mmu.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/apply/postgraduate-taught-course.

Please indicate at the top of your personal statement which specialist route you are applying for. You should use the rest of the statement to tell us a bit about yourself, give a good overview of your reading and writing interests, and a sense of what has led you to apply for our course and any ideas you have for what you’d like to write with us. Personal statements should be approximately 500 words long.

For the creative sample , applicants to the Novel, Children's & YA and Creative Non-Fiction routes should submit up to 2,000 words of prose; poetry applicants should submit up to 15 poems; and scriptwriting applicants should submit up to 15 minutes running time of script. The work submitted can be a complete piece, or an extract, or a number of extracts from a longer work or works, but must all be within the chosen specialist route.

We have intakes into the programme in September and January each year. For application deadlines, please see the 'How to Apply section'. 

In each application assessed we will be looking for evidence of:

A very high standard of written English

Control of form, style and technique

Substantial reading of contemporary work within the relevant field

Commitment to the craft of writing and willingness to engage with the editorial process of receiving feedback and redrafting work-in-progress

Experience of the development of writing skills through workshops, supervision, mentoring or previous study

Applicants whose first language is not English are required to produce evidence of English Language proficiency. Overseas applicants will require IELTS with an overall score of 6.5, with no sub-component below 5.5, or an equivalent accepted English qualification. Accepted English qualifications can be viewed  here .

If your application meets these criteria, a tutor may contact you to arrange a telephone or face-to-face interview at a mutually convenient time.

Fees and funding

Uk and channel island students.

Full-time fee: £9,500 per year. Tuition fees will remain the same for each year of your course providing you complete it in the normal timeframe (no repeat years or breaks in study).

Part-time fee: £1584 per 30 credits studied per year. Tuition fees will remain the same for each year of your course providing you complete it in the normal timeframe (no repeat years or breaks in study).

Distance learning fee: £1584 per 30 credits studied per year. Tuition fees will remain the same for each year of your course providing you complete it in the normal timeframe (no repeat years or breaks in study).

EU and Non-EU International Students

Full-time fee: £18,500 per year. Tuition fees will remain the same for each year of your course providing you complete it in the normal timeframe (no repeat years or breaks in study).

Part-time fee: £3084 per 30 credits studied per year. Tuition fees will remain the same for each year of your course providing you complete it in the normal timeframe (no repeat years or breaks in study).

Distance learning fee: £3084 per 30 credits studied per year. Tuition fees will remain the same for each year of your course providing you complete it in the normal timeframe (no repeat years or breaks in study).

Additional Information

A masters qualification typically comprises 180 credits, a PGDip 120 credits, a PGCert 60 credits, and an MFA 300 credits. Tuition fees will remain the same for each year of study provided the course is completed in the normal timeframe (no repeat years or breaks in study).

Additional costs

Specialist costs.

Compulsory estimate : £300

Optional estimate : £2200

Books (novels, poetry collections, children/young adult books, scripts in print, or books of creative non-fiction depending on the specialist route of study) for study on Reading units (up to 10 books per unit for two units). Costs spread across years one and two for part-time students. There is also a list of additional, optional recommended reading for each unit. Students can access much of this via the Manchester Met library (either by loaning books or via the e-book system). All students will require access to a computer in order to undertake their studies (accessing online resources, forums and communication systems). Students can loan laptops on campus. Students will also need access to broadband internet. While most students choose to purchase these for home use, computers with internet access are available to use on campus. While most assessed work will be submitted and completed electronically, students taking the dissertation or manuscript units will be asked to submit printed and bound copies of their work.

placement costs

Compulsory estimate : £100

There is an optional summer school each year, where students are invited to spend two full days on campus for a suite of masterclass workshops, talks and social activities. Attendance at the school is free of charge, but students are asked to make their own arrangements for travel, accommodation and food. Students undertaking units which involve creating artwork, producing objects, or travelling to conduct research or interviews etc. will need to cover the costs of any materials used and also make arrangements for accommodation, travel and food. Students based outside of Manchester, including distance learners, who wish to attend on-campus or in-person events, activities, or classes are asked to cover the costs of accommodation, food, travel and tuition for these.

other costs

Optional estimate : £500

Students may be invited to take part in optional public events (e.g. reading from their own work), or attend meetings for extra-curricular projects (e.g. the Rosamond Prize) and are expected to cover the costs of travel, accommodation and food.

Career prospects

More than 100 of our students and graduates have embarked upon publishing careers, launching first books, with others achieving publication in journals and magazines, winning writing awards and prizes, and setting up small presses and anthologies, and seeing their work go into production and performance.. Our alumni include winners of the Costa First Novel Award, Forward Poetry Prize and Yale Windham-Campell Prize, and a long-listing for the Man Booker Prize. 

Our School plays a leading role in establishing Manchester as a city of writers with a commitment to finding diverse new voices and creating opportunities for writer development, enabling new writing and building audiences for the next generation of talent. Manchester has been designated a UNESCO City of Literature in recognition of its thriving live literature scene, with a year-round programme of author events, writers’ forums, networking opportunities and open mic nights. 

We are home to a suite of ground-breaking outreach projects including the Manchester Children’s Book Festival and Mother Tongue Other Tongue , an international multilingual poetry competition that celebrates cultural diversity and the many languages spoken in schools in the UK. Our Manchester Poetry Library holds over 12,000 books and recordings that can be explored through our online catalogue, in person and through our annual events programme. Our School has a strong Manchester presence, with links to many of the city’s major cultural and arts organisations, and also a global reach with students and alumni based across the UK and continental Europe, and in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Australasia.

Our strong partnerships and innovative projects mean that you will have plenty of opportunities to develop your industry experience and network.  

On completion of this course you may decide to pursue PhD study, or to develop a career in bookselling, agenting, publishing, editing, producing or directing for screen, stage or radio, or in teaching creative writing. You will have access to the Careers and Employability Hub located in the Business School at Manchester Met, offering a host of information resources, one-to-one careers support, and employability events throughout the year. This service is also available for up to three years after you graduate. 

The Power of Words Led by Professor Carol Ann Duffy DBE (UK Poet Laureate 2009-2019), the Manchester Writing School is the beating literary heart of a city alive with culture. Find out more about its prestigious past, present and future by watching our video, 'The Power of Words'.   Watch the video Manchester Writing School

Want to know more

Register your interest, got a question.

Please contact our course enquiries team.

Please remember to tailor your application to one of our specialist routes (Novel, Poetry, Writing for Children, Scriptwriting or Creative Non-Fiction) and to include a creative sample relevant to that chosen route.

Please upload your creative sample under the 'Degree Transcript' section of the application portal. 

The novel and poetry routes are available to study on campus (full-time or part-time) or online (part-time only). The writing for children and creative non-fiction routes are online (part-time) only. The scriptwriting route is available to study on campus only.

The application submission deadlines for September 2024 entry are:

International students: Monday 22nd July 2024

UK or Home/ Channel Islands/ IOM students: Applications remain open - deadline to be confirmed

Get advice and support on making a successful application.

You can review our current terms and conditions before you make your application. If you are successful with your application, we will send you up to date information alongside your offer letter.

Manchester is your city, be part of it

Your new home, your new city, why university, related courses, english studies.

Programme review Our programmes undergo an annual review and major review (normally at 6 year intervals) to ensure an up-to-date curriculum supported by the latest online learning technology. For further information on when we may make changes to our programmes, please see the changes section of our terms and conditions .

Important notice This online prospectus provides an overview of our programmes of study and the University. We regularly update our online prospectus so that our published course information is accurate. Please check back to the online prospectus before making an application to us to access the most up to date information for your chosen course of study.

Confirmation of regulator The Manchester Metropolitan University is regulated by the Office for Students (OfS). The OfS is the independent regulator of higher education in England. More information on the role of the OfS and its regulatory framework can be found at officeforstudents.org.uk .

All higher education providers registered with the OfS must have a student protection plan in place. The student protection plan sets out what students can expect to happen should a course, campus, or institution close. Access our current student protection plan .

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College of Arts and Sciences

Department of english, ma reading list.

MA Exam Reading List (for students matriculating 2021 and after)

Although the English-speaking world and its cultural productions have always been diverse, in some periods of history, access to literacy and publication were the preserve of racial, ethnic and economic elites–often men. Such texts can nevertheless yield insights into contemporary disciplinary concerns such as race and gender, as they show how identity categories have been constructed, imposed and contested through language, literary form, character, etc. We encourage students to situate the texts on this list in the context of a wider range of voices whose literary works are lost or inaccessible, and to think about how the literary canon has been formed and who is left out. And we also welcome approaches that attend to the complicated afterlives of the texts as they have been critiqued, analyzed, reimagined and adapted by readers and writers who do not share the backgrounds of their original authors.

1. Unknown		Norton (Bilin)
2. Chaucer		Norton Critical
3. Spenser	Book I	Longman, ed.
4. Shakespeare	&	Pelican;
5. Cavendish		Penguin, ed. L
6. Marvell		Longman, ed.
7. Milton		Merritt Hughes
8. Defoe		Oxford, E.d, K
9. Wordsworth	(1805)	Norton
10. Austen		Oxford
11. Whitman	(1855)	Dover Thrift
12. Melville		Norton, ed. Pa
13. Rowlandson		Norton, Full 5
14. Eliot		Oxford
15. Woolf		Norton
16. Cather		Vintage
17. Thiong’O		Anchor
18. Bishop		Farrar, Straus
19. Butler		Grand central
20. Naipaul		Picador
21. Bolano		Picador

* If a student wishes to answer questions about the films, she/he must petition the Graduate Committee by the end of the second semester of study.

22.		F. W. Murnau, 1927
23.		D. W. Griffith, 1916
24.		Alfred Hitchcock, 1946
25.		Jonathan Glazer, 2013
26.		Maya Deren, 1946