creative writing at university of reading

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Develop your confidence and your craft; join a vibrant community of supportive and accomplished writers.

Creative writing can take many forms. Whether you write poetry, short stories, drama, or even creative non-fiction, it is a skill which underpins many creative and commercial roles.

By undertaking postgraduate studies at the University of Reading, you will learn from  award-winning authors and poets  who will support, mentor, and challenge you to become a published writer.

The  Department of English Literature  is home to  creative writing experts , who will deliver teaching through seminars, workshops, and guest lectures, as well as in-depth, individual supervision. We’re in the top 150 universities in the world for this subject (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024). The University of Reading is 6th in the UK for research outputs in English Language and Literature (Times Higher Education analysis of the latest Research Excellence Framework 2021 – English Language and Literature, when scoring by GPA Output).

With seminars focusing on topics such as dialogue, form, and character development, you will gain a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of poetry and prose. Workshops will give you a chance to share work with your peers, allowing you to give feedback and learn from each other. You will apply the knowledge you gain from these sessions to the research, planning, and production of your own mid-length dissertation project. A master’s in creative writing will allow you not only to build on your skills, but also your professional network.

The recently launched creative arts magazine,  The Canvas , is curated and edited by our own students, and encourages community and collaboration between staff, students, and other creatives local to Reading. Careers in industries such as journalism, publishing, marketing and teaching are just a few of the routes that creative writing at Reading could take you.

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The most enjoyable thing about this entire experience was being able to pursue a project I’m deeply passionate about and having the complete support of my professors and classmates. They were all just as excited as I was about it and it was heartwarming to have been part of a group that respected each other’s crafts.

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• Utility Menu

• Creative Writing

The vital presence of creative writing in the English Department is reflected by our many distinguished authors who teach our workshops. We offer courses each term in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, screenwriting, playwriting, and television writing. Our workshops are small, usually no more than twelve students, and offer writers an opportunity to focus intensively on one genre. 

Apply to Creative Writing Workshops

Workshops are open by application to Harvard College undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and students from other institutions eligible for cross registration. Submission guidelines for workshops can be found under individual course listings; please do not query instructors.  Review all departmental rules and application instructions before applying.  

Fall 2024 First Application Deadline: 11:59 pm ET on Sunday, April 7

Fall 2024 Second Application Deadline: 11:59 pm ET on Thursday, August 22 (Not all workshops will be reopen to applications. First-year students, incoming transfer students, and incoming graduate students - who could not participate in April registration processes - will be given priority during the August application review cycle. Returning students who did not submit workshop applications in April may apply in August. Students who applied in April and were not offered a seat in a workshop will automatically be reconsidered and need not submit a new application.) Spring 2025 Application Deadline: October-November 2024, TBA

Please visit our course listings for all the Fall 2024 workshops.

Our online submission manager (link below) will open for Fall 2024 applications on Thursday, August 15 .  

Students who have questions about the creative writing workshop application process should contact Case Q. Kerns at [email protected] .

Featured Faculty

Teju Cole  is a novelist, critic, and essayist, and is the first Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice. "Among other works, the boundary-crossing author is known for his debut novel “Open City” (2011), whose early admirers included Harvard professor and New Yorker critic James Wood." 

Faculty Bookshelf

Place: new poems by jorie graham (2012).

Dream Of The Unified Field by Jorie Graham (1997)

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan (2018)

The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee (2014)

Creative Writing Workshops

• Spring 2024

English CACD. The Art of Criticism

Instructor: Maggie Doherty Wednesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site

This course will consider critical writing about art–literary, visual, cinematic, musical, etc.—as an art in its own right. We will read and discuss criticism from a wide variety of publications, paying attention to the ways outlets and audience shape critical work. The majority of our readings will be from the last few years and will include pieces by Joan Acocella, Andrea Long Chu, Jason Farago, and Carina del Valle Schorske. Students will write several short writing assignments (500-1000 words), including a straight review, during the first half of the semester and share them with peers. During the second half of the semester, each student will write and workshop a longer piece of criticism about a work of art or an artist of their choosing. Students will be expected to read and provide detailed feedback on the work of their peers. Students will revise their longer pieces based on workshop feedback and submit them for the final assignment of the class. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Thursday, August 22) Supplemental Application Information:  Please write a letter of introduction (1-2 pages) giving a sense of who you are, your writing experience, and your current goals for your writing. Please also describe your relationship to the art forms and/or genres you're interested in engaging in the course. You may also list any writers or publications whose criticism you enjoy reading. Please also include a 3-5-page writing sample of any kind of prose writing. This could be an academic paper or it could be creative fiction or nonfiction.

English CACW. Advanced Fiction Workshop

Instructor: Paul Yoon TBD | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Advanced fiction workshop for students who have already taken a workshop at Harvard or elsewhere. The goal of the class is to continue your journey as a writer. You will be responsible for participating in discussions on the assigned texts, the workshop, engaging with the work of your colleagues, and revising your work. Supplemental Application Information:   * Please note: previous creative writing workshop experience required. * Please submit ONLY a cover letter telling me your previous creative writing workshop experience, either at Harvard or elsewhere; then tell me something you are passionate about and something you want to be better at; and, lastly, tell me why of all classes you want to take this one this semester. Again, please no writing samples.

English CBBR. Intermediate Poetry: Workshop

Instructor:  Josh Bell   Monday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: Barker 018 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site

Initially, students can expect to read, discuss, and imitate the strategies of a wide range of poets writing in English; to investigate and reproduce prescribed forms and poetic structures; and to engage in writing exercises meant to expand the conception of what a poem is and can be. As the course progresses, reading assignments will be tailored on an individual basis, and an increasing amount of time will be spent in discussion of student work. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Thursday, August 22)

Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit a portfolio including a letter of interest, ten poems, and a list of classes (taken at Harvard or elsewhere) that seem to have bearing on your enterprise.

English CCEP. Ekphrastic Poetry: Workshop

Instructor: Tracy K. Smith Wednesday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: Lamont 401 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site What can a poem achieve when it contemplates or even emulates a work of art in another medium? In this workshop, we'll read and write poems that engage with other art forms--and we'll test out what a foray into another artistic practice allows us to carry back over into the formal methods and behaviors of poetry. With poems by Keats, Rilke, Auden, Hughes, and Brooks, as well as Kevin Young, Evie Shockley, Ama Codjoe and other contemporary voices. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, August 26) Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit a writing sample of 5-10 poems and an application letter explaining your interest in this course.

English CCFC. Poetry Workshop: Form & Content

Instructor: Tracy K. Smith Tuesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: Sever 112 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site

In this workshop, we’ll look closely at the craft-based choices poets make, and track the effects they have upon what we as readers are made to think and feel. How can implementing similar strategies better prepare us to engage the questions making up our own poetic material? We’ll also talk about content. What can poetry reveal about the ways our interior selves are shaped by public realities like race, class, sexuality, injustice and more? Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, August 26)   

Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit a writing sample of 5-10 poems and an application letter explaining your interest in this course.

English CCIJ. Intermediate Fiction Workshop

Instructor: Jesse McCarthy Thursday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: Barker 269 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site This is an intermediate course in the art of writing literary fiction. Previous experience with workshopping writing is encouraged but not required. The emphasis of the course will be learning how to read literature as a writer, with special attention given to the short story, novella, or short novel. We will read these works from the perspective of the writer as craftsperson and of the critic seeking in good faith to understand and describe a new aesthetic experience. We will be concerned foremost with how literary language works, with describing the effects of different kinds of sentences, different uses of genre, tone, and other rhetorical strategies. Together, we will explore our responses to examples of literature from around the world and from all periods, as well as to the writing you will produce and share with the class. As a member of a writing community, you should be prepared to respectfully read and respond to the work of others—both the work of your peers and that of the published writers that we will explore together. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, August 26) Supplemental Application Information:  This course is by application only but there are no prerequisites for this course and previous experience in a writing workshop is not required . In your application please submit a short letter explaining why you are interested in this class. You might tell me a bit about your relationship to literature, your encounter with a specific author, book, or even a scene or character from a story or novel. Please also include a writing sample of 2-5 pages (5 pages max!) of narrative prose fiction.

English CCFS. Fiction Workshop

Instructor: Teju Cole Spring 2024: Tuesday, 6:00-8:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site Spring 2025: TBD This reading and writing intensive workshop is for students who want to learn to write literary fiction. The goal of the course would be for each student to produce two polished short stories. Authors on the syllabus will probably include James Joyce, Eudora Welty, Toni Morrison, Alice Munro, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Diane Williams.

Supplemental Application Information:   Please submit a cover letter saying what you hope to get out of the workshop. In the cover letter, mention three works of fiction that matter to you and why. In addition, submit a 400–500 word sample of your fiction; the sample can be self-contained or a section of a longer work.

English CLPG. Art of Sportswriting

Instructor: Louisa Thomas Spring 2024: Tuesday, 9:00-11:45am | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site Spring 2025: TBD

In newsrooms, the sports section is sometimes referred to as the “toy department” -- frivolous and unserious, unlike the stuff of politics, business, and war. In this course, we will take the toys seriously. After all, for millions of people, sports and other so-called trivial pursuits (video games, chess, children’s games, and so on) are a source of endless fascination. For us, they will be a source of stories about human achievements and frustrations. These stories can involve economic, social, and political issues. They can draw upon history, statistics, psychology, and philosophy. They can be reported or ruminative, formally experimental or straightforward, richly descriptive or tense and spare. They can be fun. Over the course of the semester, students will read and discuss exemplary profiles, essays, articles, and blog posts, while also writing and discussing their own. While much (but not all) of the reading will come from the world of sports, no interest in or knowledge about sports is required; our focus will be on writing for a broad audience.  Supplemental Application Information:  To apply, please write a letter describing why you want to take the course and what you hope to get out of it. Include a few examples of websites or magazines you like to read, and tell me briefly about one pursuit -- football, chess, basketball, ballet, Othello, crosswords, soccer, whatever -- that interests you and why.

English CALR. Advanced Screenwriting: Workshop

Instructor: Musa Syeed Spring 2024: Wednesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: TBA Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site Spring 2025: TBD

The feature-length script is an opportunity to tell a story on a larger scale, and, therefore, requires additional preparation. In this class, we will move from writing a pitch, to a synopsis, to a treatment/outline, to the first 10 pages, to the first act of a feature screenplay. We will analyze produced scripts and discuss various elements of craft, including research, writing layered dialogue, world-building, creating an engaging cast of characters. As an advanced class, we will also look at ways both mainstream and independent films attempt to subvert genre and structure. Students will end the semester with a first act (20-30 pages) of their feature, an outline, and strategy to complete the full script.

Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit a 3-5 page writing sample. Screenplays are preferred, but fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and plays are acceptable as well. Also, please write a short note to introduce yourself. Include a couple films/filmmakers that have inspired you, your goals for the class, as well as any themes/subject matter/ideas you might be interested in exploring in your writing for film.

English CNFR. Creative Nonfiction: Workshop

Instructor: Darcy Frey Fall 2024: Wednesday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students. Course Site Spring 2025: TBD

Whether it takes the form of literary journalism, essay, memoir, or environmental writing, creative nonfiction is a powerful genre that allows writers to break free from the constraints commonly associated with nonfiction prose and reach for the breadth of thought and feeling usually accomplished only in fiction: the narration of a vivid story, the probing of a complex character, the argument of an idea, or the evocation of a place. Students will work on several short assignments to hone their mastery of the craft, then write a longer piece that will be workshopped in class and revised at the end of the term. We will take instruction and inspiration from published authors such as Joan Didion, James Baldwin, Ariel Levy, Alexander Chee, and Virginia Woolf. This is a workshop-style class intended for undergraduate and graduate students at all levels of experience. No previous experience in English Department courses is required. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm ET on Thursday, August 22)

Supplemental Application Information:   Please write a substantive letter of introduction describing who you are as writer at the moment and where you hope to take your writing; what experience you may have had with creative/literary nonfiction; what excites you about nonfiction in particular; and what you consider to be your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Additionally, please submit 3-5 pages of creative/literary nonfiction (essay, memoir, narrative journalism, etc, but NOT academic writing) or, if you have not yet written much nonfiction, an equal number of pages of narrative fiction.

English CLAR. Getting the Words Right: The Art of Revision

Instructor: Laura van den Berg TBD | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students A promising draft is of little use to us as writers if we have no idea what to do next, of how to begin again. This course aims to illuminate how revision can be every bit as creative and exhilarating as getting the first draft down—and how time spent re-imagining our early drafts is the ultimate show of faith in our work. We will explore the art of revision—of realizing the promise of that first draft—through reading, craft discussion, exercises, and workshop. Students can expect to leave the semester with two polished short stories (or 40-50 polished novel pages), a keener understanding of their own writing process, and a plan for where to take their work next. Texts will include  How to Write an Autobiographical Novel  by Alexander Chee,  Refuse to by Done  by Matt Bell, and  Craft in the Real World  by Matthew Salesses. It will be helpful to enter into the semester with some pre-existing material that you wish to revise (a short story, several chapters of a novel). Previous experience with workshopping writing is encouraged but not required. Supplemental Application Information:   Please submit a brief letter—1-2 pages—that discusses your interest in the course and in writing more broadly. What are you interested in working on and learning more about, at this point in your practice? Please also submit a short—2-3 page—writing sample (the first 2 pages of a short story or novel, for example).

English CACF. Get Real: The Art of Community-Based Film

Instructor: Musa Syeed Wednesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 student Course Site

“I’ve often noticed that we are not able to look at what we have in front of us,” the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami said, “unless it’s inside a frame.” For our communities confronting invisibility and erasure, there’s an urgent need for new frames. In this workshop, we’ll explore a community-engaged approach to documentary and fiction filmmaking, as we seek to see our world more deeply. We’ll begin with screenings, craft exercises, and discussions around authorship and social impact. Then we each will write, develop, and shoot a short film over the rest of the semester, building off of intentional community engagement. Students will end the class with written and recorded materials for a rough cut. Basic equipment and technical training will be provided.

Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Thursday, August 22)

Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit a brief letter explaining why you're interested to take this class. Please also discuss what participants/communities you might be interested in engaging with for your filmmaking projects. For your writing sample, please submit 3-5 pages of your creative work from any genre (screenwriting, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, etc.)

English CAFR. Advanced Fiction Workshop: Writing this Present Life

Instructor: Claire Messud Thursday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site Intended for students with prior fiction-writing and workshop experience, this course will concentrate on structure, execution and revision. Exploring various strands of contemporary and recent literary fiction – writers such as Karl Ove Knausgaard, Rachel Cusk, Chimamanda Adichie, Douglas Stuart, Ocean Vuong, etc – we will consider how fiction works in our present moment, with emphasis on a craft perspective. Each student will present to the class a published fiction that has influenced them. The course is primarily focused on the discussion of original student work, with the aim of improving both writerly skills and critical analysis. Revision is an important component of this class: students will workshop two stories and a revision of one of these. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm ET on Thursday, August 22)

Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit 3-5 pages of prose fiction, along with a substantive letter of introduction. I’d like to know why you’re interested in the course; what experience you’ve had writing, both in previous workshops and independently; what your literary goals and ambitions are. Please tell me about some of your favorite narratives – fiction, non-fiction, film, etc: why they move you, and what you learn from them.

English CAKV. Fiction Workshop: Writing from the First-Person Point of View

Instructor:  Andrew Krivak Tuesday, 9:00-11:45 1m | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site This course is a workshop intended for students who are interested in writing longer form narratives from the first-person point of view. The “I” at the center of any novel poses a perspective that is all at once imaginatively powerful and narratively problematic, uniquely insightful and necessarily unreliable. We will read from roughly twelve novels written in the first-person, from Marilynne Robinson and W.G. Sebald, to Valeria Luiselli and Teju Cole, and ask questions (among others) of why this form, why this style? And, as a result, what is lost and what is realized in the telling? Primarily, however, students will write. Our goal will be to have a student’s work read and discussed twice in class during the semester. I am hoping to see at least 35-40 pages of a project —at any level of completion—at the end of term.  Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Thursday, August 22) Supplemental Application Information:  Please write a substantive letter telling me why you’re interested in taking this class, what writers (classical and contemporary) you admire and why, and if there’s a book you have read more than once, a movie you have seen more than once, a piece of music you listen to over and over, not because you have to but because you want to. Students of creative nonfiction are also welcome to apply.

English CCSS. Fiction Workshop: The Art of the Short Story

Instructor: Laura van den Berg Tuesday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site This course will serve as an introduction to the fundamentals of writing fiction, with an emphasis on the contemporary short story. How can we set about creating “big” worlds in compact spaces? What unique doors can the form of the short story open? The initial weeks will focus on exploratory exercises and the study of published short stories and craft essays. Later, student work will become the primary text as the focus shifts to workshop discussion. Authors on the syllabus will likely include Ted Chiang, Lauren Groff, Carmen Maria Machado, and Octavia Butler. This workshop welcomes writers of all levels of experience. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Thursday, August 22) Supplemental Application Information:  Please submit a letter of introduction. I’d like to know a little about why you are drawn to studying fiction; what you hope to get out of the workshop and what you hope to contribute; and one thing you are passionate about outside writing / school. Please also include a very brief writing sample (2-3 pages). The sample can be in any genre (it does not have to be from a work of fiction). 

Write an Honors Creative Thesis

Students may apply to write a senior thesis or senior project in creative writing, although only English concentrators can be considered. Students submit applications in early March of their junior year, including first-term juniors who are out of phase. The creative writing faculty considers the proposal, along with the student's overall performance in creative writing and other English courses, and notifies students about its decision in early mid-late March. Those applications are due, this coming year, on TBA . 

Students applying for a creative writing thesis or project must have completed at least one course in creative writing at Harvard before they apply. No student is guaranteed acceptance. It is strongly suggested that students acquaint themselves with the requirements and guidelines well before the thesis application is due. The creative writing director must approve any exceptions to the requirements, which must be made in writing by Monday, February 7, 2022. Since the creative writing thesis and project are part of the English honors program, acceptance to write a creative thesis is conditional upon the student continuing to maintain a 3.40 concentration GPA. If a student’s concentration GPA drops below 3.40 after the spring of the junior year, the student may not be permitted to continue in the honors program.

Joint concentrators may apply to write creative theses, but we suggest students discuss the feasibility of the project well before applications are due. Not all departments are open to joint creative theses.

Students who have questions about the creative writing thesis should contact the program’s Director, Sam Marks .

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Creative Writing

Creative writing (poetry), professor/instructor.

Practice in the original composition of poetry supplemented by the reading and analysis of standard works. Each student is expected to prepare a manuscript each week. There will be a weekly workshop meeting and occasional individual conferences.

Creative Writing (Fiction)

Practice in the original composition of fiction supplemented by the reading and analysis of standard works. Each student is expected to prepare a manuscript at least every other week. There will be a weekly workshop meeting and occasional individual conferences.

Creative Writing (Literary Translation)

Practice in the translation of literary works from another language into English supplemented by the reading and analysis of standard works. Each student is expected to prepare a manuscript each week. There will be a weekly workshop meeting and occasional individual conferences.

Introductory Playwriting

This is a workshop in the fundamentals of writing plays. Through writing prompts, exercises, study and reflection, students will be guided in the creation of original dramatic material. Attention will be given to character, structure, dramatic action, monologue, dialogue, language

Creative Nonfiction

This is a workshop in factual writing and what has become known as literary non-fiction, emphasizing writing assignments and including several reading assignments. Students will examine masterpieces about social inequality and to what extent it is possible for authors to know the struggles of their subjects, and to create empathy for them. One three-hour seminar.

Advanced Creative Writing (Poetry)

Advanced practice in the original composition of poetry for discussion in regularly scheduled workshop meetings. Prerequisites: Two 200-level CWR courses.

Advanced Creative Writing (Fiction)

Advanced practice in the original composition of fiction for discussion in regularly scheduled workshop meetings.

Advanced practice in the original composition of fiction for discussion in regularly scheduled workshop meetings. Prerequisites: Two 200-level CWR courses.

Advanced Creative Writing (Literary Translation)

Advanced practice in the translation of literary works from another language into English supplemented by the reading and analysis of standard works. Prerequisites: 205 or 206 and by application.

Advanced practice in the translation of literary works from another language into English supplemented by the reading and analysis of standard works. Prerequisites: 205 or 206 or by Program permission.

Playwriting II: Intermediate Playwriting

A continuation of work begun in Introductory Playwriting, in this class, students will complete either one full-length play or two long one-acts (40-60 pages) to the end of gaining a firmer understanding of characterization, dialogue, structure, and the playwriting process. In addition to questions of craft, an emphasis will be placed on the formation of healthy creative habits and the sharpening of critical and analytical skills through reading and responding to work of both fellow students and contemporary playwrights of note.

Special Topics in Creative Writing

Students gain special access to the critical understanding of literature through their involvement in the creative process. Topics include autobiography, prosody, non-fiction, revision and point of view. Students are expected to prepare a manuscript at least every other week. Specific topics and prerequisites will vary. By application.

Advanced Creative Writing Tutorial

Tutorials in the original composition of fiction, poetry, or translations, open to those who have demonstrated unusual commitment and talent through four terms of creative writing or who provide equivalent evidence of their capacity for advanced work. Open also to qualified graduate students. Individual conferences to be arranged.

Special Topics in Screenwriting

This class will familiarize students with the complex use of metaphorical, emotional, and visual threads in long form screenplay writing. Analyzing examples of international, independent, and classical structures, students will be exposed to the rhythms and demands of the process of conceiving and writing a long form narrative film. Prerequisite: Introduction to Screenwriting and by application.

Advanced Seminar in American Studies

Advanced seminars bring students into spaces of collaborative exploration after pursuing their individual paths of study in American studies, Asian American/diasporic studies, and/or Latino studies. To students culminating programs of study toward one or more of the certificates offered by the Effron Center for the Study of America, advanced seminars offer the important opportunity to integrate their cumulative knowledge.

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The Creative Writing Major

The undergraduate Creative Writing major at the University of Illinois, formerly known as the Rhetoric major, is one of the oldest of its kind in the country. Now in its seventh decade, the major combines small workshops (poetry, fiction, nonfiction) and a variety of literature courses.

Note: We also offer a Creative Writing minor. For an overview of our minor requirements, click here .

The undergraduate Creative Writing major at the University of Illinois, formerly known as the Rhetoric major, is one of the oldest of its kind in the country. Now in its seventh decade, the major combines small workshops (poetry, fiction, nonfiction) and a variety of literature courses. The result is a strong but flexible program of study that develops students' analytical and creative skills and prepares them for work or graduate study in any number of fields.

Students in the undergraduate program edit and publish an annual journal, Montage Arts Journal , which features poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and visual art by University of Illinois undergraduate student writers and artists. For more information about Montage , visit montagejournal.wordpress.com .

Through our program, writers shape their literary voices, develop distinctive styles, and intensify their written, critical, and editorial skills. Students write about what matters most to them and learn about contemporary literary publishing through developing their imaginative, expressive, and dynamic writing.

Creative Writing Major Requirements

Literature for creative writers (6 credit hours).

• CW 100: Introduction to Creative Writing
• CW 200: Reading for Writers

Craft (3 credit hours)

• CW 243: The Craft Essay:  Creative Reading, Reflection, and Revision  

Creative Writing Workshops (12 credit hours)

Creative Writing majors must complete at least one of the following 3-course (9-hour) sequences:

• CW 106: Poetry Workshop I
• CW 206: Poetry Workshop II
• CW 406: Poetry Workshop III
• CW 104: Fiction Workshop I
• CW 204: Fiction Workshop II
• CW 404: Fiction Workshop III

The remaining 3 hours in this category can be satisfied by a fourth CW Workshop outside of the chosen sequence.  CW 404 and CW 406 may be repeated once for credit, but may not be repeated to fulfill this requirement.

Writing and Literature (3 credit hours)

3 hours of Writing and Literature coursework, either:

• 3 hours of non-Workshop CW coursework (CW 460, or another approved non-Workshop CW course)
• 3 hours of ENGL coursework

Additional Literature Coursework (12 credit hours)

12 additional hours of approved ENGL coursework, including:

• 9 hours of approved ENGL Literature coursework
• 3 hours of an ENGL Difference & Diaspora course

For more information on the Creative Writing major and minor, please visit our listings in the Academic Catalog:

• Creative Writing Major - full, detailed requirements
• Creative Writing Minor - full , detailed requirements
• Creative Writing Courses

The faculty of the Creative Writing Program represent a diverse range of writing and teaching styles and interests and are actively working in various genres and media, including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, theater, and film. Faculty members have received numerous awards and fellowships. A small selection of these includes the Yale Series of Younger Poets, the Native Writers' Circle Award of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award, the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction, the FC2 National Fiction Competition, a Whiting Award, the A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize, the Kate Tufts Discovery Prize, the William Peden Prize, the Academy of American Poets Award, the Bakeless Prize, Wallace Stegner fellowships, and fellowships from the NEA, Guggenheim Foundation, Yaddo, MacDowell, Bread Loaf, Sewanee, and many others.

Follow the links below to learn more about our undergraduate Creative Writing program's core faculty members:

Ángel García

Janice N. Harrington

Amy Hassinger

Christopher Kempf

Julie Price

John Rubins

Ted Sanders

Alex Shakar

Corey Van Landingham

David Wright

• The Creative Writing Minor
• UIUC's Creative Writing Club
• Our MFA in Creative Writing

• Schools & departments

Creative Writing MSc

Awards: MSc

Funding opportunities

Programme website: Creative Writing

The community has been one of my favourite parts. The department has very warm and encouraging staff. Some of my classmates are now close friends, and we still workshop stories across time zones, and complain to each other about writing - and not writing! Bhavika Govil, prize-winning fiction writer MSc in Creative Writing, 2020

Introduction to Postgraduate Study at the University of Edinburgh

Join us online on 25 September to learn more about Scotland, the city of Edinburgh and postgraduate study at the University.

Find out more and register

Programme description

Based in the first UNESCO World City of Literature, this one-year, full-time taught Masters programme is tailored towards your practice in either fiction or poetry.

There is a strong practical element to the programme, helping you develop your creative skills through:

• presenting your work for peer discussion
• hearing from guest writers and other professionals on the practicalities of life as a writer

You will also sharpen your critical skills through:

• seminars exploring the particulars of your chosen form
• option courses in literature, helping you move from theoretical considerations to practical applications

The programme culminates with the publication of ‘From Arthur’s Seat,’ an anthology of student work.

Why Edinburgh

Literature has been taught here for over 250 years, and today Edinburgh thrives on its designation as the first UNESCO World City of Literature. The city is home to the National Library of Scotland and the Scottish Poetry Library, and a number of celebrated publishing outlets, from Canongate and Polygon, to Luath Press, Birlinn and Mariscat. The University hosts the prestigious James Tait Black Awards, established in 1919 and one of the oldest literary prizes in Britain.

There are lots of opportunities to write and share your work, from ‘The Student,’ the UK’s oldest student newspaper (founded in 1887 by Robert Louis Stevenson), to The Selkie, which was founded by Creative Writing students in 2018 to showcase work by people who self-identify as underrepresented.

Around the city, you will find:

• library readings and bookshop launches
• spoken word gigs
• cabaret nights
• poetry slams

Edinburgh isn’t just historic – it’s a modern hub for literature. That’s part of what makes the city great for writing.

Austin Crowley, MSc in Creative Writing, 2023

We team teach our programme so that you benefit from the input of a range of tutors, as well as your fellow students and our Writer in Residence, the poet and author Michael Pedersen, who also co-ordinates a range of student writing prizes and our annual industry and networking event.

The academic staff you will be working with are all active researchers or authors, including well-published and prize-winning writers of poetry, prose fiction and drama. They include:

• Dr Jane Alexander - Fiction
• Dr Lynda Clark
• Dr Patrick Errington - Poetry/Fiction
• Dr Miriam Gamble - Poetry
• Professor Alan Gillis - Poetry
• Dr Jane McKie - Poetry
• Dr Allyson Stack - Fiction
• Kim Sherwood - Fiction
• Alice Thompson - Fiction

Programme structure

Over the duration of the programme, you will:

• take two core courses, both worth 40 credits
• two optional courses chosen from a wide range of subjects, both worth 20 credits

The core activities in Creative Writing are:

• tutor-led workshops, in which you will present your work-in-progress and critique the work of your fellow students
• regular seminars exploring techniques and issues specific to your practice (either fiction or poetry) and the statements and theories of practitioners

Optional courses

We have a large number of option courses to choose from, including preferred courses for fiction and poetry (which will be offered to Creative Writing students in the first instance), and courses from across the Department of English Literature and the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures.

Visiting speakers

Throughout the programme, you will be expected to attend readings and talks by visiting speakers. Early on, these will be from published writers and, later, advisors from the writing business: literary agents, magazine editors and publishers.

Dissertation

The final element of the programme is your dissertation, a piece of creative writing (worth 60 credits) written with the advice and support of a designated supervisor.

Fiction dissertations are between 15,000 words and 20,000 words, and poetry dissertations between 25 and 30 pages.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this course, you should be able to:

• identify, conceptualise and define formal elements of craft in your chosen field (poetry or fiction) within published works and within works by your peers
• remain open to criticism and respond effectively and creatively to feedback on your own creative work
• work from initial conception through multiple drafts to the final version of a creative piece within your chosen field (fiction or poetry)
• transfer editorial skills and creative abilities from one context to another
• analyse creative works within your chosen field (fiction or poetry), work with a focus on craft effectiveness, and articulate strengths and weaknesses in a piece of writing in a constructive manner

Career opportunities

Over the course of this programme, you will complete a body of creative work that has been rigorously peer reviewed.

Our students go on to careers in a wide variety of fields, including:

• arts administration
• web and audio book editing
• script and ghost writing
• gaming narrative design

Some decide to extend their studies and take a PhD with us.

Many of our alumni go on to achieve literary success, publishing novels and short story and poetry collections, and winning awards. Our graduates’ recent successes include:

debut novels from:

• Amanda Block (The Lost Storyteller, published by Hodder Studio)
• Karin Nordin (Where Ravens Roost, published by Harper Collins)
• Marielle Thompson (Where Ivy Dares to Grow, published by Kensington Books)
• August Thomas (Liar’s Candle, published by Simon and Schuster)
• Rosie Walker (Secrets of a Serial Killer, published by One More Chapter)
• Mark Wightman (Waking the Tiger, published by Hobeck Books and shortlisted for Scottish Crime Debut of the Year 2021)

debut short story collections from:

• Dayle Furlong (Lake Effect, published by Cormorant Books)
• Dima Alzayat (Alligator and Other Stories, shortlisted for the James Tait Black Award for Fiction)
• a non-fiction debut from Sonali Misra (21 Fantastic Failures, published by Rupa Publications India)

debut poetry collections from:

• Rebecca Tamás (WITCH, published by Penned in the Margins)
• Naomi Morris (Hyperlove, published by Makina Books)
• Aileen Ballantyne (Taking Flight, published by Luath Press)
• the 2022 Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, won by Alyson Kissner
• the 2021 Brotherton Poetry Prize, won by Lauren Pope
• the 2021 Pontas & JJ Bola Emerging Writers Prize, won by Bhavika Govil

Meet our graduates

From Arthur’s Seat – stories from the heart of Edinburgh

Tim Tim Cheng

• Bhavika Govil
• Dima Alzayat

What's the best type of masters programme for you?

Entry requirements.

These entry requirements are for the 2024/25 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2025/26 academic year will be published on 1 Oct 2024.

A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in any discipline. This will often be in a directly related subject like English Literature/Creative Writing, but we welcome applicants from all academic backgrounds.

Applicants who are entered into selection will be asked to provide a sample of written work to enable their suitability for the programme to be assessed.

Students from China

This degree is Band C.

• Postgraduate entry requirements for students from China

International qualifications

Check whether your international qualifications meet our general entry requirements:

• Entry requirements by country
• English language requirements

Regardless of your nationality or country of residence, you must demonstrate a level of English language competency at a level that will enable you to succeed in your studies.

English language tests

We accept the following English language qualifications at the grades specified:

• IELTS Academic: total 7.0 with at least 6.5 in each component. We do not accept IELTS One Skill Retake to meet our English language requirements.
• TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 100 with at least 23 in each component. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
• C1 Advanced ( CAE ) / C2 Proficiency ( CPE ): total 185 with at least 176 in each component.
• Trinity ISE : ISE III with passes in all four components.
• PTE Academic: total 70 with at least 62 in each component.

Your English language qualification must be no more than three and a half years old from the start date of the programme you are applying to study, unless you are using IELTS , TOEFL, Trinity ISE or PTE , in which case it must be no more than two years old.

Degrees taught and assessed in English

We also accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been taught and assessed in English in a majority English speaking country, as defined by UK Visas and Immigration:

• UKVI list of majority English speaking countries

We also accept a degree that has been taught and assessed in English from a university on our list of approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries (non-MESC).

• Approved universities in non-MESC

If you are not a national of a majority English speaking country, then your degree must be no more than five years old* at the beginning of your programme of study. (*Revised 05 March 2024 to extend degree validity to five years.)

Find out more about our language requirements:

• Fees and costs

Read our general information on tuition fees and studying costs:

Scholarships and funding

Featured funding.

If you are intending to study full time on this Creative Writing programme, you are eligible for a William Hunter Sharpe Memorial Scholarship which will contribute towards your tuition fees.

You do not need to apply for this scholarship – all eligible candidates who apply for the programme by Monday 6 May 2024 will be considered for them and contacted if successful.

• Find out more about the William Hunter Sharpe Memorial Scholarship and other scholarships in literatures, languages and cultures

UK government postgraduate loans

If you live in the UK, you may be able to apply for a postgraduate loan from one of the UK’s governments.

The type and amount of financial support you are eligible for will depend on:

• your programme
• the duration of your studies
• your tuition fee status

Programmes studied on a part-time intermittent basis are not eligible.

• UK government and other external funding

Other funding opportunities

Search for scholarships and funding opportunities:

• Search for funding

Further information

• Phone: +44 (0)131 650 4086
• Contact: College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Admissions Office
• School of Literatures, Languages & Cultures
• 50 George Square
• Central Campus
• Programme: Creative Writing
• School: Literatures, Languages & Cultures
• College: Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

This programme is not currently accepting applications. Applications for the next intake usually open in October.

Start date: September

Application deadlines

Due to high demand, the school operates a number of selection deadlines. We will make a small number of offers to the most outstanding candidates on an ongoing basis, but hold the majority of applications until the next published selection deadline when we will offer a proportion of the places available to applicants selected through a competitive process.

Please be aware that applications must be submitted and complete, i.e. all required documents uploaded, by the relevant application deadline in order to be considered in that round. Your application will still be considered if you have not yet met the English language requirement for the programme.

Deadlines for applicants applying to study in 2024/25:

(Revised 27 March 2024 to extend Round 3 application deadline)

• How to apply

The online application process involves the completion of a web form and the submission of supporting documents.

You should supply a portfolio of writing.

• For poetry, this should be six (6) pages of poetry, starting a new page for each new poem of 14 lines or over.
• For fiction, this should be a complete story or stories, or an equivalent amount from a longer work (between 2,500 and 3,500 words).

These are firm limits.

If you are undecided about whether to apply for fiction or poetry, you should send a sample of both, i.e. six (6) pages of poetry and 2,500-3,500 words of fiction (if offered a place it will be for one or the other).

Work in other forms (for example journalism, life writing or advertising) will not be considered.

Personal statement

When writing your personal statement, consider the following questions:

• What do you most hope to learn/gain from a Creative Writing degree, and why is ours the programme for you?
• Tell us about your writing: what are you interested in and why? Are there aspects of your current practice you're particularly proud of? Things you know you need to work on?

What (if any) prior experience do you have of studying Creative Writing?

Guidance on the application process and supporting documents

All supporting documents, including references, must be uploaded to the online application system by the deadline date.

Find out more about the general application process for postgraduate programmes:

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Creative Writing (MFA)

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The Creative Writing Program at the University of Oregon is a two-year residency in which Master of Fine Arts (MFA) students concentrate in either poetry or fiction. The Program emphasizes the workshop, integrating concentrated time for writing with craft seminars and individualized reading tutorials.

You’ll hear our program is not for the faint of heart. It isn’t—and we’re proud of that. We hope to offer our students the rigorous apprenticeship we undertook with our own teachers.

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this program, students will be able to:

• Proficiency in close reading. We expect our MFA candidates to read widely and meticulously while pursuing their studies. Our aim is for each student to encounter a variety of historical periods, aesthetic styles, and critical approaches. Any student graduating from our program should be capable of examining a single text for its many formal conventions and the style or styles with which it is conversant.
• Development of vocabularies for assessing literature, with an emphasis on craft. Our graduate students are expected to acquire the clear and sophisticated language that enables them to speak at length about a range of craft considerations for any single piece of literature. This applies to the published works they encounter in our craft seminars, but it is equally essential in the Creative Writing Workshop, when they comprehensively critique the works of their peers.
• Application of the formal elements of craft in either genre. We expect our apprentice poets and fiction writers to be able to identify, assess, and deploy many of the formal conventions they encounter in the Creative Writing workshop and craft seminar. We believe that the practice of exploring formal challenges is necessary for the MFA student in order to build on his or her own resources as an artist. We especially believe that a knowledge of such conventions is a responsibility of any writer in our MFA program.
• Familiarity with fundamental concepts, forms, modes, and traditions in literary fiction and/or poetry. At the graduate level, this outcome is particularly geared toward and measured by the MFA exam that all of our graduating students take at the end of their second year. Our expectation is that our students will demonstrate a command of the texts they have encountered while earning their degrees, along with the multitude of aesthetic concepts, compositional possibilities, and artistic concerns to which they have been exposed.

NOTE: The list of outcomes above builds on the basic expectations we also hold for  our undergraduate students in the Creative Writing Program. Because our pedagogical  goals are continuously fundamental in nature, both at the undergraduate and graduate  level of study, we view our curriculum and the varietal redundancies below as a  cumulative process, one through which our poets and fiction writers build a portfolio of  knowledge whose components are interactive. This is to say we view historical periods,  critical modalities, and aesthetic movements to be in constant conversation with one  another. 

Additionally, what distinguishes the outcomes below from their undergraduate  counterparts is that we expect all our MFA candidates to wear two hats simultaneously:  that of the apprentice writer and that of the apprentice teacher, given that all of the  people enrolled in our program teach Creative Writing classes in their first year and  Composition in their second. The following outcomes should be considered very much  in this context, in that our graduate students are expected to both pursue these goals as  scholars then contemplate the many ways these skills translate to their own pedagogical  experience.

The entirety of our curriculum is structured with the expectation that we enable our  MFA graduates to continue to grow intellectually and develop as writers and masters of  the craft once they have received their degrees, long after they have left the University  of Oregon.

Master of Fine Arts Degree Requirements

The candidate must complete the graduate work during six consecutive terms in residence at the university. The candidate must pass a written examination on a reading list of works of fiction or poetry.

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	University of Southern California
	Aug 29, 2024   USC Catalogue 2023-2024     USC Catalogue 2023-2024 [ARCHIVED CATALOGUE] | Application deadline: December 1 The program provides dual emphasis in literature and creative writing, culminating in the dissertation, which combines critical analysis with creative originality. Roughly half of the dissertation is based on original research, that is to say, research contributing to knowledge which enriches or changes the field. Doctoral candidates not only read and write texts as finished products of scholarship in researching their creative work’s literary and historical milieu, but also consider the text as writers create it, then compose texts as writers, a process that goes to the source of the study of literature and of literature itself. This integration of literature and creative writing is reflected in the structure of the dissertation, which introduces the creative work within a context of critical inquiry, bringing together the examination and embodiment of the literary act, a new model of scholarship and creative innovation. PhD candidates in literature and creative writing must pass the same departmental screening examination taken by PhD candidates in Literature who are not working in the area of creative writing. The exam tests students in various areas of emphasis (British literature, American literature, poetry, prose, etc.) and literature and historical periods as a measure of their preparedness to undertake independent research. The literature and creative writing student takes 64 units in all, 32 in literature, 24 in creative writing workshops and seminars and 8 units of dissertation studies credits. Admission Requirements Requirements for admission to study in the department of English include: scores satisfactory to the department in both the verbal and quantitative General Test and the literature Subject Test of the Graduate Record Examinations; evidence of experience and ability in creative writing, as demonstrated by a creative writing sample; evidence of competence in writing English and interpreting English literature, as demonstrated by a sample of written work by the applicant on literary subjects; a satisfactory written statement by the applicant of aims and interests in graduate work; letters of recommendation from at least three college instructors; and grades satisfactory to the department earned by the applicant at other institutions. This program will accept applicants with BA degrees or transfer students with an MA or MFA in creative writing. Degree Requirements These degrees are under the jurisdiction of the Graduate School. Refer to the Graduate School    section of this catalogue for general regulations. All courses applied toward the degrees must be courses accepted by the Graduate School. Graduate Curriculum and Unit Requirements The graduate curriculum is divided into 500-level foundation courses and 600-level advanced courses. The 500-level courses offer fundamental work in theory and in the history of British and American literatures and cultures. The 600-level courses feature advanced studies in theory, creative writing seminars and workshops and special topics. Although students will normally take 500-level courses leading up to the screening procedure (see Screening Procedure) and 600-level courses thereafter, students after consultation with their advisers may be permitted to take 600-level courses in the first semester of their graduate training. The student’s course work must total at least 64 units. No more than eight units of 794 Doctoral Dissertation and no more than four units of 790 Research may count toward the 64 units. A maximum of 12 transfer units, approved by the graduate director, is allowed toward the 64 units minimum required by the PhD (See Transfer of Course Work .) The student will be assigned a faculty mentor in his or her first semester in the graduate program and will be encouraged in subsequent semesters to begin putting together an informal qualifying exam committee. The makeup of the qualifying exam committee may change as the interests of the student change. The faculty mentor and informal qualifying exam committee will assist the student in planning a program of study appropriate to the student’s interests leading to the screening procedure. Screening Procedure At the end of the student’s fourth semester (second semester for students who enter with an MA or MFA degree or near equivalent), the student will sit for a departmental examination, which is part of a comprehensive screening procedure. Rarely, and only with the approval of the graduate director and the graduate committee, will a student be allowed to postpone the departmental examination and the screening procedure, and then only for one year. Prior to the screening procedure, the student will be allowed to take a maximum of four units of independent study ( ENGL 590   ), and that independent study will normally be used to prepare for the departmental examination; all other units must be in the 500- or 600-level seminar. Qualifying Exam Committee Immediately following successful completion of the screening procedure, the student will nominate formally a five-member qualifying exam committee, including a chair and three other members from the English Department who are in the student’s areas of interest and an outside member from another PhD-granting department. The committee must be in place and approved by the Graduate School at the time the student chooses a dissertation topic, writes the dissertation prospectus and schedules a qualifying examination. Qualifying Examination Following completion of course work, the student must sit for a qualifying examination, at a time mutually agreed upon by the student and the qualifying exam committee. This is a field examination given in the subject of the student’s proposed dissertation research. No less than one month before the qualifying examination, the student will submit to the qualifying exam committee a dissertation prospectus. The prospectus, it is understood, will not be a polished dissertation proposal, but at a minimum it should display a strong knowledge of the subject, much of the relevant secondary material and other contexts crucial to the writing of the dissertation, and should present a workable plan of attack as well as a reasonably sophisticated understanding of the theoretical assumptions involved in the subject. The qualifying examination will consist of both written and oral portions with special emphasis areas in creative writing. It will focus on the dissertation area and its contexts with the specific format and content of the examination being negotiated among the student and all members of the examination committee. Upon successful completion of the qualifying examination the student proceeds to the writing of the doctoral dissertation. Dissertation The final stage of the program is the submission of a creative dissertation that makes an original, substantial and publishable contribution to creative literature: a book of poems, a novel, a collection of short stories. Foreign Language PhD students are required to demonstrate proficiency in at least one foreign language. This may be demonstrated by completing a course in the literature of that language at the 400 or 500 level (with a grade of B [3.0] or better) or by passing a foreign language exam that tests proficiency in reading comprehension and translation. PhD students may also be required to demonstrate proficiency in additional languages, as determined by the qualifying exam committee in view of the student’s proposed field of research. University of Redlands Emergency Alert System Alert Received: . For more information, visit: https://www.redlands.edu/alert/ Schools and Centers College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Studies Creative Writing Program Learning Outcomes Academic Calendar New Student Experience Residence Life and Housing Degree Programs Meet Our Faculty Visiting Writers Series Redlands Review Program Learning Outcomes - Creative Writing Bachelor of arts. Reading and Analysis: Through coursework and in consultation with their advisors, creative writers encounter a wide range of literature. They are able to raise and engage questions of justice, value, and meaning raised   by literary texts, and understand how texts can produce multiple readings.   Invention and Craft: Through their own writing and in workshops, students encounter and employ the components of a writer’s craft: prosody, narrative strategies, forms, genres, and aesthetics. As they progress through workshops in various genres, students encounter increasing levels of difficulty. They learn to negotiate intention, aptitude, and effort, and acknowledge that a similar struggle faces other writers.   Technical Competence: Through their own writing and in workshops, students develop fluency as writers, learn to self-edit and identify grammar issues, and recognize that there are resources available to them beyond the ones provided in class. They understand and demonstrate the habits of professional writers, including revision, developing community, public reading, and submission for publication.  Curriculum Map University of Notre Dame Department of English College of Arts and Letters Home › People › Tina Lupton Professor, English Ph.D., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey M.A., University of Sussex, Brighton, England B.A., Flinders University, South Australia Research and teaching interests Materiality of the Book, History and Future of Reading, British and American Novel, Eighteenth-Century British Literature, Literature and/as Work Christina teaches the theory of the book, very broadly defined, and works on the history of reading from the eighteenth century to the present. Her main body of research has been into the history of reading as an activity that is both materially defined by the codex format, and politically tied up with the history of work and leisure. Reading and the Making of Time (JHU, 2018) explores these themes in the context of a group of eighteenth-century readers, largely women, and mostly professionals, who make and struggle for time for books in their lives. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Christina was part of a team studying the habits of novel readers under more recent conditions. The results of that study, Reading Novels During the Covid-19 Pandemic , (OUP, 2022) was published as a co-authored book and won the British Association for Contemporary Literature Monograph Prize in 2023. Christina is now working at work on two different projects, Literature and the Working Day , a study of the way that the novel has reflected and complimented working life since the 1700s, and Paid Leaves: Writing a Life Around 1968 , which explores the sponsorship of life writing by state and social policy at that moment in the US and the UK. She remains interested more generally in the work of Michel Serres, Jacques Rancière, Peter Weiss, Siegfried Kracauer, Hannah Arendt, and Raymond Williams and in recent fictions that engage with the relationship between work, reading, and temporal experience. Representative publications “Jacques Rancière, J.M. Coetzee, and Doing Things Oneself,” New Literary History , Autumn 2024, Vol. 54, no. 4., 1595-1611.  With Ben Davies and Johanne Gormsen Schmidt, Reading Novels During the Covid-19 Pandemic , Oxford University Press, 2022. (Winner of 2022 British Association for Contemporary Literature Monograph Prize) “Queer Times for The Straight Book: Maggie Nelson and Michel Serres” POST 45 , September 2019. Reading and The Making of Time , Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018. Knowing Books: The Consciousness of Mediation in Eighteenth-Century Britain , University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. The Open University Accessibility hub Guest user / Sign out Study with The Open University My OpenLearn Profile Personalise your OpenLearn profile, save your favourite content and get recognition for your learning About this free course Become an ou student, download this course, share this free course. Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available. 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 ) ] . Faculty Issues Shared Governance ‘Red Wedding’: Storied Stanford Creative Writing Program Laying Off Lecturers The university says creative writing faculty recommended returning its Jones Lectureships to their “original intent” as short-term teaching appointments for talented writers. A lecturer of 20 years said he thinks there’s a “peasants and lords issue” in the program. By  Ryan Quinn You have / 5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in. Stanford University is laying off its current Jones Lecturers. Some Stanford University lecturers are likening it to the “red wedding” in Game of Thrones —a massacre of characters by their supposed allies amid what had been billed as a celebratory feast. Last Wednesday, a dean, a senior associate dean and a co-director of Stanford’s storied and popular creative writing program held a Zoom meeting with the program’s 23 Jones Lecturers, according to some of those lecturers, who were chosen from the ranks of those who have held the university’s prestigious Stegner Fellowship for writers. The university leaders complimented the Jones Lecturers over Zoom. “They praised us to the moon,” Tom Kealey, a lecturer for two decades, told Inside Higher Ed . “Endlessly” praised was how Edward Porter, a lecturer of eight years, put it. Most Popular Supreme Court keeps Biden’s SAVE plan blocked for now Colleges slam Ed Department's proposed attendance policy Open-access expansion threatens academic publishing industry Then, Kealey said, the leaders announced they would all be losing their jobs within the next two academic years. “The worst part is to be praised while you’re being fired,” Porter said. According to notes he took of the meeting, Nicholas Jenkins, the program’s co-director, said something to the effect of “you’re excellent, but others will be excellent in the future.” There was an added sense of betrayal. The deans—Debra Satz, dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, and Gabriella Safran, senior associate dean of humanities and arts—said this wasn’t their decision, according to Kealey. In Medium posts on the ordeal, he wrote that they said it came from “the senior professors of creative writing.” “These are literally our teaching colleagues of the last five to 15 years,” Kealey wrote. “And they decided in a previous secret meeting to fire all 23 of their junior colleagues.” In another post, he wrote that “it was only the MALE professors who voted to fire us.” ( Inside Higher Ed reached out Tuesday to some of the male creative writing professors on Tuesday, but received no responses.) In an unsigned announcement last Wednesday on the university’s website, Stanford said it is returning to the “original intent of the Jones Lectureships: one-year appointments with the possibility of renewal for a limited term.” That announcement said the recommendation came from faculty members on a “Working Group of Creative Writing Academic Council faculty,” but it didn’t name them. Satz, Safran and Jenkins said in an emailed joint statement to Inside Higher Ed that "this change will again allow Stegner Fellows the opportunity to apply to be Jones Lecturers once they have completed their fellowships. Jones Lecturers will have one-year appointments with the possibility of renewal for up to four additional years." While it’s no longer rare for non-tenure-track faculty members to be laid off by higher education institutions facing budget woes, Stanford is a wealthy institution and creative writing is, by its own admission, a popular program. “We have a large number of fully enrolled classes, many with significant waitlists and some where the waitlists are longer than the enrollment roster,” Jenkins said in a February 2023 article on the university’s website. He also said, “We’re in a remarkable period of hiring during which we’re fortunate enough to be bringing to campus an extraordinarily talented array of significant artists and teachers.” But the lecturers say they’re the ones teaching most of the creative writing classes for undergraduates, and that their years of experience improve teaching. Kealey said some lecturers teach five classes a year; others teach four. He wrote on Medium of the senior creative writing professors that “the 10 of them … taught 13 undergraduate classes last year (and 19 overall, less than two classes taught per professor).” The leaders said during the Zoom meeting the decision wasn’t about money, according to Porter. “It’s maddening to have outstanding enrollment and be phased out anyway,” he said. While the university has said it wants to simply return the Jones Lectureships to the short stints they used to be, Kealey suggests the tenured professors in his department had other motives. “I think there’s a peasants and lords issue here,” Kealey said. A Long Time Coming? In 1946, Wallace Stegner, who would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for Angle of Repose , founded Stanford’s creative writing program. The Stegner Fellowships are named in his honor. Editors’ Picks Universities Hit Back Against Proposed Online Attendance Policy Re: Your Recent Email to Your Professor E. H. Jones, who had an oil fortune, funded the fellowships and also established the connected Jones Lectureships, according to the university’s announcement from last week. It said these were meant to be “limited, fixed-year teaching appointments, allowing exceptional Stegner Fellows some time and support to prepare a manuscript for publication, hone their teaching skills and transition to a longer-term teaching career elsewhere.” But “over time this framework of term-limited appointments was not followed,” the university said. It did not say when that change occurred. It might have had something to do with Eavan Boland. Boland, an Irish poet, led the creative writing program for 20 years until her sudden death in 2020. “Eavan was just a fierce defender of the program,” Kealey said. He said her death “was a great loss to all of us.” When Boland joined the program, Kealey said, it had maybe 20 or 25 classes. But Boland wanted every student who so desired to be able to take a creative writing class. Kealey said lecturers went to residence halls in early years to speak with students about the program. Over about 15 years, Kealey said, the program grew to offer about 120 classes. Porter said Boland “developed a large cadre of about 20 to 25 lecturers.” Even though they were on one-year contracts, Porter said, they kept getting renewed. He said it’s true that Boland did move the lectureships away from their original intent—but that it was beneficial for students, teaching and the program. “There are a lot of human skills to playing this game, and those don’t come in a year,” Porter said. “We have letters, testimonials from students about how much we’ve meant to them. We’re also very available to them—we talk to them outside of class, there’s a sense of continuing mentorship if they want it.” Now, Porter said, “there is at least the appearance” of the university creating “artificial scarcity,” suggesting there’s no room for the new, younger Stegner Fellows writers to get a leg up by becoming Jones Lecturers “because these crusty old folks are hogging up all the real estate.” Safran, the senior associate dean, said, per Porter’s meeting notes, that “in some years few or no Stegners were able to advance.” Kealey said, “There’s no shortage of space for new Stegner Fellows to be hired into the Jones Lectureships, but, I don’t know, the professors wanted to do a scorched earth with this, and that’s what they’ve done.” The lecturers said they pushed for, and received, raises from the university in September 2023. “Exactly a year later we’re all fired,” so “connect the dots here,” Kealey said. “I think the lords didn’t like that—didn’t like the peasants speaking up.” Porter talked about “balancing one set of values against the other.” He said the tenured or tenure-track “creative writing faculty doesn’t teach many classes and many of them are not involved—they don’t care about the undergraduates. It’s not their job to care; it’s their job to write books, be famous and raise money, and that’s very necessary.” And part of the purpose of the Jones Lectureship program is to give new writers a step up. But Porter worries about the other side of the equation being lost. “It’s our job to care about the undergrads,” he said. Campus Engagement Tip: Mentoring for Women of Color Long-standing programs provide interpersonal and professional relationships for female students of color, helping the Share This Article More from shared governance. 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For the 2025-2026 academic year See 2024-2025 requirements instead Fall 2025 quarter (beginning in September) Final submission deadline: December 16, 2024 Final submission deadline: Applicants cannot submit applications after the final submission deadline. Degrees and GPA Requirements Bachelors degree: All graduate applicants must hold an earned baccalaureate from a regionally accredited college or university or the recognized equivalent from an international institution. Masters degree: This program requires a masters degree as well as the baccalaureate. University GPA requirement: The minimum grade point average for admission consideration for graduate study at the University of Denver must meet one of the following criteria: A cumulative 2.5 on a 4.0 scale for the baccalaureate degree. A cumulative 2.5 on a 4.0 scale for the last 60 semester credits or 90 quarter credits (approximately two years of work) for the baccalaureate degree. An earned master’s degree or higher from a regionally accredited institution or the recognized equivalent from an international institution supersedes the minimum GPA requirement for the baccalaureate. A cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale for all graduate coursework completed for applicants who have not earned a master’s degree or higher. Official scores from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), International English Language Testing System (IELTS), C1 Advanced or Duolingo English Test are required of all graduate applicants, regardless of citizenship status, whose native language is not English or who have been educated in countries where English is not the native language. Your TOEFL/IELTS/C1 Advanced/Duolingo English Test scores are valid for two years from the test date. The minimum TOEFL/IELTS/C1 Advanced/Duolingo English Test score requirements for this degree program are: Minimum TOEFL Score (Internet-based test): 80 Minimum IELTS Score: 6.5 Minimum C1 Advanced Score: 176 Minimum Duolingo English Test Score: 115 Additional Information: Read the English Language Proficiency policy for more details. Read the Required Tests for GTA Eligibility policy for more details. Per Student & Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) regulation, international applicants must meet all standards for admission before an I-20 or DS-2019 is issued, [per U.S. Federal Register: 8 CFR § 214.3(k)] or is academically eligible for admission and is admitted [per 22 C.F.R. §62]. Read the Additional Standards For International Applicants policy for more details. Application Materials Transcripts, letters of recommendation. Required Essays and Statements Writing Sample We require a scanned copy of your transcripts from every college or university you have attended. Scanned copies must be clearly legible and sized to print on standard 8½-by-11-inch paper. Transcripts that do not show degrees awarded must also be accompanied by a scanned copy of the diploma or degree certificate. If your academic transcripts were issued in a language other than English, both the original documents and certified English translations are required. Transcripts and proof of degree documents for postsecondary degrees earned from institutions outside of the United States will be released to a third-party international credential evaluator to assess U.S. education system equivalencies. Beginning July 2023, a non-refundable fee for this service will be required before the application is processed. Upon admission to the University of Denver, official transcripts will be required from each institution attended. Three (3) letters of recommendation are required.  Academic recommendations preferred.  Letters should be submitted by recommenders through the online application. Essays and Statements Essay instructions. Applicants should submit a sample of critical prose (e.g., a seminar paper, scholarly publication, or excerpt from thesis or other longer work demonstrating familiarity with the conventions of academic research and writing) not to exceed 20 pages. Personal Statement Instructions Personal statements should be 2 pages maximum and should address the applicant's past academic experience, future scholarly goals, and their suitability for graduate study and research in our program. Résumé Instructions The résumé (or C.V.) should minimally include the applicant's educational history, work experience, academic experience (including research opportunities or presentations), selected publications, and/or volunteer work. Writing Sample Instructions Applicants must submit representative samples of creative work (for Prose, no more than 30 pages; for Poetry, 5 - 10 poems). Start the Application Online Application Financial Aid Information Start your application. Your submitted materials will be reviewed once all materials and application fees have been received. Our program can only consider your application for admission if our Office of Graduate Education has received all your online materials and supplemental materials by our application deadline. Application Fee: $65.00 Application Fee International Degree Evaluation Fee: $50.00 Evaluation Fee for degrees (bachelor's or higher) earned from institutions outside the United States. Applicants should complete their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by February 15. Visit the Office of Financial Aid for additional information. You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience. University of Reading Cookie Policy We use cookies on reading.ac.uk to improve your experience. Find out more about our cookie policy . 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Continue using the University of Reading website Subjects A-B Agriculture Ancient History Anthropology Archaeology Architectural Engineering Architecture Biochemistry Biological Sciences Biomedical Engineering Biomedical Sciences Bioveterinary Sciences Building and Surveying Business and Management Subjects C-E Classics and Classical Studies Climate Science Computer Science Construction Management Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Creative Writing Criminology Engineering English Language and Applied Linguistics English Literature Environment Subjects F-G Film & Television Foundation programmes Graphic Communication and Design Subjects H-M International Development International Foundation Programme (IFP) International Relations Languages and Cultures Linguistics Mathematics Medical Sciences Meteorology and Climate Microbiology Museum Studies Subjects N-T Pharmacology Physician Associate Studies Politics and International Relations Real Estate and Planning Speech and Language Therapy Surveying and Construction Theatre & Performance Subjects U-Z Wildlife Conservation Subjects A-C Business (Post-Experience) Business and Management (Pre-Experience) Classics and Ancient History Construction Management and Engineering Consumer Behaviour Creative Enterprise Subjects D-G Data Science Digital Business Energy and Environmental Engineering Environmental Sciences Film, Theatre and Television Food and Nutritional Sciences Geography and Environmental Science Graphic Design Subjects H-P Information Technology International Development and Applied Economics Physician Associate Project Management Public Policy Subjects Q-Z Social Policy Strategic Studies Teacher training Typography and Graphic Communication War and Peace Studies BA Art and Creative Writing UCAS code QW32 A level offer BBB Year of entry 2025/26 See 2024/25 entry Course duration Full Time:  4 Years Develop as an artist, curator and writer with our BA Art and Creative Writing programme. This four-year, joint honours course reflects recent developments in art and culture. For example, you will: learn about new digital art and publishing platforms expand your understanding of contemporary literature and art theories develop your skills in art writing. Art and creative writing are a stimulating combination at degree level – they enhance and inform one another. Additionally, studying theories and practitioners across the art and literature disciplines will inspire and influence your own art and writing as you hone your technique and form. Studying at the Reading School of Art allows you to explore a vast range of media and experiment with emerging art forms. Over the course of your four years of study, you will: work with academics who include artists, curators and researchers be encouraged to participate in exhibitions, public art commissions and events receive dedicated studio space, accessible 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, and a studio tutor to help develop your individual and professional practice. You will complement your practical art with modules in contemporary art theory and the history of art. Through the lectures, seminars and studio teaching – as well as weekly visiting artist talks – you will be exposed to the language, vocabulary and debates that have emerged historically and evolved to forge contemporary art. Creative writing Explore literature creatively as you develop characters, shape poems, and draw on your imagination.  You will learn from prize-winning authors and academics who are committed to teaching through the workshop model. These small group sessions are the heart of Reading’s writing community: guided by one of our lecturers, you and your fellow students will gain confidence as your share your writing and help each other improve. You will also have the opportunity to publish your work – and gain experience in editing and publishing – by participating in our online creative magazine . Find out more about our creative writing studies, including information about our academics, on our Department of English Literature’s creative writing webpage . Your learning environment You will learn through a mixture of: studio teaching group workshops technical inductions one-to-one tutorials museum and gallery visits. You will also receive academic guidance through oral and written feedback. Your creative writing modules will place a strong emphasis on small-group learning within a friendly and supportive environment, and you will have access to our resident professional writer who advises our students individually. 100% of our students said teaching staff are good at explaining things. (National Student Survey 2024, responders from the Department of English Literature.) For your art modules, you will have access to our range of facilities. These include: studios for construction, printing and casting darkrooms for photography digital tools for film and video editing, imaging, sound and web building a dedicated audio-visual room and sound-recording booth. You will be encouraged to undertake academic placements during your studies.  Recent opportunities for year long and shorter placements in art have included:  interned at Studio Voltaire and the Frieze Art Fair performed at the Institute of Contemporary Arts involvement in an Arts Council-supported film project at  the Museum of Rural Life participated in an international exhibition at the Seoul Institute of Arts in South Korea. Study abroad In your third year, you can spend a semester studying abroad at one of our partner institutions. To find out more, visit our Study Abroad site . Entry requirements A Level BBB Select Reading as your firm choice on UCAS and we'll guarantee you a place even if you don't quite meet your offer. For details, see our firm choice scheme . Our typical offers are expressed in terms of A level, BTEC and International Baccalaureate requirements. However, we also accept many other qualifications . Typical offer BBB including a grade B in English Literature or a related subject. Related subjects include: English Language, English Language and Literature, Drama and Theatre Studies, and Creative Writing. You will be asked to provide an online portfolio of your work when you apply. International Baccalaureate 30 points overall including 5 in English or related subject at higher level. Extended Project Qualification In recognition of the excellent preparation that the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) provides to students for University study, we can now include achievement in the EPQ as part of a formal offer. BTEC Extended Diploma DDM including comparable subject modules. English language requirements IELTS 7.0, with no component below 6.0 For information on other English language qualifications, please visit our international student pages . Alternative entry requirements for International and EU students For country specific entry requirements  look at entry requirements by country . Pre-sessional English language programme If you need to improve your English language score you can take a pre-sessional English course prior to entry onto your degree. Find out the English language requirements for our courses and our pre-sessional English programme Compulsory modules Discover contemporary art and its global histories, models of practices, and practical and professional skills. You’ll learn the codes of good practice, health and safety, and sustainability in the studio, while producing and presenting artworks that develop your reflective and analytical skills.   Expand your drawing competence and skill set as you discover a range of different methods, techniques, materials and tools, applying your enhanced proficiency to different contexts and subject specialisms.  Introduction to Creative Writing Develop your skills in creative writing across a range of genres. You will develop an understanding of how to compose, criticise, revise, and polish your work through workshop discussions and the completion of a critical essay.   Poetry in English From the Renaissance to the present, uncover the history of poetry as you explore key genres related to love, politics, pastoral, elegy, satire, the sonnet, the ode, and the dramatic monologue. You’ll study poems drawn from the wider English-speaking world including Ireland, the Caribbean and North America, encountering the diversity of voices found in gender and sexuality.   Optional modules Introduction to Drama   Discover the genre of drama as you explore a historical range of texts from the early modern periods. You’ll focus on four plays as you explore comedy, tragedy, form, structure, and the elements of change and continuity found within the genre.   Modern American Culture and Counterculture Discover American countercultures in work, from 1950s Beat poetry to fiction responding to the Black Lives Matter movement. You’ll study the perspectives of African-American, Native American and white American creatives in a variety of genres: poetry, short stories, YA fiction, science fiction, drama, songs, films, war reportage and the graphic novel.    Become acquainted with English literature’s material dimension and how writers, both past and present, have depicted the library as a symbol. As you study, you'll interpret poems, novels and plays, and investigate books and other archival documents as physical objects.   What is Comparative Literature?  Learn about the major critical and theoretical issues in the study of Comparative Literature, as well as the important methodologies for studying literature in a comparative context. Approach a cluster of texts from different cultural and historical traditions, you'll be be encouraged to reflect on the practices and consequences of reading transnationally. Thinking Translation: History and Theory Learn about the current thinking on translation by exploring some specific case studies. The historical approach to translation will allow you to develop a critical awareness of the role played by: genres, readership, institutional influences, market constraints, gender attitudes and discourses, purpose. In seminars, you will explore the challenges facing translators when dealing with literary, scientific, philosophical and political texts These are the modules that we currently offer for 2024/2025 entry. They may be subject to change as we regularly review our module offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.  Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.  You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.  Compulsory Modules Art studio 2. Learn to identify and investigate your own interests and concerns through practical engagement in the studio. You’ll develop your capacity for self-criticism through informed debate, as well as your confidence and the ability to present exhibitions.  Creative Writing: Poetry Engage critically with a range of poems and key debates around form. You’ll write your own poetry in response, experimenting with the possibilities within the genre as you and your peers share constructive feedback. History of Art 3 Explore different forms of art writing, from criticism and visual analysis to interpretation and digital culture. You’ll consider how art history shapes our world and is shaped by our world, as you develop your research and communication skills and reflect critically on the different purposes of art writing.   International Study  Embark on a supervised study visit to a major European art centre where you’ll encounter and experience contemporary art and art history first hand. Your trip will incorporate major museums, galleries, and collections as you enhance your understanding of art history beyond an academic context. Recent visits have included Madrid, Berlin, Paris and Venice.  Creative Writing: Non-fiction Study memoirs, essays, blog posts, long-form journalism, biography and auto-fiction as you explore the exciting and ever-evolving contemporary genre. As you study these texts, you’ll write your own piece of creative non-fiction and support others with creative feedback.   Creative Writing: The Short Story Explore the process of the creative cycle, from reading literature to writing it. You’ll engage critically with a range of short stories as you encounter key debates about the form and write your own short fiction in response.   Myth, Legend and Romance: Medieval Storytelling Explore storytelling in medieval England as you take in the fantastical tales of ancient heroes, drama that blends comedy and religious devotion, and magic and supernatural beings. You’ll consider the stark contrast of narrative structure, character development and language use by medieval writers in contrast to our own.  Modernism in Poetry and Fiction  Examine the concepts of modernity, modernism, and the history of early twentieth-century poetry and fiction. You’ll explore experimentation and innovation in poetic and narrative form, and their relation to wider social upheaval and cultural movements in the period.  Contemporary Fiction  Study a selection of fiction from the 1980s to the present day, exploring the formal, thematic and cultural diversity of Anglophone fiction produced in this period. You’ll consider these texts within a number of social, political and historical contexts, such as multiculturalism, feminism and globalisation.    Writing in the Public Sphere Study literature designed to prompt social and political change as you examine speeches, pamphlets, tracts and political posters from the early modern period to the present. Consider how such literature shapes debates on race, class, religion, nationality and women’s rights across Britain and Ireland.   Critical Thinking Approach familiar ideas and issues from unfamiliar angles that prompt you to re-examine the unspoken grounds on which common-sense ways of thinking are based. You’ll take part in exciting and rewarding discussions on issues of language, power, and identity, ideology, gender, and race. Early Modern Literature Discover the rich and fascinating literary culture of the early modern or Renaissance period. You'll explore the ways that English literature was shaped by, and helped to re-shape, English culture in the years between the Reformation and the Civil Wars. The Business of Books  You'll cover the history and development of modern trade publishing and have focused sessions on some of its key players, including publishers and literary agents. Through a combination of theoretical, methodological, and hands-on teaching sessions and workshops, you'll study the role and function of books in historical and institutional contexts including libraries, bookshops, publishing houses, and board rooms. Writing America: Perspectives on the Nation  Examine the construction of American national identity in American literature from a range of different perspectives. You’ll study a diversity of American voices and central themes including myths of the frontier, Manifest Destiny, personal and political liberty, and the construction of race, gender and sexuality. Victorian Literature Victorian literature consists of a period where authors began to consider people’s place in the world with God, the workings of the mind, and the role of class and gender in the construction of identity. You’ll engage with these ideas as you consider some of the greatest works of the period – from Dickens and Hardy to Tennyson and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Enlightenment Revolution and Romanticism Study the political revolutions that shook British society to its core during Age of Enlightenment (c.1680-1790): England’s bloodless ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688; the colonial revolution of American independence; and the French Revolution of 1789.   Art Studio 2b Learn to identify and investigate your own interests and concerns through practical engagement in the studio. You'll develop your capacity for self-criticism through informed debate, as well as your confidence and ability to present exhibitions. Situated Art Practice Shape your understanding of the global and historical diversity of models in artistic practices. You’ll realise your active role as an artist in shaping and being shaped by the world as you apply key research methods and present your material an appropriate format.    Creative Writing Master Class: Poetry Develop and design a short collection of poems with a view to submit to print or an online magazine. Engage with weekly workshops as you elaborate your style and voice, alongside focusing on emerging voices and subject matter. British Black and Asian Voices: 1948 to the Present Examine a range of British texts (poetry, drama, novels, short stories, films) by writers of Black and Asian descent. You’ll read theoretical and historical material as you examine issues of cultural capital, national identity, and minority communities.  From Romance to Fantasy Explore the role played by fantastical or wondrous elements in English literature from the middle ages to the present day. Focus on a range of key narrative structures (such as the quest), persistent motifs such as magical objects, and influential modes, such as the gothic. Creative Writing Master Class: Prose Deepen your understanding of narrative techniques and sharpen your ability to write prose. You’ll use a range of short stories, narrative non-fiction and novel extracts as a springboard, advancing your knowledge on matters such as structure, characterisation, dialogue and quality.   Literature and Mental Health Discover how literature engaged with mental health in the first half of the twentieth century, a crucial turning point in psychology. You’ll consider the de-stigmatisation of mental health in the wake of World War I, the disciplines of psychiatry and psychology that emerged from it, and how literature engages with trauma, anxiety and obsession. Children's Literature Explore issues surrounding children’s literature and its criticism. Questions and analyse critical assumptions and formulations around authorship, memory, observation, readership, and identity. The Bloody Stage Explore the representation of revenge and death in revenge tragedies performed on the Renaissance stage. Analyse the staging of death scenes and whether there are differences in the ways that men and women die on stage.  Placing Jane Austen Examine the movements of Austen’s characters through rooms and houses, the patterns of their dances in assembly halls, the paths of their journeys through town and country. Investigate how these movements sometimes represent changes of heart or class, of mind or fortune and how they are always significant for the carefully drawn lines of her narratives. Writing Women: Nineteenth Century Poetry Explore writing primarily by (but also about) women in the nineteenth century, including Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh. Ask how women found a voice in a predominantly patriarchal society, what subjects were deemed suitable for female poets, and how such poets overcame the limitations of expectation. James Joyce Trace the literary development of one of the most important and influential writers of the twentieth century through an intensive study of Joyce's experimental and influential novel Ulysses, and get an introduction to what is arguably the most challenging and wonderful book of the Twentieth Century, Finnegans Wake .  Virginia Woolf Discover the works of the ‘founding mother’ of classic literary feminism and connect her writing with our own era’s struggles, controversies and debates. You’ll explore how contemporary Woolf’s stance is within the women’s autonomy debate, while also examining the controversial aspects of her writing. Environment, Ecology and Literature Investigate British writing about ecology, the environment, and rural life, from the Romantic Period (c.1800) to the present day. Study classic texts on the theory and science of climate change, sustainability, 'the wild', regenerative agriculture, and biodiversity. Hands-on work with The Museum of English Rural Life's object collections will help you consider the connections material culture provides with our receding rural heritage. Modern and Contemporary British Poetry Study key trends in poetry's engagement with changing circumstances in England, Wales, and Scotland in the twentieth century and beyond. Consider issues including the aftermaths of modernism, gender and poetry, British poetry and post-war retrenchment, the 'poetry wars' of the 1970s and the perpetuation of 'Movement' ideals down to the present.  Lyric Voices, 1340-1650 Explore lyric poetry from the Middle Ages and the renaissance. You’ll look at the presentation of themes such as love and longing, grief, and the fear of death, and compare the ways in which authors make use of literary conventions to present such themes.    Decadence and Degeneration: Literature of the 1890s Engage with iconic texts in English literature, including Stoker's Dracula, Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde, and Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, while exploring what's meant by these terms 'decadence' and 'degeneration', calling, amongst many other things, on portrayals of 1890s' foppishness, Darwinian models of evolution, the emergent New Woman phenomenon, the Wilde trial, and the portrayal of prostitution.  Art Studio 3b Challenge yourself by developing an independent, creative and critically informed art practice as you advance your own interests and concerns through practical engagement in the studio. Expand your research skills in relation to your individual art practice, and in the understanding of both historical and contemporary practices of art. Dissertation for Art and Creative Writing: Joint Honours Students Develop a sustained piece of independent writing such as a short story, a play, a screen play or a collection of verse. You’ll work closely with a peer community of creative writers to self-organise and conduct workshops as you develop your advanced research and writing skills. New UK/Republic of Ireland students: £9,250 New international students: £25,250 UK/Republic of Ireland fee changes UK/Republic of Ireland undergraduate tuition fees are regulated by the UK government. These fees are subject to parliamentary approval and any decision on raising the tuition fees cap for new UK students would require the formal approval of both Houses of Parliament before it becomes law. EU student fees With effect from 1 August 2021, new EU students will pay international tuition fees. For exceptions, please read the UK government’s guidance for EU students . Additional costs Some courses will require additional payments for field trips and extra resources. You will also need to budget for your accommodation and living costs. See our information on living costs for more details. Financial support for your studies You may be eligible for a scholarship or bursary to help pay for your study. Students from the UK may also be eligible for a student loan to help cover these costs. See our fees and funding information for more information on what's available. Placement year fees If you spend a full year on placement, you will only pay 15% of your usual tuition fee for that year. For more information, please see our fees and funding pages or contact [email protected] . A degree in art and creative writing will prepare you to enter professions across the cultural field. For example, you could choose to work in: museum and gallery education postproduction public relations. You will enter the job market with practical experience and highly-developed research and communication skills. You will know how to access reliable information and present your findings in clear and persuasive language. These are valuable skills in today’s economy, where information and communication skills are vital. You will also have the critical and cultural awareness necessary for working in the public sector and the media. Some of our students decide to continue their studies at postgraduate level; others have successful careers in fields as diverse as law, business administration, web design, teaching, and journalism.  Past art and literature graduates have gone on to work for employers such as: Whitechapel Gallery The Burlington Magazine The Telegraph Oxford University Press Waterstones Cisco Systems Royal Mint. Ready for more? 465 IMAGES Creative writing degrees Undergraduate courses at Reading School of Art Creative writing degrees Creative Writing 12 Q1 Mod2 Reading-and-Writing-Poetry-and-Fiction v5 6 Lessons From Studying Creative Writing At Uni A Creative Writing Faculty Reading VIDEO University of Reading Summer Graduation Ceremony: Fri 21 July 2023. Start time 17:00 English & Creative Writing Naima Minhas *Ivy acceptance* DECISION REACTIONS grad school (Yale, Columbia, Duke, Oxford, & more!) Creative Writing Department of Archaeology COMMENTS MA Creative Writing Develop your flair for writing, with expert guidance and support from published authors, with our MA Creative Writing programme, starting in 2024. Creative Writing Creative writing can take many forms. Whether you write poetry, short stories, drama, or even creative non-fiction, it is a skill which underpins many creative and commercial roles. By undertaking postgraduate studies at the University of Reading, you will learn from award-winning authors and poets who will support, mentor, and challenge you to ... Creative Writing degree courses Creative Writing. Take an active role in literature with a creative writing degree from the University of Reading. We offer a number of joint courses that pair creative writing with complementary subjects, including. film, theatre and television. No matter which course you choose, you will learn from prize-winning authors and visiting writers ... Creative Writing degree courses Creative Writing. Take an active role in literature with a creative writing degree from the University of Reading. We offer a number of joint courses that pair creative writing with complementary subjects, including. film, theatre and television. No matter which course you choose, you will learn from prize-winning authors and visiting writers ... Creative Writing Whether you write poetry, short stories, drama, or even creative non-fiction, it is a skill which underpins many creative and commercial roles. By undertaking postgraduate studies at the University of Reading, you will learn from award-winning authors and poets who will support, mentor, and challenge you to become a published writer. Creative Writing, M.A. About Develop your flair for writing, with expert guidance and support from published authors, with the MA Creative Writing programme at the University of Reading. University of Reading University of Reading The University of Reading offers more than 200 undergraduate courses in the arts, sciences, social sciences, humanities, and business. The majority of courses have a modular structure, so students can specialise in the areas that interest them most while developing core subject knowledge. Creative Writing, Ph.D. About This PhD Creative Writing programme at University of Reading can accommodate imaginative projects in any genre relating to the interests of writer-researchers in the Department of English Literature. Creative Writing The vital presence of creative writing in the English Department is reflected by our many distinguished authors who teach our workshops. We offer courses each term in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, screenwriting, playwriting, and television writing. Our workshops are small, usually no more than twelve students, and offer writers an opportunity to focus intensively on one genre. Creative Writing Program The Creative Writing Program at the University of Oregon is a two-year, fully-funded residency in which Master of Fine Arts (MFA) students concentrate in either poetry or fiction. The program emphasizes the workshop, integrating concentrated time for writing with craft seminars and individualized reading tutorials. Each year we invite six writers for our Reading Series: recently we've hosted ... Creative Writing The program allows undergraduates to work with practicing writers to develop their writing skills, learn the possibilities of modern poetry, fiction, nonfiction, screenwriting and translation, and gain a special access to the critical understanding of literature through their involvement in the creative process. Creative Writing degrees English Literature and Creative Writing are a perfect combination at degree level. English Literature introduces you to important, exciting, diverse writers from across the centuries and the globe, and Creative Writing allows you to explore literary creativity from the inside: creating characters, shaping poems, and drawing on your imagination. The Creative Writing Major The undergraduate Creative Writing major at the University of Illinois, formerly known as the Rhetoric major, is one of the oldest of its kind in the country. Now in its seventh decade, the major combines small workshops (poetry, fiction, nonfiction) and a variety of literature courses. The result is a strong but flexible program of study that ... Graduate Program Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Within our two-year residency program, MFA students concentrate in either poetry or fiction. Our coursework emphasizes the workshop, integrating concentrated time for writing with craft seminars and individualized reading tutorials. MFA Requirements Courses Join Our Community of Writers "With talented students and generous faculty, the University of ... Creative Writing MSc Austin Crowley, MSc in Creative Writing, 2023. We team teach our programme so that you benefit from the input of a range of tutors, as well as your fellow students and our Writer in Residence, the poet and author Michael Pedersen, who also co-ordinates a range of student writing prizes and our annual industry and networking event. Creative writing and critical reading This free course, Creative writing and critical reading, explores the importance of reading as part of a creative writer's development at the postgraduate level. You will gain inspiration and ideas from examining other writers' methods, as well as enhancing your critical reading skills. Examples will cover the genres of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and scriptwriting. Creative Writing (MFA) < University of Oregon The Creative Writing Program at the University of Oregon is a two-year residency in which Master of Fine Arts (MFA) students concentrate in either poetry or fiction. The Program emphasizes the workshop, integrating concentrated time for writing with craft seminars and individualized reading tutorials. Literature and Creative Writing (PhD) The literature and creative writing student takes 64 units in all, 32 in literature, 24 in creative writing workshops and seminars and 8 units of dissertation studies credits. BA Creative Writing and Film Develop and hone your creative writing while building a breadth of film knowledge and analytical skills with our BA Creative Writing and Film course, starting in September 2025. Program Learning Outcomes Bachelor of Arts. Reading and Analysis: Through coursework and in consultation with their advisors, creative writers encounter a wide range of literature. They are able to raise and engage questions of justice, value, and meaning raised by literary texts, and understand how texts can produce multiple readings. Invention and Craft: Through their ... Tina Lupton Christina is now working at work on two different projects, Literature and the Working Day, a study of the way that the novel has reflected and complimented working life since the 1700s, and Paid Leaves: Writing a Life Around 1968, which explores the sponsorship of life writing by state and social policy at that moment in the US and the UK. She ... Creative writing and critical reading 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 ... Stanford creative writing program laying off lecturers The university says creative writing faculty recommended returning its Jones Lectureships to their "original intent" as short-term teaching appointments for talented writers. A lecturer of 20 years said he thinks there's a "peasants and lords issue" in the program. Some Stanford University lecturers are likening it to the "red wedding" in Game of Thrones—a massacre of ... How you will study creative writing Year 1: you will study Introduction to Creative Writing. Year 2: the current options include Creative Non-Fiction and Long-Form Journalism, Poetry, The Short Story and Voice. Year 3: you can take our two Creative Writing masterclass modules in Prose and Poetry. These advanced modules encourage you to read and discuss very recently published ... English and Literary Arts Degrees and GPA Requirements Bachelors degree: All graduate applicants must hold an earned baccalaureate from a regionally accredited college or university or the recognized equivalent from an international institution. Masters degree: This program requires a masters degree as well as the baccalaureate. University GPA requirement: The minimum grade point average for admission consideration for ... About Creative Writing Minor The Creative Writing Minor. The cross disciplinary minor in creative writing is designed to encourage students to develop their writing talents across a number of literary forms and communication contexts. Course offerings in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, scriptwriting, screen and playwriting give students the opportunity to shape the ... BA Art and Creative Writing Develop as an artist, curator and writer with the University's BA Art and Creative Writing programme, starting in September 2025. assignment essay homework phd report resume review speech thesis