creative writing ma nottingham

• MA Creative Writing

Creative Writing MA

• Level(s) of Study: Postgraduate taught
• Start Date(s): September 2024
• Duration: One year full-time, two years part-time
• Study Mode(s): Full-time / Part-time (evening)
• Campus: City Campus
• Entry Requirements: More information

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Introduction:

Creative writing is one of the longest established postgraduate courses of its kind in the uk, with a strong record of publication and related industry success by its graduates, and close links to publishers and the writing industries. designed for talented, committed writers, the course is taught by a team of award-winning, widely-published tutor-writers, all at the forefront of screenwriting, fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction..

You will be joining a lively community of writers and industry professionals, where you will have the opportunity to develop your work. You will receive considerable tutor and peer support in specialisms you will select from a variety of genres, including fiction, poetry, and writing for stage, radio and screen. You will also engage with a wide range of industry professionals, and have the opportunity to develop projects, while working in one of England’s four UNESCO Cities of Literature.

UNESCO City of Literature

In 2015, Nottingham was designated a  UNESCO City of Literature – one of only 20 in the world – thanks to our long and diverse literary history. From D H Lawrence to Alan Sillitoe and Lord Byron to J M Barrie, many wonderful wordsmiths have called Nottingham home.

The University is also a key partner in the city’s Creative Quarter. Centred around the historic Lace Market and Hockley areas, it’s a hotbed of culture, and home to many of the city’s independent retailers, bars, restaurants, small creative companies, and artists.

Interested in Creative Writing?

Dip your toe in the water with our Creative Writing short course programme for adults that runs throughout the year.

What you’ll study

The course invites you to develop your writing strengths by providing a framework within which you can discuss your own and each other’s work. At the heart of the course are small group workshops in your chosen specialisms, and a series of workshop-lectures given by staff, visiting writers, agents, and other industry professionals. Recent guest speakers have included Gwendoline Riley, Carol Leeming, Michael Schmidt, David Almond, Alan Hollinghurst, Kathleen Jamie, Jackie Kay, Alan Jenkins, Alison Moore, Carrie Etter, Sandeep Mahal and Michèle Roberts, among many others. Establishing important links with the publishing and editing industries, you will work closely with tutors, all experienced and highly active writers with excellent publication and production records, to develop your creative work to an excellent standard and prepare you to navigate the intricacies of the literary industries and literary marketplace.

This course is divided into modules which are separately taught and assessed. You will choose two options, and take two core modules. Most assignments for each module require you to present a piece of original creative writing, accompanied by a critical or editorial discussion.

Core modules

Writing: Research Methods, Theory and Practice (40 credit points)

Through a dynamic series of lectures and workshops by authors in multiple genres, editors, and other professionals, you will develop critically-informed opinions about key issues and trends in contemporary writing, and hone your writing skills across an exciting range of genres. The module includes regular advanced-level practical exercises to improve your technical abilities, as well as a series of short projects to help you to develop high-level skills in writing, editing, researching as a writer, and critique.

Dissertation (60 credit points)

The aim of this module is to help you to produce an extended piece of creative writing ready to take to an agent or publisher, should you wish to do so. You will choose a major writing project (e.g. a film script, longer piece of fiction, portfolio of poems, memoir, etc), then work closely with guidance from a supervisor on developing this to the highest possible standard. Supervisors will advise you on reading and research methods as well as aspects of the precise form you have chosen to pursue, actively supporting your project to completion.

Optional modules

You will also choose two of the following 40-credit optional modules, each taught by widely-published experts currently working in the relevant fields:

• Writing for Stage, Radio and Screen

In each of these option modules, you will work closely with one or more highly-acclaimed and active genre specialists, at the forefront of the discipline, alongside a small workshopping group of peers, learning the intricacies of craft and developing your work to a superb standard. You will also be taught about the writing and publishing industries in relation to these genre specialisms, with a specific emphasis on the work you have chosen to produce.

Full-time students complete the course in one calendar year. Part-time students complete the Writing: Research Methods, Theory and Practice module and their first option in Year One, and the dissertation and their second option in Year Two. (Modules run subject to demand, but it is highly unusual for any of them not to run.)

Further information on what you'll study

Student anthology.

Every year, with support from editing and publishing experts on out staff, MA Creative Writing students have the opportunity to produce and publish their own high-quality anthology of original work. This project gives you an invaluable insight into the editorial and publishing industry, as well as introducing your work to the wider public. Most anthologies go to multiple print runs, and contain the fiction, poetry and other writing of students alongside the work of lecturers, guest lecturers, and other professionals, as selected by you, the editorial team.

Discover the 2022 Anthology -  Almost Home

No results were found

How you’re taught

How will i learn.

All seminars and lectures for both the full-time and part-time courses take place in the evening, allowing you to work or study during the day.

The core course consists of a series of lectures and seminars on different aspects of the writing process, with optional modules incorporating practical writing workshops. Students currently choose two options from Fiction, Writing for Stage, Radio and Screen, and Poetry.

The core course regularly hosts discursive guest lectures by highly-accomplished guest writers, editors, agents and other literary professionals, which makes up approximately half of the programme of weekly sessions for the core module, Writing: Research Methods, Theory and Practice. Recent guests have included:

• Gwendoline Riley
• David Almond
• Jenny Savill (Director, Andrew Nurnburg Associates)
• Hannah Trevarthen (Director, Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature)
• Carol Leeming
• Michael Schmidt
• Naush Sabah
• Michael Eaton
• Alan Hollinghurst
• Jon McGregor
• Alan Jenkins
• Amanda Whittington

Option modules are taught in small workshop groups, led by writer-tutors who are widely published and highly active in the respective option module genres, and are expert teachers with excellent industry links and insights to share with you. In these workshops, you will hone your craft to a high specification, and will engage with lots of exciting writing, as well as with writing exercises that are designed to foster your development. You will also learn about how to approach agents and editors, and about other aspects of the writing industries, including publishing and commissioning.

Dissertation projects receive individual, detailed supervision by a specialist, and are intended to leave you with an industry-ready extended piece of creative writing at the end of the course. We have a regular, long and impressive legacy of helping MA students to achieve significant success in the publishing and writing industries.

Find out more about our Creative Writing community on the  Nottingham Creative Writing Hub at NTU site. We regularly organise events with major national and international writers in multiple genres, and provide opportunities for MA Creative Writing students to read alongside them and engage in masterclasses.

Students take the core module, two options, and a dissertation. (Part-time students do the second option and dissertation in their second year.) There are two assignments in each optional module, which provide you with opportunities to hone multiple pieces of writing under expert guidance.

Research opportunities

Creative Writing (and Critical and Creative Writing) PhD supervision is available, as are funded routes for PhD study. We have a thriving PhD community, specialisms across creative writing and English literature, and a strong legacy of supporting PhD applications from our MA Creative Writing students.

Learn a new language

Alongside your study you also have the opportunity to learn a new language. The University Language Programme (ULP) is available to all students and gives you the option of learning a totally new language or improving the skills you already have. Learning a new language can: enhance your communication skills, enrich your experience when travelling abroad and boost your career prospects.  Find out more about the ULP.

Further information

All MA Creative Writing students are invited to join Nottingham Creative Writing hub at NTU, a portal for creative writing students and staff. Visit the  Creative Writing Hub at NTU site to find out about upcoming events and discover more about our thriving community of students and award-winning staff.

Staff Profiles

William ivory - senior lecturer.

School of Arts & Humanities

Rory Waterman - Associate Professor

Eve makis - senior lecturer, anthony cropper - senior lecturer, andrew taylor - senior lecturer, david belbin - senior lecturer, careers and employability, career development.

The unique flexibility of the course enables students to work in a variety of genres including fiction, writing for stage, radio and screen, and poetry. Advice on getting published, and discursive, incisive lectures on the writing industry, are incorporated into the structure of the course, and there are opportunities to engage meaningfully with publishers, editors and agents. Students are encouraged to build strong links with Nottingham's thriving literature community and are invited to participate in local events, readings and festivals.

Every year, our MA Creative Writing students have the opportunity to edit and publish their own high-quality anthology of original creative writing, with support from editing and publishing specialists in the department. This gives students invaluable insights into the editorial and publishing industry, provides a valuable publishing credit and professional experience, and introduces excellent student work to a wider public.

Graduates from this course have included many highly successful published authors across a wide range of genres, such as Kim Slater, Helen Cooper, Hilary Spiers, Stephan Collishaw, Maria Allen, Di Slaney, and Nicola Monaghan, among many others.

The course is vocationally-focused and many recent graduates have acquired agents and publishing deals, as well as jobs in publishing, editing, copyediting, and other closely related industries. Many have also progressed to doctoral study in Creative Writing, often with full scholarships.

The course also has strong professional links to Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, the Times Literary Supplement , Carcanet Press, Five Leaves Publications, Nottingham Playhouse, and many other institutions. This course will help you to develop a broad spectrum of skills transferable to many job roles.

What our students are doing now

Bryna graziana broady.

We caught up with Bryna, an NTU alum and current student, who tells us about her journey back into postgraduate study, how her degrees have shaped her career path, and what it’s been like to return to NTU after 20 years.

LD Lapinski

Campus and facilities, entry requirements.

• International
• A good honours degree (minimum 2.2); applications are primarily assessed on the quality of the writing sample and statement.
• Submit a 3000-word creative writing sample, OR c. 100 lines of poetry, OR an equivalent mixture of poetry and prose/script.
• Evidence in a personal statement of a commitment to writing.

Applications from candidates with non-standard entry qualifications will be considered on an individual basis if they can demonstrate relevant professional experience.

Recognition of Prior Learning

NTU may admit a student with advanced standing beyond the beginning of a course, through an assessment of that student's prior learning, whether it is certificated or uncertificated. Our  Recognition of Prior Learning and Credit Transfer Policy outlines the process and options available to these prospective students, such as recognising experiential learning or transferring to a similar course at another institution, otherwise known as credit transfer.

All prospective students who wish to apply via Recognition of Prior Learning should initially contact the central  Admissions and Enquiries Team who will be able to support you through the process.

Getting in touch

If you need more help or information, get in touch through our enquiry form

You will need the equivalent to:

We accept qualifications from schools, colleges and universities all over the world for entry onto our courses. If you’re not sure how your international qualification matches our course requirements please visit our  international qualifications page .

Pre-masters and foundation courses

If you need to do a foundation course to meet our course requirements please visit  Nottingham Trent International College (NTIC) . If you’re already studying in the UK at a school or college and would like to know if we can accept your qualification please visit our  pre-masters  and  foundation courses pages .

English language entry requirements

If English is not your first language you need to show us that your language skills are strong enough for intensive academic study. We usually ask for an IELTS test and we accept some alternative English language tests.

• For a list of our language requirements please visit our  English language page .
• If you need to do a pre-sessional English language course to meet the English requirements please visit our  pre-sessional English course page .

Help and support

There is lots of advice and guidance about how to apply, fees and scholarships, qualifications, and student life on our dedicated  International students website .

Fees and funding

Tuition fees for September 2024:

* Please note that if you are considering a part-time route that runs over more than one year, the tuition fee stated is for Year One of study. The course fee for Year Two is subject to annual review. Fees may be subject to change.

Alumni Discount

We’re happy to be able to offer a  20% alumni discount to most current NTU students and recent NTU alumni. This discount is currently available for those starting an eligible postgraduate taught, postgraduate research or professional course.

Preparing for the financial side of student life is important, but there’s no need to feel anxious and confused about it. Please take a look at our  postgraduates’ guide funding page for information about sourcing grants, bursaries and scholarships, and much more.

Scholarships are available for students who have been offered a place on this course for September 2024

Home (UK) students funding

• Dr Pauline Polkey Postgraduate Bursary -  apply
• UK Postgraduate Masters Scholarship -  apply
• The Research Pathway Scholarship – School of Arts and Humanities -  apply

For more advice and guidance, you can contact our Student Financial Support Service on  +44 (0)115 848 2494 .

* Please note that if you are considering a part-time route that runs over more than one year, the tuition fee stated is for Year One of study. The course fee for Year Two is subject to annual review.

Please see our international fees page for more information.

We offer prestigious scholarships to new international students holding offers to study at the University.

• For more information on these and other opportunities for funding please visit our  international scholarships page .
• For information on how to pay your fees to the University please visit our  international fee payment page .

How to apply

If you are interested in joining us in September 2025, this course will open for applications through the applicant portal from September 2024. Courses starting in January 2026 will be open for applications from July 2025.

Just click the  Apply button at the top of the page and  follow our step-by-step guide . You can apply for this course throughout the year. Most of our postgraduate and professional courses are popular and fill up quickly though, so apply as soon as you can.

Writing your application

Be honest, thorough and persuasive in your application. Remember, we can only make a decision based on what you tell us. Make sure you include as much information as possible, including uploading evidence of results already achieved, as well as a personal statement.

Keeping up to date

After you’ve applied, we’ll be sending you important emails throughout the application process - so check your emails regularly, including your junk mail folder.

You can get more information and advice about applying to NTU in our  postgraduates’ guide . Here you’ll find advice about how to write a good personal statement and much more. Good luck with your application!

If you need any more help or information, please contact us at  Ask NTU or call on  +44 (0)115 848 4200 .

Apply online through our  NTU applicant portal .

Apply as early as you can so that you have time to prepare for your studies. If you need a visa to study here you need to plan this into your application.

• For a step by step guide on making an application to the University please visit our  how to apply page .
• For advice on applying for a visa please visit our  visa information page .
• For advice on how to write a good personal statement please visit our  personal statement page .

Good luck with your application!

There is lots of advice and guidance about how to apply, fees and scholarships, qualifications, and student life on our dedicated International students website .

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Creative Writing MA

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One of the important factors when considering a master's degree is the cost of study. Luckily, there are many options available to help students fund their master's programme. Download your copy of the Scholarship Guide to find out which scholarships from around the world could be available to you, and how to apply for them.

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Unlock your potential at the University of Nottingham and discover a world of academic excellence, pioneering research and life-changing opportunities. 

Nottingham is a member of the UK’s prestigious Russell Group and the Universitas 21 international network, with campuses in the UK, China and Malaysia. It is home to 48,000 students from more than 150 countries, with a global alumni community of almost 300,000 graduates. 

Nottingham is ranked 103rd in the world and 18th in the UK in the QS World University Rankings 2022. It is also ranked as a UK top 20 university in The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022, and is the Sports University of the Year in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021. 

The university’s roots date back to 1881 and we have been awarding degrees since 1948. We have a history of world-changing research, from the development of MRI technology to the ongoing fight against modern slavery, world hunger and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Choose from a wide variety of undergraduate, masters and research degree courses, ranging from arts and humanities, languages, engineering, sciences and medicine to social sciences such as business, economics, politics and law.

Nottingham students and graduates benefit from outstanding careers support, including postgraduate placement opportunities and entrepreneurial support. The university has strong links with global employers and is ranked in the world top 70 in the QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2022.

We also offer an unforgettable student experience, including more than 200 clubs and societies in our Students’ Union. Nottingham has a strong reputation for sport, finishing second in the most recent British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) league in 2018-19.

Our UK campuses are based in the friendly, historic city of Nottingham in central England. The city is world-famous for the legends of Robin Hood, and is a UNESCO City of Literature. There’s plenty to explore including a castle, caves, parks and gardens, two football stadiums, the National Ice Centre and the famous Trent Bridge Cricket Ground.

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American & canadian literature, history & culture (international study), american studies and english, american studies and history, american studies and history ba, american and canadian literature, history and culture, american and canadian literature, history and culture (international study with foundation year), ancient history, ancient history (with foundation year), ancient history and archaeology, ancient history and history, ancient history and history ba, archaeology, archaeology (with foundation year), archaeology and classical civilisation, archaeology and geography, archaeology and history, archaeology and history ba, archaeology and history of art, architecture, barch bachelor of architecture, classical civilisation, classical civilisation and philosophy, classics and english, economics and philosophy, english language and literature, english language and literature (with foundation year), english and french, english and german, english and hispanic studies, english and 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russian, film and television studies, film and television studies (with foundation year), film and television studies and american studies, french studies, french studies (with foundation year), french and contemporary chinese studies, french and international media & communications studies, french and politics, german and contemporary chinese studies, german and international media & communications studies, german and politics, hispanic studies, hispanic studies (with foundation year), hispanic studies and politics ba, humanistic counselling practice, industrial economics, industrial economics with insurance, international media and communications studies, international media and communications studies (with foundation year), international relations and asian studies, law with french and french law, law with german and german law, law with spanish and spanish law, philosophy, politics and economics, politics and american studies, politics and economics, politics and international relations, portuguese and international media communications studies, religion, culture and ethics ba, russian studies, russian studies (with foundation year), russian and contemporary chinese studies, social work, sociology and social policy, spanish and contemporary chinese studies, spanish and international media & communications studies, sport rehabilitation, theology and religious studies, applied linguistics (taught), applied linguistics and english language teaching (taught), archaeology (research), archaeology (taught), architecture design march, architecture design and build march, architecture and environmental design, architecture and sustainable design march, art history (research), art history (taught), automated scheduling, optimisation and planning group (research), chinese to english translation and interpreting (taught), church history (taught), classical literature (taught), classics (research), comparative literature (taught), design (taught), digital architecture 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  Creative Writing MA

University of nottingham     school of english, findamasters summary.

Unleash your creativity with the Creative Writing MA at the University of Nottingham. This programme is designed to nurture your writing talent and guide you through the process of becoming a published author. Led by renowned poets and authors, you will delve into contemporary poetry, fiction, and hybrid forms of writing. The course offers a flexible structure, allowing full-time students to complete six modules and a dissertation, while part-time students spread their studies over two years. Assessment includes a diverse range of written assignments and a final dissertation, where you can showcase your original work under the guidance of a specialist supervisor. The programme also provides opportunities for placements in various creative industries, enhancing your professional experience. To apply, submit a sample of your creative writing and demonstrate your passion for poetry, fiction, or a blend of both. Join us and embark on a journey towards a successful career in writing and the arts.

About the course

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

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

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

Entry Requirements

2:1 (or international equivalent) Applicants will be asked to submit an example of their written work. You will be contacted by the University with full details of how to submit this. The School of English welcomes writers of poetry, fiction, or a combination of the two. In reading the writing samples, we are looking for work that indicates that its author would be able to succeed on the course. There is no restriction on the subject matter of the writing sample. We only require that it is your own work.

Please see the university website for further information on fees for this course.

  Course Content

Where will I study?

University of Nottingham

Studying here will grant you access to world-leading teaching and research, with impressive facilities to support your studies. By choosing to study with us you will become part of a diverse community of over 46,000 students from 150 countries. You will work with passionate academics from around the globe and may have the chance to study at one of our international campuses in China or Malaysia.

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Universities

University of Nottingham

MA in Creative Writing

University of Nottingham, Nottingham

Faculty of Arts

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Program Duration

Creative Writing

Degree Type

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• Excellent placement programs after course completion

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£21,000 / year

£21,000 / 12 months

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What are you looking for?

MA in English with Creative Writing

UNM/JPT-R2/0231/7/0007(9/29)MQA/SWA9675

• Full-time: 1 year
• Part-time: 2-4 years
• Start date: September 2024
• Malaysian fee: RM39,000 per programme
• International fee: RM46,900 per programme
• Intake: September

Course overview

UNM’s MA in English with Creative Writing brings together creative and critical practices, exploring the writing process within the contexts of publication and professional writing.

This degree is particularly relevant to students who are keen to develop creative writing skills in a professional capacity. However, it also includes selections from modules in English language and literature, which complement any career path within the larger field of English studies.

You will also develop a specialist knowledge for research methods and practices in the wider field of English. Obtaining an MA degree demonstrates a high level of knowledge in a specific field. It can enhance your employability and prepare you for further academic research and vocational training.

Why choose this course?

You will cover the range of theoretical approaches making up the contemporary critical terminology of English and English studies. The course will also develop your awareness of practices in language use and their application to various contexts. The course will focus on developing your ability to engage in critical evaluations of current research along with developing your ability to problem-solve in respect of real-world projects and case studies.

Our global footprint allows you to draw on the supervisory expertise of over 80 staff specialising in numerous fields of English studies across our three campuses. Located in the UK, Malaysia and China, students are encouraged to spend a period of time at any or all of our campuses worldwide.

Course content

The full-time MA English with Creative Writing lasts 12 months and is divided into two semesters and a summer period. You will take four 15-credit modules per semester. You will then complete a Creative Project over the summer to be submitted in September. 

Taught modules are assessed by a 5,000-word assignment or equivalent, and you must also submit a 14,000-word dissertation. To help guide you through your coursework, you will be assigned a personal tutor as well as a dissertation tutor. There are no examinations. 

Typical core modules

This module explores the structures, techniques and methodologies of fiction through both creative and analytical practice. Students examine a range of international fiction from a writer's perspective with an emphasis on craft. Assignments include creative exercises of imitation or modelling, as well as direct responses to works of fiction in ways that demonstrate a practical understanding of their qualities. Analytical writing focuses on the functional aspects of selected works. Particular issues for consideration might include narrative voice and technique, point of view, character development, dialogue, plot, and setting. Students consider not only the elements of fiction, but also how those elements contribute to the overall structure of a narrative. 

The module is designed to make students familiar both with the craft and practice of using some common poetic conventions, and with the contexts in which poetry is published and read. Fundamental to the module’s is approach is the idea of questioning those conventions, and exploring what else might be possible. Each session includes some lecture-style input, group discussion, and a workshop during which students share and discuss their draft poems. Through this ‘practitioner’ approach, students are not only supported in their craft but also encouraged to work towards submitting their work for publication.

Lecture-style content and focus of discussion:

The conventions which make up the module’s technical focus include poetic structure; imagery; the lyric ‘I’; the relation between form and content; and poetic voice.

The reading list from which the poems which illustrate these conventions is designed to give a view of a range of important publishing contexts. These will include: poetry magazines; new writers’ anthologies; debut poetry collections; poetry in performance; poetry competitions.

Writing workshop:

The students share their poems and drafts during the workshop part of each session, within which they learn both to refine their craft and to develop their skills in discussing their peers’ draft work.  

The idea of sources and influences provides one of the module's themes. This module is designed to develop students' skills in writing while developing their awareness of contemporary publishing. Each session includes some lecture-style input, and group discussion.   

This module enables students to develop their creative-writing skills through a range of activities that includes group discussions, exercises and workshops led by the tutor. Students are encouraged to develop their own creative practice through an examination of a range of ideas and techniques. These sessions may be accompanied by individual meetings with the tutor for contextualisation of feedback and commentary as well as further guidance required for the development and revision of selected work. Matters such as reviews, publication, public readings, and the teaching of creative writing may be included as ways of examining the context of creative practice. As a result of these activities, students learn how to incorporate the responses of others into their revisions, develop a more productive writing process, and become better editors of their own work. 

This 20-credit module addresses the question “What is literature?” by introducing key critical methodologies and theoretical frameworks that have been developed to study literary and dramatic texts. The principal objective is to encourage the students to use a variety of methodologies in the analysis of literary texts and to be reflexive as a literary critic. The module helps you feel confident in your ability to use different critical and theoretical frameworks to read literary texts. For this reason, the range of the module is purposely broad. Each Unit introduces a particular critical methodology or theoretical framework, and works through significant issues by examining a particular author, period or genre, ranging broadly over literatures from the fourteenth century to the present day.    

Students will choose a topic in consultation with the MA Course Convenor and an appropriate supervisor. The topic will normally be based on interests and skills students have developed in the course of the modules already studied.  

Typical optional modules (choose only one)

This module focuses on the empirical study of linguistic texts in relation to their contexts of use, with an emphasis on grammatical analysis. It explores how grammar is used as a system of resources for making meaning in context. Essential concepts and categories of grammar from various theoretical perspectives are introduced as analytical tools for exploring how users of a language explore and represent the world around them, interact with each other through the language, and organise what they say or write. Through learning to analyse the grammatical patterns of various texts and how they are organised, students are enabled to make explicit statements about the language in use, taking into account contextual factors related to culture and situation. Applications of such analysis to areas such as critical evaluation of literary and non-literary texts, language pedagogy, academic development, and workplace practices are consequently explored.

This module will explore the relationship between literary texts and cultural concepts of modernity. Students will be introduced to a selection of texts from the 16th century to the present day, and a range of ideas and literary practices relating to innovation and to modernity/ ‘the modern’. Topics for discussion might include: early modern aesthetics; novelty and the eighteenth-century novel; modern gothic; Romantics and revolution; art, industry, and society; modernism; writing about the war. Writers to be considered will vary from year to year.  

Entry requirements

All candidates are considered on an individual basis and we accept a broad range of qualifications. The entrance requirements below apply to 2024 entry.

A relevant second class honours degree (or international equivalent). Non-UK qualifications will be assessed against this standard.

If deemed necessary, applicants may also be required to attend an interview.

Applicants applying for Master of Arts in English with Creative Writing will be asked to submit an example of their written work. You will be contacted by the university with full details of how to submit this.

Malaysians applying as a matured student without the standard entry requirements but with substantial and relevant work experience (and have successfully passed APEL’s assessment through Malaysian Qualifications Agency) at an appropriate level may be considered. Admission is at the discretion of the School.

Applicants must have graduated from an approved university. Other equivalent qualifications will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Entry requirements in the prospectus and website may not always apply and individual offers may vary.

IELTS, TOEFL and PTE (Academic) test results must be less than two years old and all IELTS must be the academic version of the test. MUET results are valid for five years from the date of the release of results.

Learning and assessment

How you will learn.

• Supervision
• Practical classes

In addition to lectures, some modules have lab sessions, some have workshops and some drop in sessions. Each module is run with the aim of providing best learning experience for students and module objectives are achieved by devising the most appropriate delivery and assessment methods.

How you will be assessed

• Group coursework
• Dissertation
• Presentation
• Research project

Find out about scholarships, financial assistance and specific research funding available to all malaysian and international students.

Where you will learn

Malaysia campus.

Semenyih Campus is 48km from Kuala Lumpur International Airport and just 45 minutes’ drive from the famous city centre with its iconic Petronas Twin Towers. On arrival, you are immersed in the green jungle backdrop that Malaysia provides with wildlife, sunshine and campus lake.

The campus is home to our business, education, science and engineering schools, which sit alongside a sports centre, library and student accommodation. The University has everything a modern day student could wish for with the added bonus of being located in central Asia allowing you to travel further afield in your free time.

Public transport is plentiful with free shuttle services operating on some routes. Taxi/Grab services in Malaysia are very reasonable and used widely by the student community.

A postgraduate research degree in English equips you with the skills to succeed in a variety of careers including advertising, banking, broadcasting, business, communications, human resources, journalism, law, marketing, public relations, publishing and teaching to name just a few. Former research students hold senior posts in top-tier universities across the world and prominent positions in government and the private sector

The University’s Careers Advisory Services (CAS) support students with the necessary skills and career opportunities using its strong relationship with various employers and industries. The CAS will provide students with essential resources and guidance for career choices, offering many opportunities to develop the skills needed to plan and manage your future. Our Careers Advisory Service will work with you to improve and maximise your employability skills, as well as providing essential resources and guidance that will assist you with job/course applications. They will facilitate searches for appropriate work experience placements and connect you to a wide range of prospective employers and training opportunities.

A postgraduate research degree in English equips you with the skills to succeed in a variety of careers including advertising, banking, broadcasting, business, communications, human resources, journalism, law, marketing, public relations, publishing and teaching to name but a few. Former research students hold senior posts in top-tier universities across the world and prominent positions in government and the private sector.

This content was last updated on 10 July 2024 . Every effort has been made to ensure that this information is accurate, but changes are likely to occur between the date of publishing and course start date. It is therefore very important to check this website for any updates before you apply.

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Creative Writing MA

University of nottingham, different course options.

• Key information

Course Summary

Tuition fees, entry requirements, university information, similar courses at this uni, key information data source : idp connect, qualification type.

MA - Master of Arts

Subject areas

Creative Writing

Course type

Course overview

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

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

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

• offer placements and internships

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

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

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

UK fees Course fees for UK students

For this course (per year)

International fees Course fees for EU and international students

2:1 (or international equivalent)

The University of Nottingham is a pioneering institution with a long and distinguished heritage in education. It ranks in the top 20 universities in the UK (Times Higher Education World University Rankings, 2024). It is also a research-intensive university and a member of the prestigious Russell Group of universities, making it a superb place to study for a postgraduate qualification. In addition to being one of the world’s top 100... more

Creative Writing PhD

Online/Distance | 48 months | 01-OCT-24

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MA Creative Writing Nottingham Trent University

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MA - Master of Arts

City Campus

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Course summary

Creative Writing is one of the longest established postgraduate courses of its kind in the UK, with a strong record of publication by its graduates. Designed for talented and committed writers, the course is taught by a team of award-winning writers and academics.

You will be joining a lively community of other writers and teachers where you will have the opportunity to work in a variety of genres, including fiction, poetry, children’s and young adult fiction, and writing for radio, stage and screen.

• Taught by professional authors, poets and researchers.
• Develop your writing in a variety of genres including fiction, poetry, children's and young adult fiction, writing for radio, stage and screen, and creative non-fiction.
• Our close links to the publishing and editing industries provide you with networking opportunities and the chance to meet publishers, editors and agents.
• Learn from internationally published and award winning visiting writers such as William Ivory, David Almond, Alan Hollinghurst and Kathleen Jamie.
• Study Creative Writing in a UNESCO City of Literature.
• Full-time and part-time study available.

What you'll study

The course invites you to develop your writing strengths by providing a framework within which you can discuss your own and each other’s work. At the heart of the course are small group workshops and a series of seminars by staff, visiting writers, publishers and professors, including internationally acclaimed screenwriter William Ivory. Other guest speakers have included David Almond, Alan Hollinghurst, Kathleen Jamie, Jackie Kay, Alan Jenkins, Alison Moore, Carrie Etter, David Lodge, Michèle Roberts and Miranda Seymour. Establishing important links with the publishing and editing industries, you will work closely with staff and visiting speakers to develop your work to an excellent standard.

How will I learn?

The core course consists of a series of lectures and seminars on different aspects of the writing process, with optional modules incorporating practical writing workshops. Students currently choose two options from Fiction, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Poetry and Writing for Radio, Stage and Screen.

Career development

The unique flexibility of the course enables students to work in a variety of genres including fiction, poetry, children's and young adult fiction, writing for radio, stage and screen, and creative non-fiction. Advice on getting published and lectures on the writing industry are incorporated into the structure of the course, and there are opportunities to meet publishers, editors and agents. Students are encouraged to build strong links with Nottingham's thriving literature community and are invited to participate in local events, readings and festivals.

Every year our students produce and publish their own high-quality anthology of original creative writing. This gives students invaluable insight into the editorial and publishing industry, as well as introducing their work to a wider public.

Modules (Year 1)

Tuition fees.

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£ 17,500 per year

Tuition fees shown are for indicative purposes and may vary. Please check with the institution for most up to date details.

University information

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Nottingham Trent University, 50 Shakespeare Street, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, NG1 4FQ, England

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22nd out of 50 2

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NOTTINGHAM CREATIVE WRITING HUB

at Nottingham Trent University

Past events

22 May 2024, Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham: CAMILLE RALPHS, with short support readings by NTU Creative Writing students Laura DeVivo, Penny Harrison, Tim Buescher, Shalmika Sivakumar, Steve Katon, Ramisha Rafique, and Julie Gardner

Camille read from her debut full-length collection, After you Were, I Am , published by Faber and Faber, and was supported by a bumper cast of NTU student poets at all levels. Earlier in the day, Camille, also the poetry editor at the  Times Literary Supplemen t, sat down with NTU Arts and Humanities students to answer questions about getting into editing and publishing.

5 March 2024, Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham: William Thompson and John Goodridge, with Lucy Grace.

Professor Emeritus John Goodridge (NTU) gave an entertaining, informative talk about John Clare (1793-1864), and the poet William Thompson read from his pamphlet After Clare (New Walk Editions, 2022). Lucy Grace, an author of fiction and a Midlands4Cities-funded PhD candidate in English and Creative Writing at NTU, read from her novel-in-progress, set in an English coalscape.

31 January 2024, Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham: John Yorke, with support from Penny Harrison and Steve Katon.

John Yorke, a leading television producer and script editor, gave a talk about story, and an interview chaired by NTU MA Creative Writing student Penny Harrison, who also read an excerpt from her fiction. Midlands4Cities Creative Writing PhD student Steve Katon also read from his fiction.

28 November 2023, Beeston Library: Teresa Forrest and Elvire Roberts, supported by Tim Buescher, Annette Pateman and Kai Northcott.

Teresa and Elvire, both graduates of NTU’s MA Creative Writing (in 2016 and 2023, respectively), launched debut pamphlets published by our friends at Five Leaves Publishing, to a packed audience. Support came from three of the star students on the current MA Creative Writing poetry module.

11 October 2023, Broadway Cinema, Nottingham: The Great Escaper, with William Ivory.

The feature film The Great Escaper, starring Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson, achieved widespread acclaim. It was written by NTU Senior Lecturer in Screenwriting, William Ivory, who teaches on our BA and MA Creative Writing programmes at NTU. This event comprised a packed-out screening of the film followed by a public Q&A, chaired by NTU’s Anna Dawson.

3 May 2023, Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham: Writing Ecologies, with Helen Jukes and Rachel Bower, supported by Helena Hunter and Annie Cross.

Helen Jukes, author of A Honeybee Heart has Five Openings, read from a forthcoming memoir about motherhood. Rachel Bower read from her two poetry collections. Support came from NTU Midlands4Cities-funded PhD student Helena Hunter and second-year BA Creative Writing student Annie Cross.

22 March 2023, Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham: Zaffar Kunial, with Julie Gardner, Sarah Smith, Oli Shaw and Elle Jacobson. Zaffar Kunial, author of two poetry collections, most recently England’s Green (Faber, 2022), which was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, read alongside three NTU students in a packed shop. The supporting readers were NTU PhD student Julie Gardner, NTU MA Creative Writing students Sarah Smith and Oli Shaw, and NTU BA Creative Writing student Elle Jacobson.

8 November 2022, Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham: Togara Muzanenhamo, with Becky Cullen, Teresa Forrest and John Oberholzer. Togara Muzanenhamo, visiting from Zimbabwe, read from his three Carcanet poetry collections: Spirit Brides (2006), Gumiguru (2014), and most recently Virga . Becky Cullen read from her debut collection A Reader’s Guide to Time (Live Canon, 2022). Extra support came from NTU MA Creative Writing student Teresa Forrest, and NTU BA Creative Writing student John Oberholzer, who studied Muzanenhamo’s work last year as part of his BA.

1 8 May 2022, Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham: Kim Slater and Helen Cooper, with Lotty McLean, Rebekah Hemmens and Abigail Cobley. Award-winning novelists Kim Slater and Helen Cooper, both graduates of NTU’s MA Creative Writing, read with three current students on the same MA: Lotty McLean, Abigail Cobley, and Rebekah Hemmens. The event was followed by a Q&A chaired by NTU Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, David Belbin, who has taught all of them.

2 March 2022, online: Carrie Etter and Jake Morris-Campbell, with Erika Davies, Sophie Hall and Eve Kilford. American poet and short fiction writer Carrie Etter read from her new collection, The Weather in Normal (Seren, 2021). Jake Morris-Campbell read from his debut collection, Corrigenda for Costafine Town (Blue Diode, 2021). Support came from Erika Davies, a recent star graduate of NTU’s MA Creative Writing, and Eve Kilford and Sophie Hall, two exceptional NTU BA Creative Writing students. It was chaired by NTU Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and English, Andrew Taylor who, like Carrie, has been published by Shearsman Books.

16 February 2022, online: Liz John, with Steve Katon and Alessandra Leone. Birmingham-based playright and screenwriter Liz John ( The Archers,   Doctors) , etc read and discussed her work. Support came from BA students Sarah Stamps and Alessandra Leone, and MA Creative Writing student Steve Katon, and was chaired by Anthony Cropper, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at NTU, who is a playwright and novelist.

10 February 2022, online: Togara Muzanenhamo and Naush Sabah, with Aly Stoneman, Tuesday Shannon, Lucas Parkinson and Josh Short. Togara Muzanenhamo, author of three collections of poetry with Carcanet (most recently Virga , a Poetry Book Society Recommendation) read alongside Naush Sabah, author of Litanies (Gullemot Press, 2021), and the editor and founder of Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal . Other readers were: Aly Stoneman, a recent graduate of our M4C-funded PhD programme; Tuesday Shannon, a current M4C-funded PhD candidate at NTU, and Lucan Parkinson and Josh Short, two final-year students on our BA Creative Writing. The event was chaired by poet and NTU Associate Professor Rory Waterman who, like Togara, is published by Carcanet Press.

9 February 2022, online: Gwendoline Riley, with Lee Skinner and Alison Goodchild. Gwendoline Riley, author of six novels and winner of a Somerset Maugham Award and Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, read from her new novel, My Phantoms , and then took part in an audience-led Q&A. The other readers were Alison Goodchild and Lee Skinner, both second-year part-time students on the NTU MA Creative Writing. The event was chaired by Eve Makis, novelist and NTU Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing.

3 November 2021: Uncertain Truths , with NTU MA Creative Writing. The launch event for this year’s MA Creative Writing anthology, at Antenna, Nottingham, with readings from several members of the cohort and several guests including alumni, introduced by NTU guest lecturer William Ivory.

31 March 2021: Ashley Hickson-Lovence, with John Lewell. Ashley, the author of the novel The 392 and featured writer for NTU’s WRAP programme, read with NTU BA Creative Writing student John Lewell. The event was chaired by NTU Lecturer Becky Cullen, and hosted by NTU’s Curated and Created.

24 March 2021, online: Okechukwu Nzelu, with Panya Banjoko and Lauren Morey. The novelist Okechukwu Nzelu, winner of a New Writing North Award and author of the novel The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney , which won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Betty Trask Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize, and the Polari First Book Prize, read with NTU PhD candidate and poet Panya Banjoko and NTU BA Creative Writing student Lauren Morey. The event was followed by a Q&A chaired by Dr Jenni Ramone, Senior Lecturer in Postcolonial Studies at NTU. Video here .

10 March 2021, online: Poetry & Covid-19 collaborations, with Sinéad Morrissey, Jan Wagner, Iain Galbraith, Carol Leeming, Rakhshan Rizwan, David Herd & Sharmistha Mohanty, plus Lauren Terry. Three international pairings of acclaimed poets recited collaborations written for the AHRC-funded  Poetry and Covid project  anthology, published by Shearsman Press. The session was chaired by Prof. Anthony Caleshu, of the University of Plymouth (who is working with Rory Waterman on the project), and was followed by a Q&A co-chaired by Rory and Anthony. Video here .

3 March 2021, online: Lynda Clark, reading with Victoria Zoë Callus and Josh Short . NTU MA Creative Writing and PhD graduate Lynda Clark, the author of the novel Beyond Kidding and winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, read alongside NTU Midlands4Cities-funded PhD student Victoria Zoë Callus and BA Creative Writing student Josh Short. The event was chaired by Sarah Jackson. Video here .

18 February 2021, online: Calling Across Borders. A short animation celebrating the voices of young refugees living in the UK. A collaboration between NTU’s AHRC-funded Crossed Lines project and Compass Collective. The event was hosted by Compass associate artists Massi and Ali G, and chaired by Sarah Jackson.

17 February 2021, online: William Ivory, with Cappo (Paul Adey), Jade Curley, Teya Dancer and Lesley Walker. Multi-award-winning screenwriter William Ivory performed a monologue. NTU Midlands4Cities-funded PhD student Paul Adey (AKA Cappo) performed three pieces and three MA Creative Writing students read monologues in support. The event was chaired by BA Media Production student and Hub Research Assistant Zachary Omitowoju, who was on work placement with the NTU ‘Humanities at Work’ module. The event was followed by a broad audience-led discussion. All 100 audience places were taken. Video here .

20 January 2020, online: Alan Jenkins reading with Aly Stoneman and Tuesday Shannon. Forward Prize-winning poet and editor Alan Jenkins read alongside NTU Midlands4Cities-funded PhD students Aly Stoneman and Tuesday Shannon, then answered audience questions about writing. Video here .

2 December 2020, online: Pete Paphides with Hannah Cooper-Smithson. Former chief rock critic at The Times , freelance music broadcaster and journalist for the Guardian, Mojo and Q, and author of the critically-acclaimed memoir Broken Greek , Pete Pahides discussed his memoir, music, the writing life and his upbringing in Birmingham with immigrant parents. The event was chaired by MA Creative Writing lecturer and Writer in Residence for the Postcolonial Studies Centre, Eve Makis, and supported by NTU Midlands4Cities-funded PhD student Hannah Cooper-Smithson, a poet.

25 November 2020, online: Dial-a-Poem, with Raquel Lanseros, Andrew McMillan, Rishi Dastidar and Chrissy Williams, with Rose Brennan and John Rogers. Four internationally-acclaimed poets commissioned for the Dial-a-Poem app – Raquel Lanseros, Andrew McMillan, Rishi Dastidar and Chrissy Williams – were joined by the Dial-a-Poem competition winners, Rose Brennan and NTU MA Creative Writing alumnus John Rogers, for reading and discussion around the theme of writing and the telephone. The link is available here .

23-4 May 2020, online: Nottstopping Festival. Nottingham Creative Writing Hub members, including staff and students, presented an online event as part of Nottstopping 2020. The link is available here .

25 March 2020, online: Geoff Nicholson with Victoria Zoe Callus. The Sheffield-born author Geoff Nicholson , until recently a resident of Los Angeles, talked to David Belbin about his seventeen idiosyncratically satirical novels. He was supported by first-year Midlands4Cities NTU PhD student Victoria Zoe Callus . The event was moved online due to coronavirus, and the link is available here (for Geoff) and here (for Victoria).

4 December 2019, Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham: Carcanet at 50. Carcanet Press is one of the UK’s leading publishers of poetry, and is now in its fiftieth year. We celebrated with readings by four Nottingham-based poets with Carcanet connections, three of whom are closely related to NTU: Rory Waterman, Gregory Woods, Rebecca Cullen and Matthew Welton. The event was introduced by Carcanet editor in chief Michael Schmidt. A free limited-edition pamphlet containing work by each of the four poets was available to attendees on the night.

30 October 2019, Antenna, Nottingham: And What Do They Call you? student-led MA anthology launch. This year’s NTU MA Creative Writing anthology launch was superb, featuring readings from our 2018-19 cohort of  MA Creative Writing  students, and guest speaker (and NTU Midlands4Cities PhD student) Paul Stephen Adey, AKA Cappo.

23 October 2019, University Hall, Nottingham Trent University: Celebrating 25 Years of the MA Creative Writing. This special event celebrated 25 years of the MA Creative Writing, and lauched the new anthology 25 , with readings from 10 of the contributors. The evening was chaired by the two most recent course leaders, Rory Waterman and David Belbin, and was introduced by our Vice-Chancellor, Edward Peck. Here’s to the last 25 years, and to the next quarter-century of successes!

1 October 2019, Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham: Helen Tookey supported by Panya Banjoko, Hannah Cooper-Smithson, Lauren Terry. Helen read from her two poetry collections:  Missel-Child  (Carcanet, 2014), shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney First Collection Prize in 2015, and  City of Departures  (Carcanet, 2019), shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2019. Support came from three PGR NCWH members, all of whom read new work.

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English with Creative Writing BA

University Park Campus, Nottingham, UK

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View courses in Clearing to start in September 2024

Course information

• Qualification : Bachelor of Arts with Honours Bachelor of Arts with Honours
• Start date : September 2025 September 2025

Entry requirements : 32 AAB

32 points overall or 665 in 3 Higher Level Certificates

6 in English at Higher Level

6.5 (no less than 6.0 in any element)

English language requirements

As well as IELTS (listed above), we also accept other English language qualifications. This includes TOEFL iBT, Pearson PTE, GCSE, IB and O level English. Check our  English language policies and equivalencies for further details.

For presessional English or one-year foundation courses, you must take IELTS for UKVI to meet visa regulations.

If you need support to meet the required level, you may be able to attend a  Presessional English for Academic Purposes (PEAP) course.  Our Centre for English Language Education is accredited by the British Council for the teaching of English in the UK.

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

Check our  country-specific information  for guidance on qualifications from your country

A in English literature or language (or combined) at A level; plus a GCSE at level 4 (grade C) or above in English

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

Please note: Applicants whose backgrounds or personal circumstances have impacted their academic performance may receive a reduced offer. Please see our  contextual admissions policy  for more information.

Alternative qualifications

We recognise that applicants have a wealth of different experiences and follow a variety of pathways into higher education.

Consequently we treat all applicants with alternative qualifications (besides A-levels and the International Baccalaureate) on an individual basis, and we gladly accept students with a whole range of less conventional qualifications including:

Access to HE Diploma

• Advanced Diploma
• BTEC HND/HNC
• BTEC Extended Diploma

This list is not exhaustive. The entry requirements for alternative qualifications can be quite specific; for example you may need to take certain modules and achieve a specified grade in those modules. Please contact us to discuss the transferability of your qualification. Please see the  alternative qualifications page  for more information.

RQF BTEC Nationals

RQF Level 3 BTEC National Extended Diploma - unfortunately we are unable to accept this qualification on its own due to the subject specific requirements at A Level.

Mixed qualifications accepted if taking A Level English alongside.

BTEC National Extended Diploma DDD + A in A Level English

DD in BTEC Diploma + A in A Level English.

D in BTEC Subsidiary Diploma/ Extended Certificate + AB including A in Level English

Pass Access to HE Diploma Humanities Pathway with 45 credits at level 3 of which 30 credits must be at Distinction and 15 credits at Merit

15 level 3 credits must be from English modules and 9 of these English credits must be at Distinction.

Extended Project Qualification (EPQ)

If you have already achieved your EPQ at Grade A you will automatically be offered one grade lower in a non-mandatory A level subject.

If you are still studying for your EPQ you will receive the standard course offer, with a condition of one grade lower in a non-mandatory A level subject if you achieve an A grade in your EPQ.

Mature students

At the University of Nottingham, we have a valuable community of mature students and we appreciate their contribution to the wider student population. You can find lots of useful information on the  mature students webpage.

Visa restrictions

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

Contextual offers

We make contextual offers to students who may have experienced barriers that have restricted progress at school or college. Our standard contextual offer is usually one grade lower than the advertised entry requirements, and our enhanced contextual offer is usually two grades lower than the advertised entry requirements. To qualify for a contextual offer, you must have Home/UK fee status and meet specific criteria –  check if you’re eligible .

Foundation progression options

If you have faced educational barriers and are predicted BCC at A Level, you may be eligible for our Foundation Year . You may progress to a range of direct entry degrees in the arts and humanities. 

• UCAS Code : Q3W8 Q3W8

Duration : 3 years full-time 3 years full-time

Study abroad

On this course, you can apply to study abroad at one of our partner institutions or at University of Nottingham China or University of Nottingham Malaysia. 

If you are successful in applying to study abroad, you will get the opportunity to broaden your horizons and enhance your CV by experiencing another culture. Teaching is typically in English, but there may be opportunities to study in another language if you are sufficiently fluent.  

You can choose to study similar modules to your counterparts in the UK or expand your knowledge by taking other options.  

The school you are joining may also have additional study abroad options available. Please visit the school website for more information.  

Please note:  In order to study abroad you will need to achieve the relevant academic requirements as set by the university and meet the selection criteria of both the university and the partner institution. The partner institution is under no obligation to accept you even if you do meet the relevant criteria.

Optional placement year

If your course does not have a compulsory placement, integrated year in industry or compulsory year abroad where there is already an opportunity to undertake a work placement as part of that experience, you may be able to apply to undertake an optional placement year. While it is the student’s responsibility to find and secure a placement, our Careers and Employability Service will support you throughout this process. Contact [email protected] to find out more. 

The school/faculty you are joining may also have additional placement opportunities. Please visit the  school/faculty website  for more information.  

Please note:  In order to undertake an optional placement year, you will need to achieve the relevant academic requirements as set by the university and meet any requirements specified by the placement host. There is no guarantee that you will be able to undertake an optional placement as part of your course.

Key information

Please be aware  that study abroad, compulsory year abroad, optional placements/internships and integrated year in industry opportunities may change at any time for a number of reasons, including curriculum developments, changes to arrangements with partner universities or placement/industry hosts, travel restrictions or other circumstances outside of the university’s control. Every effort will be made to update this information as quickly as possible should a change occur.  

Please note: In order to study abroad you will need to achieve the relevant academic requirements as set by the university and meet the selection criteria of both the university and the partner institution. The partner institution is under no obligation to accept you even if you do meet the relevant criteria.

The school/faculty you are joining may also have additional placement opportunities. Please visit the school/faculty website for more information.  

Please note: In order to undertake an optional placement year, you will need to achieve the relevant academic requirements as set by the university and meet any requirements specified by the placement host. There is no guarantee that you will be able to undertake an optional placement as part of your course.

Please be aware that study abroad, compulsory year abroad, optional placements/internships and integrated year in industry opportunities may change at any time for a number of reasons, including curriculum developments, changes to arrangements with partner universities or placement/industry hosts, travel restrictions or other circumstances outside of the university’s control. Every effort will be made to update this information as quickly as possible should a change occur.  

Fees : £23,000 per year £9,250 per year

* For full details including fees for part-time students and reduced fees during your time studying abroad or on placement (where applicable),  see our fees page .

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

Additional costs

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

Essential course materials are supplied.

You'll be able to access most of the books you’ll need through our libraries, though you may wish to buy your own copies of core texts. A limited number of modules have compulsory texts which you are required to buy. We recommend that you budget £100 per year for books, but this figure will vary according to which modules you take. The Blackwell's bookshop on campus offers a year-round price match against any of the main retailers (e.g. Amazon, Waterstones, WH Smith). They also offer second-hand books, as students from previous years sell their copies back to the bookshop.

Volunteering and placements

For volunteering and placements e.g. work experience and teaching in schools, you will need to pay for transport and refreshments.

Optional field trips

Field trips allow you to engage with source materials on a personal level and to develop different perspectives. They are optional and costs to you vary according to the trip; some require you to arrange your own travel, refreshments and entry fees, while some are some are wholly subsidised.

Scholarships and bursaries

Faculty of Arts Alumni Scholarships

Our Alumni Scholarships provide support with essential living costs to eligible students. Find out more about  eligibility and how to apply.

International students

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

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

Our Alumni Scholarships provide support with essential living costs to eligible students. Find out more about eligibility and how to apply.

Home students*

Over one third of our UK students receive our means-tested core bursary, worth up to £1,000 a year. Full details can be found on our financial support pages .

* A 'home' student is one who meets certain UK residence criteria. These are the same criteria as apply to eligibility for home funding from Student Finance.

Course overview

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

If you want to develop your creative work alongside studying a broad range of English literature, language and drama, this course is for you.

You’ll write both fiction and poetry, exploring different forms and genres along the way, including environmental and political poetics, creative non-fiction, flash fiction and short stories. The work in English studies will strengthen your creative writing. Then, in your second and third years, there’s flexibility to specialise in the areas you enjoy most, including digital storytelling.

You’ll spend two thirds of your time on English studies, and one third on creative writing. This includes learning about the process of writing and publishing from expert staff who are published poets and authors themselves.

We are proud to be ranked top 20 for English in the UK (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024).

Find out more

Watch the videos about our key areas of study.

Important information

This online prospectus has been drafted in advance of the academic year to which it applies. Every effort has been made to ensure that the information is accurate at the time of publishing, but changes (for example to course content) are likely to occur given the interval between publishing and commencement of the course. It is therefore very important to check this website for any updates before you apply for the course where there has been an interval between you reading this website and applying.

Indicative modules

Academic Community

Beginnings of English

Creative Writing Practice

Drama, Theatre, Performance

Studying Language

Studying Literature

Poetry: Forms and Conventions

Fiction: Forms and Conventions

Shakespeare and Contemporaries on the Page

From Talking Horses to Romantic Revolutionaries: Literature 1700-1830

Modern and Contemporary Literature

Literature and Popular Culture

Texts Across Time

Victorian and Fin de Siècle Literature: 1830-1910

The Psychology of Bilingualism and Language Learning

Language in Society

Language Development

Literary Linguistics

Chaucer and his Contemporaries

Old English: Reflection and Lament

Ice and Fire: Myths and Heroes of the North

Names and Identities

Shakespeare and Contemporaries on the Stage

From Stanislavski to Contemporary Performance

Twentieth-Century Plays

Advanced Writing Practice: Poetry

Advanced Writing Practice: Fiction

Creative Writing Dissertation

Contemporary British Fiction

Single-Author Study

The Gothic Tradition

Modern Irish Literature and Drama

One and Unequal: World Literatures in English

Reformation and Revolution: Early Modern literature and drama 1588-1688

Making Something Happen: Poetry and Politics

The Self and the World: Writing in the Long Eighteenth Century

Language and Feminism

Discourse and Power: Health and Business Communication

Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Advanced Stylistics

English Place-Names

Old English Heroic Poetry

Songs and Sonnets: Lyric poetry from Medieval Manuscript to Shakespeare and Donne

Dreaming the Middle Ages: Visionary Poetry in Scotland and England

The Viking Mind

Changing Stages: Theatre Industry and Theatre Art

Digital Story: Craft and Technique

Language and the Mind

About modules

The above is a sample of the typical modules we offer, but is not intended to be construed or relied on as a definitive list of what might be available in any given year. This content was last updated on Tuesday 27 August 2024. Due to timetabling availability, there may be restrictions on some module combinations.

Language study as part of this degree

You may be able to choose to study a language as part of this degree.  

Learning another language can open career opportunities around the globe and enriches your CV. It could also help you in your studies by being able to access learning materials in other languages. 

If you are planning to travel or work abroad it will help you to broaden your cultural understanding.

Our Language Centre offers many languages, and you may start as a beginner or at a more advanced level. 

Find out more about learning a language as part of your degree

This module introduces the key issues and skills in English, for transitioning to university-level study. It explores areas of overlap between the different areas of English at Nottingham.

You will be taught in small groups by your personal tutor, and encouraged to explore – both critically and reflectively – what it means to be a student of English.

We support you to develop study, research and communication skills, which will be useful across all your modules. This includes building effective skills for reflective writing and oral presentation.

This module is worth 20 credits.

What was the earliest literature in English like? Where does English come from? What does ‘English’ really mean, anyway?

On this module, we’ll explore a range of English and Scandinavian literature from the medieval period. You'll also meet themes and characters who are at once familiar and strange: heroes and heroines, monster-slayers, saints, exiles, tricksters, lovers, a bear, and more.

From Tolkien to Marvel, the medieval past has been an inspiration for fantasy fiction and modern myth. As well as introducing you to stories and poetry which is exciting, inspiring and sometimes plain weird, we’ll also be looking at some of the challenges of the modern world.

Thinking about the past, means thinking about how it is used in the present day. The idea of a 'beginning' of English language and literature often gets incorporated into modern beliefs about national, ethnic and racial identity. On this module, we’ll begin the necessary work of challenging these ideas and building a better understanding of the medieval past and why it still matters.

Taking a creative approach to language is a big part of what all writers do. In this module, we introduce the process of writing poetry and fiction.

You'll gain a broad perspective on creative writing, exploring essential techniques and examining the contexts in which writers create their work.

We will cover:

• techniques in poetry (imagery, stanza and poetic form), and fiction (character, narrative and point of view)
• ways of developing your creativity
• creative and analytical responses to texts, by a wide range of contemporary and classic writers

You are taught by published poets and novelists, who'll share their insights and work closely with you to support your development. We also invite guest lecturers, so you can benefit from a professional perspective on the realities of writing and publication.

Who makes theatre? Where does performance happen, and who is in the audience? How is society represented on stage?

These questions are at the heart of this module, and we will explore the extraordinary variety of drama in the Western dramatic tradition. You will examine dramatic texts in relation to their historical context, spanning:

• ancient Greek tragedy
• medieval English drama
• Shakespeare and his contemporaries
• the Restoration stage
• 19th century naturalism
• political theatre of Brecht
• drama and performance, for example the West End hit  Emilia  by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm (2018), a celebration of women’s voices and history, inspired by the life of the trailblazing 17th century poet and feminist  Emilia  Bassano

Alongside texts, you'll also consider the extra-textual features of drama, including the performance styles of actors, the significance of performance space and place, and the composition of various audiences.

You will study selected plays in workshops, seminars and lectures, where we will explore adaptation and interpretation of the texts through different media resources. You can also take part in practical theatre-making, exploring extracts from the selected play-texts in short, student-directed scenes in response to key questions about performance.

On this module you will learn about the nature of language, and how to analyse it for a broad range of purposes. It aims to prepare you for conducting your own language research across your degree.

The accompanying weekly workshops will explore levels of language analysis and description – from the sounds and structure of language, through to meaning and discourse. These can be applied to all areas of English study, and will prepare you for your future modules.

In your lectures, you will see how our staff put these skills of analysis and description to use in their own research. This covers the study of language in relation to the mind, literature, culture, society, and more. Your seminars then give you a chance to think about and discuss these topics further.

This module introduces the core skills for literary studies, including skills in reading, writing, researching and presentation. Topics covered include:

• close reading
• constructing an argument
• handling critical material
• introducing you to key critical questions about literary form, production and reception

You will put these new skills into practice through reading specific literary texts. These are focused on poetry and prose selected from the full range of the modern literary period (1500 to the present).

Across the year, you will learn about different interpretive approaches and concepts, and will examine literary-historical movements and transitions.

This module expands on the work done in the first year by undertaking a sustained analysis of technique and craft related to writing poetry, including poetic line, stanza, rhyme and related techniques, and imagery, along with a number of traditional forms such as the sonnet or haiku. You will be introduced to a wide and diverse range of writers and techniques as well as exploring the publishing industry as it relates to poetry. You will develop your own creative work as well as your critical and reflective skills.

This module expands on the work done in the first year by undertaking a sustained analysis of technique and craft related to fiction writing, including narrative voice, point of view, character development, dialogue, plot, and setting. You will be introduced to a wide and diverse range of writers and techniques as well as exploring the publishing industry as it relates to fiction. You will develop your own creative work as well as your critical and reflective skills.

This module focuses on material written between 1580 and 1630 to provide you with an introduction to methods of reading early modern texts. Shakespeare’s poetry will be among the core texts; other canonical writers will include Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, Philip Sidney and John Donne. You’ll explore the practice of historicised readings of early modern texts and you’ll consider the related challenges and limitations. You’ll have one hour of lectures and two hours of seminars each week.

This module introduces different kinds of literature, written between 1700-1830. This was a dramatic time in literary history, resulting in the Romantic period. It involved many areas of great contemporary relevance, such as class, poverty, sexuality, and slavery.

We will examine:

• utopian literature (through Gulliver’s Travels)
• the developing novel (such as Moll Flanders and Pride and Prejudice)
• how irony works
• what is self-expression
• how the emergent genre of autobiography can be either manipulated, or used as part of a larger cause

As part of this module, you will explore novels, poems, and prose works that bring to life the intellectual, social and cultural contexts of the period.

This module charts the dramatic transformations and innovations of literature in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Moving between genres, the module unfolds chronologically from modernism, through the inter-war years, and into postmodernism and the contemporary scene.

We explore some of the huge artistic shifts of this long and turbulent period. You will examine how modern and contemporary literature connects to the cultural revolutions, intellectual debates, political and social upheavals, and ethical complexities of its times.

This module investigates the relationship between literature and popular culture. You will explore works from across a range of genres and mediums, including:

• prose fiction
• graphic novels

As well as exploring topics such as aesthetics and adaptation, material will be situated within cultural, political and historical contexts allowing for the distinction between the literary and the popular.

This module will consider key issues in the study of English language and world literature, locate language and literature in time and place, and extend your knowledge of the intellectual, political, historical, and cultural developments in language and literature.

Explore a wide variety of Victorian and fin-de-siècle literature, with examples taken from fiction, critical writing and poetry.

You will examine works by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Charles Dickens, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, HG Wells and Joseph Conrad.

We will focus on understanding changes in literary forms and genres over this period, and how these relate to broader developments in Victorian social, economic and political culture.

The module is organised around the following interrelated themes:

• Empire and race
• Class and crime
• Identity and social mobility
• Gender and sexuality
• Literature and consumerism

Are you interested in languages and the multilingual world? Have you ever wondered how our brains process learning a second language? Would you like to teach English overseas one day? If so, this module could be for you.

Drawing on current theories of second language acquisition, we will consider:

• How globalisation has increased bilingualism in the world
• How languages are learnt
• How students differ from each other in their mastery of languages
• How the psychology of the classroom environment impacts the effectiveness of learning
• How to motivate students and create good learner groups

You will spend three hours per week on this module, split equally between a lecture and follow-up seminar.

When we study language, we learn about how society works. Why do some people have more noticeable accents than others? Why are some people taken seriously when they talk, while others aren’t? How do those with power use language to manipulate us into thinking a certain way?

On this module, these are the sorts of questions you’ll be thinking about. We focus on how people use language, how language varies between different speakers, and how language is used to represent different social groups. We consider:

• The way that language is used by people online to create communities
• How the mainstream media uses language to represent particular groups, such as immigrants or gay people
• The ways that language is used in particular contexts, such as the workplace
• How advertisers use language to persuade us that we need their products
• The relationship between language, gender and sexuality
• How language can be used to signal a person’s race or ethnicity

You’ll learn how to conduct a sociolinguistic study which explores topics such as these. You will also spend time each week analysing original language data.

The module is worth 20 credits.

You’ll explore how English is learnt from making sounds as an infant through to adulthood. Topics relating to early speech development include: the biological foundations of language development, the stages of language acquisition and the influence of environment on development. Further topics which take into account later stages of development include humour and joke telling abilities, story-telling and conversational skills and bilingualism.

All literature is written in language, so understanding how language and the mind work will make us better readers and critics of literary works.

This module brings together the literary and linguistic parts of your degree. It gives you the power to explore any text from any period by any author. You will study how:

• Literature can feel rich, or pacy, or suspenseful, or beautiful
• Texts can make you laugh, cry, feel afraid, excited, or nostalgic
• Fictional people like characters can be imagined
• We can get inside the thoughts, feelings, and hear the speech of characters, narrators and authors
• Imagined worlds are built, and how their atmosphere is brought to life
• You as a reader are manipulated or connect actively with literary worlds and people

Chaucer dominates our conception of late Middle English literature, but he was one among several exceptional writers of his time.

This module focuses on 40 years of writing, to consider whether Chaucer’s concerns with identity and authority, comedy and tragedy, and wit and wisdom are uniquely his, or shared with other writers.

We will cover a wide range, including:

• dream vision (both mystic and secular)
• love poetry

You will read works by the so-called Ricardians: Chaucer, Gower, the Gawain-poet, and Langland, but also the mystic writings of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe and some poetry by Thomas Hoccleve.

By the end of the module, you will have gained confidence in reading and discussing Middle English texts, and be aware of key issues around form, language, and authority and influence.

This module explores the tradition that the poetry and prose of Old English often focuses on warfare and heroic action. You will study and analyse poems from the Exeter Book 'elegies' and also passages from Beowulf to explore this rich and rewarding genre. You'll have a two-hour lecture and one-hour seminar each week for this module.

Odin, Thor and Loki: almost everyone has heard about them, but where do their stories come from?

In this module, we will learn about the origins of their myths from various sources: images on stone and wood in the Viking Age, as well as the written texts of the Middle Ages.

We will learn about giants, dwarves, valkyries and rumour-spreading squirrels, as well as the cosmology and religion which are embedded in Old Norse mythology. We will talk about heroes and villains, from dragon-slayers to queens who kill to avenge their brothers.

The stories of Old Norse mythology have influenced writers throughout history. from Tolkien to the Marvel Universe, they are still part of our culture. This module will take you back to the beginnings and show that there are so many more marvellous myths to explore.

The module is with 20 credits.

What can given names, surnames and nicknames tell us about people in the past? What determines the choice of a name for a child? Where does our hereditary surname system come from? How have place, class and gender impacted upon naming through time? This module will help you answer all these questions and more. Interactive lectures and seminars, and a project based on primary material tailored to each participant, will introduce you to the many and varied, fascinating and extraordinary types of personal name and their origins.

This module offers an in-depth exploration of the historical and theatrical contexts of early modern drama. This module invites students to explore the stagecraft of innovative and provocative works by Shakespeare and key contemporaries, such as Middleton, Johnson, and Ford (amongst others). Students will explore how practical performance elements such as staging, props, costume and music shape meaning. You’ll have one hour-long lecture and one two-hour long seminar each week, with occasional screenings.

Develop your understanding of some of the most influential performance theories and practice, from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. 

Building on the ‘Drama, Theatre, Performance’ module, you will deepen your understanding of Stanislavski and Brecht in practice, as well as exploring the work of other influential theorists and practitioners. 

Possible material includes: 

• Konstantin Stanislavski
• Vsevolod Meyerhold
• Bertolt Brecht
• Antonin Artaud
• Jacques Lecoq
• Ensemble physical theatre makers such as DV8, Gecko & Frantic Assembly 

For this module, you’ll have a mix of lectures and practical workshops, totalling three hours a week.

Workshops offer the opportunity for practical drama. You will explore theory in practice, through work with excerpts from canonical theatrical scripts and other performance scripts.

Theatre makers in the long 20th century have been dealing with a series of pressing artistic and social issues, many of which still concern us today.

These issues include:

• What makes a play worth watching?
• Why do audiences enjoy watching bad things happening?
• How are minority groups represented on the stage?
• How might the stage advance the cause of gender or sexual equality?
• What role does social class or nationality play in the workings of theatrical culture?
• How can we talk accurately about an art form like performed theatre, that is so fleeting and transitory?

In order to answer such questions, this module gives an overview of key plays and performances from the 1890s to the present. You will study these key texts in their original political, social, and cultural contexts. You will also:

• consider their reception and afterlife
• focus on the textual and performance effects created
• place the texts alongside the work of relevant theorists and practitioners

This module builds on the creative writing modules taught in years 1 and 2. It is delivered through a three hour workshop in which the critique of student writing is a central element. You will get to read key writers within specific forms and conventions as well as relevant secondary texts. Topics covered will include literary influence, writing process, and collaboration, as well as a more detailed re-examination of some of the techniques and conventions covered in previous modules. By the end of the module you will have been given opportunity to develop and extend your skills and expertise through workshop exercises and the constructive feedback received during the workshop.

This module builds on the creative writing modules taught in years 1 and 2. It is delivered through a three hour workshop in which the critique of student writing is a central element. You will get to read key writers within specific forms and genres as well as relevant secondary texts. Topics covered will include narrative voice and technique, point of view, character development, dialogue, plot, and setting. By the end of the module you will have been given opportunity to develop and extend your skills and expertise through workshop exercises and the constructive feedback received during the workshop.

The dissertation is an independent project involving both creative and critical work. The creative component consists of an original work of either fiction or poetry, to be agreed with your dissertation supervisor.. The critical component addresses the main issues involved in the process of developing and revising your creative work.

Explore the novel from the late twentieth century onwards, in Britain and beyond.

We will concentrate on the formal operations and innovations of selected novelists, considering how the contemporary socio-historical context influences these questions of form. Topics considered include:

• an interrogation of the ‘post-consensus novel’
• an exploration of postcolonial texts which represent the transatlantic slave trade
• the cultural politics of late twentieth-century and twenty-first century Scottish literature

Contemporary fiction is focused on writing emerging from Britain and closely-related contexts in the post-war period. This module offers strands structured around a number of political, social and cultural frameworks in Britain. These include:

• formal analysis and literary innovations in Britain
• temporalities and the representation of time
• issues of gender, race and class
• histories of colonialism and slavery
• national traditions and politics of state
• the country and the city
• postmodernism

This module particularly explores the network of relationships between context, content and form, supported by related literary and cultural theory and philosophy.

This stranded module provides students with a detailed introduction to the major works of a single author (e.g. James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence). Students will select one author to study from a range on offer. They will then have the opportunity to consider in detail important thematic and stylistic aspects of their chosen author’s work, taking account of the chronological development of his/her writing practice (if relevant), and his/her relationship to key historical and literary contexts.

This module focuses on the connections between literary texts, politics, and relevant historical/cultural contexts in gothic texts. You may cover:

Examples include  The Haunting of Hill House  (both Shirley Jackson’s novel and the Netflix adaptation),  The Gilda Stories  by Jewelle Gomez, and  Saga of the Swamp Thing  by Moore, Bissette and Totleben, and  The Visions of the Daughters of Albion  by William Blake.

You will explore various critical and theoretical approaches to literature, film, comics, adaptation, and popular culture. The module also seeks to decolonise Gothic Studies, including work by creators from a wide range of backgrounds who identify with a diverse range of subject positions.

Examine 20th century Irish literature and drama.

Taking the Irish Literary Revival as a starting-point, you will consider authors in their Irish and European context. Such authors include:

• Lady Gregory
• James Joyce
• Seán O'Casey
• Seamus Heaney
• Brian Friel
• Marina Carr

We focus on reading texts in relation to their social, historical, and political contexts.

This includes tracking significant literary and cultural responses to Irish experiences of colonial occupation, nationalist uprising and civil war, partition and independence, socio-economic modernisation, and the protracted period of violent conflict in Northern Ireland.

This module examines the late twentieth and early twenty-first century globe through its correlates in fiction. The primary materials for the module will be post-war Anglophone works drawn from a wide geographical range across the world. After introducing the history of the idea of world literature, these works will be situated within a series of theoretical ‘worlds’: world literary systems; post-colonial criticism; cosmopolitanism; world ecologies; resource culture; literary translation theory. The module will also attend to critiques of 'world literature’ as a concept.

Literature and Drama across the early modern period contributed to, and was often caught up in, dramatic changes in social, political, and religious culture which changed the way that people experienced their lives and the world around them. This module gives students the opportunity to read a wide range of texts in a multitude of genres (from drama, to prose fiction, pamphlets and poetry) in their immediate contexts, both cultural and intellectual. This module will situate the poetry, prose and drama between 1580 and 1700 against the backdrops of civil war and political revolution, scientific experimentation, and colonial expansion; in doing so, it will ask how the seventeenth century forms our current understandings of the world. Students will be encouraged to read widely, to develop a specific and sophisticated understanding of historical period, and to see connections and changes in literary and dramatic culture in a period which stretches from the Spanish Armada of 1588 to the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688.

This module introduces key modern and contemporary poets.

You will build a detailed understanding of how various poetic forms manifest themselves in particular historical moments. Unifying the module is an attention to poets’ responses to the political and ideological upheavals of the 20th century.

The module will include such (primarily) British and Irish poets as:

• W. H. Auden
• Dylan Thomas
• Sylvia Plath
• Wislawa Szymborska
• Tony Harrison
• Derek Mahon
• Adrienne Rich
• Geoffrey Hill
• Jo Shapcott
• Patience Agbabi
• Alice Oswald

Some of the forms examined will include: the elegy, the pastoral (and anti-pastoral), the ode, the sonnet (and sonnet sequence), the ekphrastic poem, the version or retelling, the villanelle, the parable and the sestina.

To develop a more complete perspective on each poet’s engagement with 20-century formal and political problems, we also examine these figures’ writings in other modes. This includes critical essays, manifestos, speeches, and primary archival materials such as letters and manuscript drafts.

Grounding each week will be readings on poetry and the category of the ‘political’ from an international group of critics, including such thinkers as Theodor Adorno, Charles Bernstein, Claudia Rankine, Peter McDonald, Angela Leighton, Christopher Ricks and Marjorie Perloff.

The years from 1660 to 1830 are enormously important, especially in terms of the representation of the self in literature: Milton promoted the idea of the poet inspired by God; Pope and Swift mocked the possibility of anyone truly knowing their self; Wordsworth used poetry to explore his own life; and Byron and Austen provided ironic commentaries on the self-obsessions of their peers. This period also saw the rise of the novel (a form that relies upon telling the story of lives), a flourishing trade in biography, and the emergence of new genre, autobiography. This module will look at some of the most significant works of the period with particular reference to the relationship between writers and their worlds. Topics might include: the emergence, importance and limitations of life-writing; self- fashioning; the construction – and deconstruction - of the ‘Romantic’ author’; transmission and revision; translation and imitation; ideas of the self and gender; intertextuality, adaptation, and rewriting; creating and destroying the past; and writing revolution. Texts studied will range across poems, novels and prose.

This module provides comprehensive knowledge of feminist theory, as applied to a series of language and linguistic contexts.

You will explore a range of analytical approaches to language, including conversation analysis, critical discourse analysis, and interactional sociolinguistics. You will also respond to, and critically engage with, contemporary real-world problems associated with gender and sexuality, through the consideration of discourse-based texts.

Topics covered include:

• gender and sexual identity construction in a range of interactive contexts
• sexist, misogynistic, homophobic and heteronormative representations in texts
• feminist theory from the 1970s to the present, with particular focus on contemporary approaches to gender theory

This module explores the vital role that discourse plays in various communicative domains in healthcare and workplace settings. Students will explore these domains through a variety of contemporary frameworks for examining discourse and communication, including critical discourse analysis, multi-modal discourse analysis, and interactional sociolinguistics.The module offers the opportunity to analyse and reflect on the discourses of healthcare and the workplace, as two crucially important domains of social and professional life. To this end, professional and healthcare discourses will be investigated through a range of genres and communicative modes, including face-to face communication advertising, media discourse and digital interactions. The module offers a rich resource for discourse-based studies of language in professional and social life and enables students to examine the strategic uses of communicative strategies in specific social settings.

The module is designed to provide students with an understanding of the process of English Language Teaching (ELT) and of the theoretical underpinnings of this practice. In this module students will learn the principles behind the learning and teaching of key aspects and skills of English, including:

• intercultural communicative skills

Students will also learn how to apply these theoretical principles to the development of teaching materials. This module will therefore be of interest to students who want to pursue a teaching career, and in particular to those interested in teaching English as a second or foreign language.

This module offers an advanced study of the language of literary texts and how it impacts reading and interpretation. It bridges the gap between the literary and linguistics aspects of our BA degrees. It also equips you with skills that will be useful in the teaching of English, or for a career in publishing.

You will study:

• literary style and technique
• the style of poetry and narrative
• the representation of characters' voices and consciousness
• the style of difficult texts, such as surrealism
• the history of literary style

You will learn to explain how style contributes to meaning and interpretation, and why texts affect you in different ways.

The module uses the study of place-names to show the various languages – British, Latin, French, Norse and English – that have been spoken in England over the last 2000 years.

You will learn how place-name evidence can be used as a source for the history of English, including:

• its interaction with the other languages
• its regional and dialectal patterns
• its changing vocabulary

We also consider the interdisciplinary contribution that place-names offer to historians and geographers.

For this module's assessment, you can choose a geographical area of particular interest.

This module gives an opportunity to those who already have a basic knowledge of Old English language and literature to explore some of the astonishing range of texts from the earliest stages of English literature. The texts studied are heroic and Christian. Themes include Germanic myth and legend, heroic endeavour, Christian passion. A study of the epic poem Beowulf — its characters, its themes, its ‘meaning’ — is essential to the module. Texts are read in Old English (with plenty of help given).

Through the exploration of lyric poetry, this module examines cultural and literary change from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century. It will consider the rise of ‘named poet’, the interaction of print and manuscript culture, the representation of love, and the use of the female voice. It will develop further students’ confidence in handling formal poetic terminology and reading poetry from this period. It will also enable students to think pragmatically about the transmission of lyric in modern editions, and about how best to represent the form.

The genre of dream-vision inspired work by all the major poets of the Middle Ages, including William Langland, the Pearl-Poet, and Geoffrey Chaucer. The course will aim to give you a detailed knowledge of a number of canonical texts in this genre, as well as ranging widely into the alliterative revival, and chronologically into the work of John Skelton in the early sixteenth century. The course will depend upon close, detailed reading of medieval literary texts, as well as focusing on the variety and urgency of issues with which dream poetry is concerned: literary, intellectual, social, religious and political.

Our images of Vikings come largely from the Icelandic sagas. These present a Viking Age of daring exploits, global exploration and bloody feuds, as carried out by valiant warriors and feisty women. But how accurate are the sagas when it comes to understanding what really happened in the Viking Age? Can they provide an insight into the Viking mind?

This module explores Norse and Viking cultural history, using an interdisciplinary approach grounded in the study of texts. 

• The Viking Age and Viking society
• Exploration and diaspora
• Gender, marriage and family
• Religion and belief
• The supernatural

Your one-hour lectures will provide the evidence base for discussion in the two-hour, student-led seminars. The seminars also include some language work.

Assessment for this module is by a one-hour exam of comment and analysis, and a 3000-word project on a topic of your choice in consultation with a tutor.

Peter Pan, Les Misérables, Hamilton...  just a few of the iconic productions that started life in London’s West End, or on Broadway in New York. But why and how did they become so successful?

The 20th and 21st centuries have seen major changes in the way theatre is financed, produced and presented, both on stage and on screen. This module explores the fascinating world of theatre production, covering:

• the development of long-running, commercial productions
• the role of the theatre producer in making theatre
• subsidised theatre
• touring and national theatre companies
• reviewing cultures
• relationship between the theatre and film industries
• the advent of the mega-musical

Examining the mainstream and the fringes, we apply case studies including Shakespeare in production, new plays, revivals, and international hits like the ones listed above, illustrating how theatre responds to changing contexts and audiences.

This module will enable you to become confident in devising and publishing your own material through digital media, including hypertext, audio and video. Through weekly workshops, you will explore the art of digital storytelling, including the use of multimedia and linear/non-linear narratives. You will engage with published digital stories and poems; guest writers working in digital literature will give you insight into their practice and offer guidance on how to craft your own work. The assessment consists of the submission of one digital story. 

Speaking, listening, reading, and writing are a complex set of behaviours that are a fundamental part of our daily lives. And yet they remain difficult to fully explain.

When you hear ‘FIRE’, you immediately look for an exit and start moving. Yet all that a speaker has done is produce a string of sounds. Your mind distinguishes these from the murmuring of other voices, feet clomping on the floor, and any background music. Your mind matches the sounds f-i-r-e with a word, retrieves the meaning, and relates them to the current circumstances and responds accordingly.

How does the mind do this? And what makes our minds so special that we  can  do this? On this module, we begin to address these questions.

You will consider:

• Is there a language gene?
• What makes human language different from animal communication?
• What is the relationship between thought and language?
• Does everyone talk to themselves? What purpose does our inner voice serve?
• How do we learn language? And does cognition underpin our ability to learn language?
• What do language deficits tell us about language and the brain?
• How do we understand and produce speech, words, and sentences?
• What is the best way to teach children to read?
• How is sign language similar to/different from spoken language?

How you will learn

When you begin studying at university, you will probably find that you cover material much more quickly than you did while studying for your A levels. The key to success is preparing well for classes and then taking the ideas you encounter further in your own time. Lectures – provide an overview of what you are studying, using a variety of audio and visual materials to support your learning. Seminars and workshops – give you the chance to explore and interact with the material presented in lectures in a friendly and informal environment. You will be taught in a smaller group of students, with discussion focusing on a text or topic you've previously prepared. Workshops are more practical, perhaps through exploring dramatic texts, working with digital materials, or developing presentations. Tutorials – individual and small-group tutorials let you explore your work with your module tutor, perhaps discussing plans for an essay or presentation, or following up on an area of a module which has interested you. eLearning – our virtual-learning system, Moodle, offers 24-hour access to teaching materials and resources.

Peer mentoring

All new undergraduate students can opt into our peer mentoring scheme. Your peer mentor will help you settle into life at Nottingham, provide advice on the transition to university-level study and help you access support if needed.

Teaching quality

Over 95% of our class of 2020 graduated with a 1st or 2:1 degree classification. Source: UoN student outcomes data, Annual Monitoring (QDS) Analyses 2020. Tutor's contributions to high quality teaching and learning are recognised through our annual Lord Dearing Awards. View the full list of recipients .

Teaching methods

• Workshops  

How you will be assessed

Assessment methods.

• Dissertation
• Portfolio (written/digital)
• Presentation
• Reflective review
• Written exam

Contact time and study hours

You’ll have at least the following hours of timetabled contact a week through lectures, seminars and workshops, tutorials and supervisions.

• Year one: minimum of 12 hours
• Year two: minimum of 10 hours
• Final year: minimum of 8 hours

Your tutors will also be available outside these times to discuss issues and develop your understanding.

We reduce your contact hours as you work your way through the course. As you progress, we expect you to assume greater responsibility for your studies and work more independently.

Your tutors will all be qualified academics. The largest first year lectures are typically attended by up to 300 students, whereas the corresponding seminars are of 16 students. In years two and three, lectures may include up to 170 students, and seminar groups may range from 12 to 24.

As well as scheduled teaching, you’ll carry out extensive self-study such as:

• reading books and journal articles
• doing preparation work for seminars
• researching your assignments in the library
• collaborating with fellow students

As a guide, 20 credits (a typical module) is approximately 200 hours of work (combined teaching and self-study).

Careers overview

As an English with Creative Writing graduate, you will have gained the following key transferable skills:

• Strong communication, both oral and written
• presenting ideas and information, including collaboratively
• text analysis
• planning and researching written work
• creative writing
• writing for different audiences

Read our student and alumni profiles for more about the range of skills you will gain, as well as the careers which our graduates go into.

You can also learn more about subject-related careers opportunities from our Careers and Employability Service.

Job prospects

Average starting salary and career progression.

78.8% of undergraduates from the Faculty of Arts secured graduate level employment or further study within 15 months of graduation. The average annual starting salary for these graduates was £23,974.

HESA Graduate Outcomes (2017 to 2021 cohorts). The Graduate Outcomes % is calculated using The Guardian University Guide methodology. The average annual salary is based on graduates working full-time within the UK.

Careers advice

Studying for a degree at the University of Nottingham will provide you with the type of skills and experiences that will prove invaluable in any career, whichever direction you decide to take.

Throughout your time with us, our Careers and Employability Service can work with you to improve your employability skills even further; assisting with job or course applications, searching for appropriate work experience placements and hosting events to bring you closer to a wide range of prospective employers.

Have a look at our careers page for an overview of all the employability support and opportunities that we provide to current students.

The University of Nottingham is consistently named as one of the most targeted universities by Britain’s leading graduate employers (Ranked in the top ten in The Graduate Market in 2013-2020, High Fliers Research).

Your Campus - University Park

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

One of the skills that’s definitely useful in my job, is knowing how to communicate with different stakeholders. If I’m talking to an editor about a book, I’m going to have a different conversation with them than I would have with the author. The communication skills which I gained from my course are really invaluable.

Olivia French

English with Creative Writing graduate and Marketing and Communications Manager at HarperCollins Publishers

Related courses

Faculty of Arts

3 years full-time

English BA Hons

Qualification BA Hons

Entry requirements AAB

UCAS code Q300

English Language and Literature BA Hons

UCAS code Q392

English with Creative Writing BA Hons

UCAS code Q3W8

4 years full-time

Arts and Humanities with Foundation Year

Entry requirements BCC

UCAS code Y14F

3 or 4 years full-time depending on language or placement choices

Liberal Arts BA Hons

Entry requirements AAA

UCAS code Y002

Classics and English BA Jt Hons

Qualification BA Jt Hons

UCAS code QQ38

English and History BA Jt Hons

UCAS code QV31

English and Philosophy BA Jt Hons

UCAS code QV35

English and French BA Jt Hons

Entry requirements ABB

UCAS code QR31

4 years full time

English and Hispanic Studies BA Jt Hons

UCAS code QRH4

Course data

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Admission Steps

Professional writing - professional creative nonfiction writing - ma, admission requirements.

Terms and Deadlines

Degree and GPA Requirements

Additional Standards for Non-Native English Speakers

Additional standards for international applicants.

For the 2025-2026 academic year

See 2024-2025 requirements instead

Fall 2025 quarter (beginning in September)

Final submission deadline: August 1, 2025

International submission deadline: May 5, 2025

Winter 2026 quarter (beginning in January)

Final submission deadline: November 21, 2025

International submission deadline: September 8, 2025

Spring 2026 quarter (beginning in March)

Final submission deadline: February 13, 2026

International submission deadline: December 8, 2025

Summer 2026 quarter (beginning in June)

Final submission deadline: May 1, 2026

International submission deadline: February 23, 2026

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.

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 with minimum of 20 on each subscore

Minimum IELTS Score: 6.5 with minimum of 6.0 on each band score

Minimum C1 Advanced Score: 176

Minimum Duolingo English Test Score: 115 with individual subscore minimum of 105 for Literacy, Comprehension, and Conversation and minimum subscore of 95 for Production.

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.

Recommendations are optional and not required as part of admission materials. The admission committee reserves the right to request recommendations when reviewing an admission application.

Essays and Statements

Personal statement instructions.

At University College, we strive to foster a collaborative and engaging learning environment that emphasizes the practical application of knowledge and supports self-directed, motivated learners. Our programs are designed to build upon the unique background and experiences of adult learners.   A personal statement (two pages double-spaced, 450-500 words) written in your own words and unique voice, without the help of AI-based assistance, is required and should be submitted via the application status page. In your personal statement please answer the following questions: 1. How does your chosen program/concentration align with your personal and professional goals? 2. In what ways will your work experiences, professional background, previous education, or other lived experiences enable you to contribute to an engaging learning environment?

Résumé Instructions

The résumé (or C.V.) should include work experience, research, and/or volunteer work.

Writing Sample Instructions

The Master of Arts in Professional Creative Writing requires a sample of your creative writing, preferably in the genre of the concentration to which you are applying. The sample may comprise 2-3 double-spaced pages of prose (fiction or creative nonfiction), 30-40 single- or double-spaced lines of poetry, or 1-2 single-spaced pages of dramatic writing (monologue, play, or screenplay).

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: $75.00 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.