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Creative Writing (MA)

Bloomsbury (central london) campus, london, united kingdom, # =93 qs subject rankings, 12 months program duration, english language and literature main subject area, program overview, main subject.

English Language and Literature

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Creative Writing

Entry requirements.

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

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

Portfolio guidelines:

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

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

Months of entry

January, October

Course content

Why choose this course?

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

What you will learn

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

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

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

How you will learn

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

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

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

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

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

Graduates can pursue career paths in areas such as:

• copywriting
• narrative design

Birkbeck Creative Writing graduates include:

• Niki Aguirre
• Sarah Alexander
• Laura Allsop
• Iphgenia Baal
• Phoebe Blatton
• Mary Lynn Bracht
• Nicole Burstein
• Tray Butler
• Melissa De Villiers
• Liz Fremantle
• AJ Grainger
• Jules Grant
• Emma Henderson
• Sally Hinchcliffe
• Heidi James
• Keith Jarrett
• Olya Knezevic
• Matthew Loukes
• Fiona Melrose
• Suzanne O'Sullivan
• Victoria Richards
• Nadim Safdar
• Karin Salvalaggio
• David Savill
• Stefanie Seddon
• Luke Tredget.

We offer a comprehensive careers service - Careers and Enterprise - your career partner during your time at Birkbeck and beyond. At every stage of your career journey, we empower you to take ownership of your future, helping you to make the connection between your experience, education and future ambitions.

Information for international students

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

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

Qualification, course duration and attendance options

• Campus-based learning is available for this qualification

Course contact details

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  Creative Writing (MA)

Birkbeck, university of london     school of creative arts, culture and communication, findamasters summary.

Embark on a transformative journey with the MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, nestled in the vibrant literary hub of London. This esteemed programme offers a nurturing environment for aspiring writers to hone their craft under the guidance of published authors and industry professionals. Delve into the realms of fiction writing, playwriting, poetry, screenwriting, and creative non-fiction through small seminars and personalised tuition. The course structure is designed to elevate your creative work through practical opportunities in publishing, producing, and editing. To secure a place, submit a portfolio showcasing your prose writing talent, along with a compelling personal statement. The programme's unique selling points include close ties with the Centre for Contemporary Literature, renowned faculty, and access to industry insights. Immerse yourself in literary history at Birkbeck's Bloomsbury location, where creativity thrives in every corner. Scholarships and bursaries are available to support talented students. Elevate your writing prowess and join a community of like-minded individuals at Birkbeck's MA in Creative Writing.

About the course

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

Why choose this

Entry Requirements

A second-class honours degree (2:2 or above, though this requirement may be waived if you can demonstrate exceptional talent), personal statement and portfolio of prose writing of up to 3000 words: a section of a novel with a synopsis, a couple of short stories or a combination of the two. Please note that poetry, children’s fiction, journalism, screen- or playwriting are not appropriate submissions for this MA. Students are selected on the basis of their portfolio and statement, an interview (selected candidates only) and their degree. Portfolio guidelines: - Submit application - Wait up to 48 hours - Submit writing portfolio

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

  Course Content

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Birkbeck, University of London

CREATIVE AND CRITICAL WRITING (MA)

CREATIVE AND CRITICAL WRITING (MA)  CREATIVE AND CRITICAL WRITING (MA) Birkbeck, University of London ../webroot/files/Institutions/cover_photo/1563773744Birkbeck-University-1.jpg

Postgraduate Certificate , Creative Writing

CREATIVE AND CRITICAL WRITING (MA) CREATIVE AND CRITICAL WRITING (MA) Birkbeck, University of London

Course description.

This new interdisciplinary Master’s degree offers blended learning in the interconnected fields of creative writing and critical thinking, by combining both practice-based learning and specialism in contemporary literature, culture and criticism. The MA Creative and Critical Writing explores critical methods and debates on experimental literature, media, popular culture, technology and cultural development. You will have the opportunity to develop your critical thinking skills as well as fiction and non-fiction writing. 

This exciting course combines practice-led workshops with specialist lectures and seminars. Each year of study offers a complementary mix of modules on literature and creative writing. The dissertation in the final year enables you to display both your creative and critical work.

Course Content

You complete five core modules, including a dissertation of 15,000 words. 

To find out more, read our programme handbook.

CORE MODULES

• Creative Non-Fiction
• Key Concepts in Cultural and Critical Studies: Part 2
• Reading the Contemporary
• Writing Workshop

MA CREATIVE AND CRITICAL WRITING DISSERTATION

• MA Project: Creative and Critical Writing

Entry Requirements

Our standard postgraduate entry requirement is a second-class honours degree (2:2 or above) from a UK university, or an equivalent international qualification.

We will review every postgraduate application to Birkbeck on its individual merits and your professional qualifications and/or relevant work experience will be taken into consideration positively. We actively support and encourage applications from mature learners.

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

Apply now  to secure your place and allow enough time for the application and enrolment process. You do not need to have completed your current qualification to start your application.

COURSE SPECIFIC ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

A second-class honours degree or above in a relevant subject from an accredited university.

Two academic/professional references, a 3000-word sample of written creative work and a personal statement (to be submitted with your application form). Those successful at this stage will be directed to submit work and attend an interview.

INTERNATIONAL ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Our standard postgraduate entry requirement for international students is a second-class honours degree (2:2 or above) from a UK university or an equivalent international qualification.

If English is not your first language or you have not previously studied in English, our usual requirement is the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Test) score of 6.5, with not less than 6.0 in each of the sub-tests. Some courses may require higher scores, particularly in the following subject areas:

• arts management
• cultural studies
• development studies
• film and media
• organizational psychology
• psychology.

Please carefully check the Course-Specific Entry Requirements on your chosen programme for details of higher English language entry requirements.

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

VISA REQUIREMENTS

If you are not from the European Economic Area (EEA) and/or Switzerland and you are coming to study in the UK, you may need to apply for a visa.

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

• Courses of more than six months' duration.
• Courses of less than six months' duration.
• Pre-sessional English language courses.

International students who require a Tier 4 visa should apply for our full-time courses (with the exception of modular enrolment certificates of higher education and graduate certificates), as these qualify for Tier 4 sponsorship. If you are living in the UK on a Tier 4 visa, you will not be eligible to enrol as a student on Birkbeck's part-time courses (with the exception of some modules).

Assessment Methods

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

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

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Creative and critical writing (ma) review.

Creative Writing MA

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MA - Master of Arts

Birkbeck, University of London

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COURSE OVERVIEW

The MA Creative Writing at Birkbeck is taught by one of the most diverse and vibrant departments in London. For 17 years we have been enabling dynamic groups of students to improve their creative work and develop as writers. We have a growing list of published and prizewinning authors whose work started life in our seminars.

If you have been writing creatively for a while and feel the need for professional support and feedback and the guidance of published authors and a cohort of like-minded people, then this course is for you.

The course is taught through small seminars and one-to-one tuition. We offer modules in fiction writing - both short story and novel - and work with writers across many prose genres - both fiction and non-fiction. We also offer options in playwriting, poetry, screenwriting and creative non-fiction, and practical opportunities to learn about publishing, producing and editing creative work.

CAREERS AND EMPLOYABILITY

Graduates can pursue career paths in editing, teaching and writing professionally. Possible professions include:

creative writer

magazine or newspaper journalist

editorial assistant

academic librarian

English as a second language (ESOL) teacher

information officer.

What students say

Close to home great tutors . Studying at night allows me to work in the day If I choose to do.. Read more

The quality of the modules and teaching have been excellent thus far, and I love being part of a diverse mix of students--so many different backgrounds, ages, etc., and everyone.. Read more

Modules (Year 1)

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

Students living in

£10,800 per year

Students from Domestic

Students are charged a tuition fee in each year of their course. Tuition fees for students continuing on their course in following years may be subject to annual inflationary increases.

£19,830 per year

Students from EU

Students from International

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Creative Writing and Contemporary Studies

Birkbeck, University of London's MA Creative Writing and Contemporary Studies is run by experienced and forward-thinking teachers who have been enabling dynamic groups of students to improve their creative work and develop as writers for nearly two decades.

Birkbeck, University of London Multiple locations London , England , United Kingdom Not ranked Studyportals University Meta Ranking 3.9 Read 18 reviews

Key Facts and Outcomes

If you have been writing creatively for a while and feel the need for professional support and feedback and the guidance of published authors and a cohort of like-minded people, then this course is for you.

The MA Creative Writing and Contemporary Studies offered by Birkbeck, University of London will help you to develop the craft of writing in various genres to a professional level. You will also develop your critical-thinking skills exploring critical methods and debates on experimental literature, media, popular culture, technology and cultural development.

It will give you the opportunity to:

• gain a deepened awareness of literary forms and a practical understanding of the writer’s craft
• develop confidence, sensitivity and discernment in analysis of your own and others’ work
• combine both practice-based learning with specialism in contemporary literature, culture and criticism, as well as the development of your own creative writing projects
• place your own writing in the context of developments in contemporary poetry, screenwriting, fiction and creative non-fiction
• cultivate a greater practical knowledge and understanding of the markets for poetry, fiction, screenwriting and non-fiction.

Programme Structure

Courses include:

• Theorising the Contemporary, Contemporary Theorising
• Writing the Planet
• Writing The Self
• Writing Workshop
• Dissertation MA Creative Writing

Key information

• 12 months

Start dates & application deadlines

• Starting 2024-09-30 00:00:00 Apply anytime.
• We recommend that you apply as early as possible and at least six weeks before the start of term. Deadlines for international TBA.

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Disciplines

Academic requirements.

We are not aware of any specific GRE, GMAT or GPA grading score requirements for this programme.

English requirements

Student insurance.

Make sure to cover your health, travel, and stay while studying abroad. Even global coverages can miss important items, so make sure your student insurance ticks all the following:

• Additional medical costs (i.e. dental)
• Repatriation, if something happens to you or your family
• Home contents and baggage

We partnered with Aon to provide you with the best affordable student insurance, for a carefree experience away from home.

Starting from €0.53/day, free cancellation any time.

Remember, countries and universities may have specific insurance requirements. To learn more about how student insurance work at Birkbeck, University of London and/or in United Kingdom, please visit Student Insurance Portal .

Other requirements

General requirements.

• A second-class honours degree (2:2 or above), though this requirement may be waived if you can demonstrate exceptional talent.
• Applications are reviewed on their individual merits and your professional qualifications and/or relevant work experience will be taken into consideration positively. We actively support and encourage applications from mature learners.
• On your application form, please list all your relevant qualifications and experience, including those you expect to achieve.

Tuition Fee

International.

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

Living costs for London

The living costs include the total expenses per month, covering accommodation, public transportation, utilities (electricity, internet), books and groceries.

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Scholarships Information

Below you will find Master's scholarship opportunities for Creative Writing and Contemporary Studies.

Available Scholarships

You are eligible to apply for these scholarships but a selection process will still be applied by the provider.

Read more about eligibility

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Creative Writing MA Birkbeck, University of London

• On campus - Main Site
• Jan 1, 2025 Part-time - 2 years
• Oct 1, 2024 Part-time - 2 years
• Oct 1, 2024 Full-time - 1 years
• Jan 1, 2024 Part-time - 2 years

Key Course Facts

• View programme website
• Admission advice for international students

Student Reviews

Below you can see course specific reviews of 10 graduates of Creative Writing MA and other courses in Languages and Area Studies at Birkbeck, University of London for each of the survey questions in comparison to the average for all UK degree courses in Languages and Area Studies .

Primarily based on data from undergraduate degree students .

Salary of Graduates in CAH19

Important: Salary data below is not course specific, but contains data of all students of Languages and Area Studies at the university. Due to data collection methodology, salary data is mainly based on data related to undergraduate students .

Salary of all UK Graduates of CAH19

Course Description

The MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck is taught by one of the most diverse and vibrant departments in London. For 17 years we have been enabling dynamic groups of students to improve their creative work and develop as writers. We have a growing list of published and prizewinning authors whose work started life in our seminars.

If you have been writing creatively for a while and feel the need for professional support and feedback and the guidance of published authors and a cohort of like-minded people, then this course is for you.

The course is taught through small seminars and one-to-one tuition. We offer modules in fiction writing - both short story and novel - and work with writers across many prose genres - both fiction and non-fiction. We also offer options in playwriting, poetry, screenwriting and creative non-fiction, and practical opportunities to learn about publishing, producing and editing creative work.

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

In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF), English Language and Literature at Birkbeck achieved 100% for a research environment conducive to producing research of the highest quality, while 91% of eligible staff submitted research, of which 75% was recognised as world-leading or internationally excellent.

In particular, this environment is fostered by close links between the MA and the Centre for Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck, which runs a wide variety of talks and conferences in this field. In addition to working with the established and award-winning writers who teach the degree, you will have contact with industry professionals, such as publishers and literary agents, who offer a series of platform discussions in the summer term.

The Mechanics' Institute Review, MIROnline, is a forum for the most exciting new writing in short fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction selected from students on this course and beyond.

Birkbeck is located in the heart of literary London, in Bloomsbury, WC1. You could be studying in a building that was once home to Virginia Woolf and frequented by members of the Bloomsbury Group, now home to our School of Arts. The building houses our own creative hub which includes the Peltz Gallery, the Gordon Square Cinema and a theatre and performance space.

We have a range of scholarships available to enable talented students on low incomes to study with us, such as the Sophie Warne Fellowship. Once you have secured a place on the course you will be invited to apply for these awards. The School of Arts offers a number of bursaries for postgraduate students.

The School of Arts is an official partner of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. Opportunities for students have included a year’s free membership of the ICA, private views, discounts on all talks and events, free members' screenings and £3 cinema tickets on Tuesdays, up to 25% off ICA Artists' Editions and a monthly e-newsletter.

Jobs & Career Perspectives

15 months after graduation, graduates of this course were asked about what they do and, if they are working, about their current job and their perspectives.

What graduates are doing after 15 months

Current jobs

Job in line with future plans, utilise skills from studies, work is meaningful.

Required skill level of job after 15 months

% skilled jobs.

Jobs of graduates of this course (15 months after graduation)

Example below based on all graduates of Creative Writing MA at Birkbeck, University of London

Assessment Methods

Entry requirements / admissions, requirements for international students / english requirements.

IELTS academic test score (similar tests may be accepted as well)

• Mphil / PhD

UCAS International Information

Tuition fees creative writing ma.

Average student cost of living in London

London costs approx 34% more than average, mainly due to rent being 67% higher than average of other cities. For students staying in student halls, costs of water, gas, electricity, wifi are generally included in the rental. Students in smaller cities where accommodation is in walking/biking distance transport costs tend to be significantly smaller.

University Rankings

Positions of birkbeck, university of london in top uk and global rankings., about birkbeck, university of london.

Birkbeck, University of London (BBK) was established in 1823, and takes a different stance towards admissions than many other universities. Applicants are encouraged by BKK to apply even if they don’t possess the traditional qualifications normally required, as applications here are also considered based on an assessment of your knowledge on the subject, and any work experience you might have. Being located in the very centre of London, students will have all the advantages of the city’s public transport connections, as well as the chance to live in such a diverse and vibrant city with all that it offers.

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Birkbeck, University of London

Degree level: postgraduate, awarded by: university of london, creative writing (taught), course options.

There are other course options available which may have a different vacancy status or entry requirements – view the full list of options

Course summary

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

• Our MA is highly respected nationally and internationally and we have a growing list of published and prizewinning authors whose work started life in our seminars, recently including Abi Daré, JJ Bola, Lily Dunn, Annalie Grainger, Louise Hare, Sally Hinchcliffe, Vanessa Onwuemezi, Melody Razak and Saba Sams.
• You will study the art of writing with a faculty of acclaimed authors, which include Julia Bell, Luke Williams and David Eldridge, to name a few.
• You will benefit from the experience and expertise of a team who have been running this creative writing course for almost 20 years enabling diverse cohorts of students to develop as writers across genres and to support their careers.
• writing for video gaming
• screenwriting
• playwrighting
• memoir writing
• creative non-fiction
• genre fiction.
• Birkbeck was ranked 2nd in the UK for its English Language and Literature research in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.
• This environment is fostered by close links between the MA and the Centre for Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck, which runs a wide variety of talks and conferences. In addition to working with the established and award-winning writers, you will have contact with industry professionals, such as publishers and literary agents.
• MIROnline is a forum for the most exciting new writing in short fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction selected from students on this course and beyond.
• Birkbeck is located in the heart of literary London, in Bloomsbury, WC1. You could be studying in a building that was once home to Virginia Woolf and frequented by members of the Bloomsbury Group.
• We have a range of scholarships available to enable talented students on low incomes to study with us, such as the Sophie Warne Fellowship.
• strong creative and critical skills
• a sophisticated use of written and spoken English
• the ability to engage with ideas and develop your own opinions and arguments
• facility and precision in the use of analytical tools
• strong skills and initiative in collecting and organising complex materials and writing up clear, well-presented reports.
• copywriting
• narrative design

For information about course structure and the modules you will be studying, please visit Birkbeck’s online prospectus.

Assessment method

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

International applicants

If English is not your first language or you have not previously studied in English, the requirement for this programme is the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Test) score of 6.5, with not less than 6.0 in each of the sub-tests. If you don't meet the minimum IELTS requirement, we offer pre-sessional English courses and foundation programmes to help you improve your English language skills and get your place at Birkbeck.

A second-class honours degree (2:2 or above, though this requirement may be waived if you can demonstrate exceptional talent), a personal statement (to be submitted with your application form) and a portfolio of prose writing of no more than 3000 words. Your portfolio should be a section of a novel with a synopsis, a couple of short stories or a combination of the two. Please note that poetry, children’s fiction, journalism, screen- or playwriting are not appropriate submissions for this MA. Students are selected on the basis of their portfolio and statement, an interview (selected candidates only) and their degree. Portfolio guidelines: submit application; wait up to 48 hours; submit writing portfolio (Word or PDF) by logging into your MyBirkbeck profile, then going to the ‘Manage my application’ link and attaching the document. Applications are reviewed on their individual merits and your professional qualifications and/or relevant work experience will be taken into consideration positively. We actively support and encourage applications from mature learners.

English language requirements

If English is not your first language or you have not previously studied in English, the requirement for this programme is the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Test) score of 7.0, with not less than 6.5 in each of the sub-tests. If you don't meet the minimum IELTS requirement, we offer pre-sessional English courses, foundation programmes and language support services to help you improve your English language skills and get your place at Birkbeck.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees.

Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .

Additional fee information

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Birkbeck, University of London Malet Street Bloomsbury London WC1E 7HX

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Qualification, university name, postgraduate creative writing courses at birkbeck, university of london.

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Screenwriting PG Cert

Birkbeck, university of london.

Our postgraduate screenwriting course offers you an integrated programme in the history, theory and practice of screenwriting. It will Read more...

• 1 year Part time evening degree: £3,600 per year (UK)

Creative Writing and Contemporary Studies MA

The MA Creative Writing and Contemporary Studies is run by experienced and forward-thinking teachers who have been enabling dynamic Read more...

• 1 year Full time degree: £10,800 per year (UK)
• 2 years Part time evening degree: £5,400 per year (UK)

Creative Writing MA

The MA Creative Writing at Birkbeck is taught by one of the most diverse and vibrant departments in London. For 17 years we have been Read more...

Screenwriting (MA)

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Staff in the School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication

Student support staff.

If you have a query about studying with us, our research activities or require further information, please  contact faculty staff .

Head of School

• Professor Fintan Walsh

Academic staff 

• Professor Heike Bauer , Professor of Modern Literature and Cultural History
• Julia Bell , Reader in Creative Writing
• Dr Mark Blacklock , Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary English
• Professor Joseph Brooker , Professor in Modern Literature
• Dr Wes Brown , Lecturer in Creative Writing
• Dr Mari Paz Balibrea Enriquez , Reader in Spanish Cultural Studies
• Agnès Calatayud , Lecturer
• Dr Luisa Calè , Reader in Romantic and Nineteenth-Century Literature and Visual Culture
• Daragh Carville , Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing (Scriptwriting)
• Damian Catani , Senior Lecturer in French
• Professor Ian Christie , Anniversary Professor of Film and Media History
• Barbara Cox , Lecturer in Screenwriting
• Dr Rebekah Cupitt , Lecturer in Digital Design
• Dr Peter Damrau , Lecturer
• Dr Nicolette David , Lecturer
• Dr Caroline Edwards , Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Literature
• David Eldridge , Lecturer in Creative Writing
• Gavin Evans , Associate Lecturer in Journalism
• Professor Martin Eve , Professor of Technology and Publishing
• Dr Molly Flynn , Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance
• Paul Gallagher , Lecturer in Screenwriting
• Dr Irene González-López , Lecturer
• Grace Halden , Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Literature
• Dr Richard Hamblyn , Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing
• Dr Anna Hartnell , Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Literature
• Seda Ilter , Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies
• Professor Akane Kawakami , Professor of French
• Dr Kinga Kozminska , Lecturer
• Professor Esther Leslie , Professor in Political Aesthetics
• Dr Ann Lewis , Senior Lecturer
• Dr Eleni Liarou , Senior Lecturer in Film and Television
• Professor Marjorie Lorch , Professor of Neurolinguistics
• Dr Jackie Jia Lou , Lecturer
• Professor Roger Luckhurst , Professor in Modern and Contemporary Literature
• Dr David McAllister , Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature
• Professor Tim Markham , Professor of Journalism and Media
• Dr Joel McKim , Senior Lecturer in Digital Media and Culture
• Dr Janet McCabe , Reader in Film and Television Studies
• Professor Lisa McEntee-Atalianis , Professor of Sociolinguistics
• Professor Luciana Martins , Professor of Latin American Visual Cultures
• Dr Eckard Michels , Reader in German History 
• Dr Victoria Mills , Lecturer in Victorian Literature and Culture
• Dr Grace Murray, Lecturer
• Dr Penny Newell , Lecturer in Creative and Critical Writing
• Dr Dorota Ostrowska , Senior Lecturer in Film and Modern Media
• Dr Ana Parejo Vadillo , Reader in Victorian Literature and Culture
• Dr Bojana Petric , Professor of Applied Linguistics
• Dr Anna Richards , Lecturer
• Dr Scott Rodgers , Reader in Media Theory
• Professor Jacqueline Rose , Professor of Humanities
• Dr Alicia Smith,  Lecturer
• Hilary Smith , Lecturer in Film Studies
• Professor Rob Swain , Professor of Theatre Practice
• Dr Robert Topinka , Senior Lecturer in Transnational Media and Cultural Studies
• Dr Michael Tsang , Lecturer in Japanese Studies
• Ana Parejo Vadillo , Reader in Victorian Literature and Culture
• Professor Fintan Walsh , Head of School and Professor of Performing Arts and Humanities    
• Professor Marina Warner , Professor of English and Creative Writing
• Dr Simone Wesner , Senior Lecturer in Arts Management
• Dr Stephen Willey , Lecturer in Creative and Critical Writing
• Luke Williams , Lecturer in Creative Writing
• Professor Sue Wiseman , Professor of Seventeenth Century Literature
• Dr Nathalie Wourm , Lecturer in Contemporary French Literature
• Dr Martin Young , Lecturer in Theatre Studies

EMERITUS STAFF 

• Isobel Armstrong, Fellow of the College  Isobel Armstrong is a Fellow of the British Academy, Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of English Studies and Professor Emeritus of what is now the Geoffrey Tillotson Chair. During her time at Birkbeck, she founded the London Seminar for Nineteenth-Century Studies and the Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies. During retirement she has taught at the universities of Harvard and Johns Hopkins and spoken at international conferences. She is also a published poet.  Visit Isobel Armstrong's fellows page .
• Laurel Brake, Professor Emerita of English Literature and Print Culture  Visit Laurel Brake's fellows page  or email Laurel Brake .
• Dr Carolyn Burdett
• Sandra Clark  After retiring from Birkbeck in 2006, Sandra Clark became Acting, Deputy Director and then Director of the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London until 2012. Her special interest is in Shakespeare and early modern drama and popular literature. She is the author of six books and numerous articles and chapters in books and is also the Series Editor of the Arden Shakespeare Dictionaries .
• Professor Jean Marc Dewaele
• Professor Alison Finlay, Honorary Life Member of the College  Alison's research interests are primarily in Old Icelandic. She has worked on the Icelandic poets’ sagas and other sagas of Icelanders, and is currently engaged on a translation of the historical text Heimskringla , in collaboration with Anthony Faulkes. Alison is also involved in re-editing the corpus of Old Norse skaldic poetry, and is editing verses for Volume 1 of Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages . She is currently editing, with Martin Arnold, a collection of articles on the fornaldarsögur. She is also writing a book provisionally called Skalds and Sagas , about the characterisation and function of poets in the Norse-Icelandic Kings’ sagas and the sagas of Icelanders.
• Professor Carmen Fracchia
• Hilary Fraser  Hilary Fraser came to Birkbeck in 2002 to take up the Geoffrey Tillotson Chair of Nineteenth-Century Studies. As Director of the Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, Hilary was the founding editor of its online journal, 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century . She is a published author and has written monographs on the Victorians and Renaissance Italy, aesthetics and religion in Victorian writing, nineteenth-century non-fiction prose, and gender and the Victorian periodical. She has been President of the British Association for Victorian Studies since 2015.  Email Hilary Fraser .
• Russell Celyn Jones  Russell Celyn Jones set up the MA Creative Writing  course at Birkbeck in 2003 and was its director for 12 years. His short fiction has been anthologised around the world and  Soldiers and Innocents  was serialised on BBC Radio 4. He has been a freelance feature writer for the Observer, Guardian, Independent, Time Out and Sunday Times, and a book reviewer for The Times for 15 years. Prizes he has judged include the Man Booker Prize, The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatji Prize and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. He also chaired the annual Man Booker event at Birkbeck .
• Peter Mudford
• Mpalive-Hangson Msiska, Reader in English and Humanities  Mpalive has previously studied in Malawi, Canada, Germany and Scotland and has taught at the Universities of Malawi, Stirling and Bath Spa. External responsibilities include being examiner or joint-supervisor of PhD theses, BA and MA Programmes at other Universities in Britain and abroad. He is a member of the Wole Soyinka Society , The Royal African Society and the Association of the African Studies in the UK (ASAUK) and a Board Member of The Canon Collins Trust , dedicated to sourcing scholarships to enable qualified students from Southern Africa undertake higher education either in Africa or the United Kingdom.
• Michael Slater,  Fellow of the College  Michael Slater is one of the most highly regarded scholars of nineteenth-century literature. From 1958 to 1977 he edited The Dickensian and he served as president both of the International Dickens Fellowship and of the Dickens Society of America. He has always been actively involved in the affairs of Dickens House Museum. Michael worked and taught continuously at Birkbeck for 36 years and has taught and lectured in the US, across Europe, Australasia and the Far East.
• Colin Teevan  Professor of Playwriting and Screenwriting, Colin teaches writing for stage screen and radio at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Colin's stagework has been performed all over the world. He is a long term collaborator with many of the world’s foremost theatre practitioners including Kathryn Hunter, Sir Peter Hall, Hideki Noda, Walter Meirjohann and Dalia Ibelhauptaite. Colin has written more than ten full-length plays for BBC Radios 3 and 4 including the award-winning Glass Houses (2007). 
• Dr Silke Arnold-de Simin e, Reader Emerita in Memory and Cultural Studies  Dr Arnold-de-Simine's work is concerned with (trans-)media aesthetics and ethics, tracing the pathways and following the transnational flow of commemorative practices across a range of different media forms and contexts such as screen media, (digital) archives, museums and heritage sites. She is the co-director of the  BIRMAC  research centre (Birkbeck Interdisciplinary Research in Media and Culture) and is currently working on a book entitled  Memory in 3D: Holograms and Digital Afterlives
• Jean Braybrook, Honorary Life Member of the College
• Penelope Gardner-Chloros,  Professor Emerita of Sociolinguistics and Language Contact  Penelope specialised in Code-switching and is the author of the 2009 volume ‘Code-switching’ (CUP), as well as another monograph on language in Strasbourg, a co-edited volume on Vernacular Literacy and over 60 peer-reviewed articles in journals and books. Since her retirement, she has been working on a biography of El Greco. An ‘Essential Knowledge’ volume for MIT Press on Bilingualism is also in preparation. She lives in Oxford and in Greece.
• Professor Robin Howells  Robin Howells specialises in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French literature and culture (classicism and, principally, Enlightenment). He also uses paradigms from Bakhtin (carnivalesque, dialogism, polemical stupidity) to examine aspects of literature generally. His main research interests are Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and the writing and visual arts of the late eighteenth century.  Email Professor Robin Howells
• Professor John Kraniauskas, Professor Emeritus in Latin American Studies  John Kraniauskas is a specialist in Latin American literary and cultural studies, cultural theory and political philosophy with particular interests in relations between state and cultural forms. John was a founding co-editor of the  Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies .  Email Professor John Kraniauskas  
• Professor Laura Mulvey
• Professor Maria Elena Placencia María Elena Placencia is Professor Emerita of Linguistics and Spanish. Her research interests include (digital) discourse analysis, sociopragmatics and variational pragmatics. She has published extensively in these areas and has contributed chapters to several handbooks (e.g., Pragmatics of Social Media; Pragmatics of Society, Pragmática ) and to numerous other international volumes. She has also (co-)edited several special issues and volumes focusing on a range of topics such as service encounters, small talk, discourse markers, and complimenting behaviour. She is on the editorial board of several international journals.  Email Professor Maria Elena Placencia , and View  Maria Elena Placencia's website  
• Professor Patrick Pollard  Patrick Pollard is professor of French, nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, Gide, the classical tradition, and gender. His research interests include the history of ideas (with an emphasis on nineteenth- to twentieth-century France), history of literature, history of homosexuality and the classical tradition in France, specifically the history of the translation of Greek and Latin authors into French, the modern reuse of ancient myths, and gender and sexuality. He has been a member of the Association des Amis d’André Gide since its inception, and is currently Honorary Treasurer of the Emile Zola Society, London.  Email Professor Patrick Pollard
• Mme Madeleine Renouard, Emerita Reader in French  Madeleine Renouard's most recent co-edited book  Barbara Wright Translation As Art  was published in 2013 by Dalkey Archive Press. She is currently editing the poet Lorand Gaspar's hospital diaries and notes. Madeleine was for many years Editor of  La Chouette  journal.
• Dr Martin Shipway
• Professor Ian Short, Emeritus Professor of French  Ian Short's research interests include medieval studies, in particular French vernacular literature, Anglo-Norman, and the epic.  Email Professor Ian Short
• Professor Michael Temple
• Professor John Walker,   Emeritus Reader in German Intellectual History  Professor Walker's research has been chiefly in the field of nineteenth-century German literature and philosophy. His current research interest is in the relevance of German and German-Jewish philosophy to intercultural and interfaith dialogue, in which he has a personal as well as an academic interest. His book  Wilhelm von Humboldt and Transcultural Communication in a Multicultural World  will appear in October 2022 with Boydell and Brewer (Rochester, NY). He continues to be involved with a number of research projects in this field and welcomes enquiries from like-minded scholars.  Email John Walker
• Professor David Wells  Email David Wells

RESEARCH FELLOWS AND VISITING PROFESSORS

• Professor Stacey Abbott, Honorary Research Fellowship  Stacey Abbott is Professor of Film and Television at Northumbria University.  Her research focuses on horror film and television, with a particular interest in the vampire and zombie. She has also published extensively on Cult TV.  She is the author of the BFI Film Classic on Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark (2020), Undead Apocalypse: Vampire and Zombies in the 21st Century (2016), co-author of TV Horror (2013) and co-editor of Global TV Horror (2021), both with Lorna Jowett. She and Jowett are currently co-writing a book on Women Creators of TV Horror . Abbott is also writing a monograph on Horror Animation . 
• Dr Mike Allen, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Ms Holly Aylett, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Mr Dickie Beau, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Dr Mike Bintley, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Professor Daniel Brown, Visiting Professor
• Dr Marcos Centeno, Honorary Research Fellowship  Marcos Centeno is lecturer in Film, Media and Japanese Studies at University of Valencia. At Birkbeck, Centeno was the Japanese Programme director and was responsible for creating the single honours BA Japanese Studies. Before that, Centeno had been lecturer at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) where he convened the MA Global Cinemas and the Transcultural. His main research interests revolve around Japanese Documentary Film, non-fiction formats, film theory, postwar avant-garde, transnationality, memory of WWII in Asia and the representation of minorities, particularly the Ainu people. He has coordinated projects on transculturality and documentary film funded by institutions such as Eurasia Foundation, Sasakawa, Daiwa, Japan Foundation and the Japanese Ministry of Education.
• Dr Daniela Cerimonia, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Dr Sally Cook, Honorary Research Fellowship  My research explores multilingualism, second-language acquisition, social justice, human rights, asylum seekers, refugees, modern slavery, trauma, and rehabilitation. Identifying as an applied linguist within an interdisciplinary framework, I returned to the UK in 2014 after many years in Italy. Volunteering in a London-based therapeutic- community for torture survivors became the catalyst for my PhD. Specifically, I delve into the intricacies of learning and using English in the context of exile, analysing its impact on participants' healing journeys. Currently, a longitudinal follow-up enhances my exploration, aiming for deeper insights into the temporal, contextual and relational aspects of these phenomena.
• Dr Beverley Costa, Senior Practitioner Fellowship
• Dr Laura Cushing-Harries,  Associate Research Fellowship
• Dr Isabel Davis, Honorary Research Fellowship  Isabel Davis is Research Leader at the Natural History Museum, co-ordinating Arts and Humanities Research. Her research interests include cultural histories of reproductive health, 'one health', environmental studies, premodern literature and culture, and museum collections.
• Dr Tom Dillon,  Associate Research Fellowship
• Dr Lina Džuve rović,  Honorary Research Fellowship  Dr Lina Džuverović is a curator and Course Leader on the MA Curating & Collections, Chelsea College of Art. She is currently co-curating the 60th October Salon, Belgrade, Serbia, 2024. Lina's research focuses on collectivity in art and approaches the process of writing feminist art histories as a site of solidarity and community-building. Her current research project And Others: The Gendered Politics and Practices of Art Collectives , was awarded Bard College’s Centre for Arts and Human Rights Faculty Fellowship (2022). Previously Lina was Artistic Director of London’s Calvert 22 Foundation; founding Director of Electra, Media Arts Curator at ICA, London, co-curator of Momentum Biennial 2009 and has taught contemporary art in the UK and Austria. View Dr Lina  Džuverović's website
• Dr Dickon Edwards, Associate Research Fellowship
• Dr Maria Sanz Ferrer, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Dr Lynne Flowerdew, Honorary Research Fellowship  Lynne Flowerdew holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Liverpool, UK. Her main research and teaching interests include corpus linguistics, ESP/EAP (English for Specific Purposes/English for Academic Purposes), discourse analysis, genre analysis and L2/multilingual academic writing. She has published widely in these areas in international journals and edited volumes and has also authored and co-edited several books on corpus linguistics. She has served as a member of several international conference scientific committees and as an editorial board member of international journals in her fields of expertise.
• Professor John Flowerdew ,  Honorary Research Fellowship  John Flowerdew is an applied linguist, focusing on discourse studies and language education. He is currently a visiting professor at Lancaster University and an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. Previously he was a professor at City University of Hong Kong and at University of Leeds. He is active in research and publication and is regularly invited to speak at international conferences. Notable more recent books are Introducing English for Research Publication Purposes (with P. Habibie) (Routledge); Signalling Nouns in Discourse: A Corpus-Based Discourse Approach (with R.W. Forest) (CUP); The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies (with J. Richardson); and Discourse in English Language Education (Routledge). 
• Dr Carles Fuster, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Professor Christine Geraghty, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Dr David Gillott,  Honorary Research Fellowship  I was awarded my PhD in 2013 for my thesis, Authority, Authorship, and Lamarckian Self-Fashioning in the Works of Samuel Butler (1835–1902) , supervised by Carolyn Burdett. My monograph, Samuel Butler against the Professionals: Rethinking Lamarckism 1860–1900 was published by Legenda in 2015. Since 2013 I have been Editorial Assistant for 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century , published by Open Library of Humanities.
• Professor Catherine Grant, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Dr Tobias Harris,  Associate Research Fellowship  Tobias W. Harris is an Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. His research interests include James Joyce, Flann O’Brien, critical theory and technology. He has published essays in edited collections on Flann O'Brien by Cork University Press and in the journals Estudios Irlandeses and Modernist Cultures . Tobias is the winner of the ‘Best Essay-Length Study on a Brian O’Nolan Theme (2015–16)’ prize for an essay published in The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies . As well as a running his podcast, Radio Myles, he is currently working on a monograph about Flann O’Brien and the European avant-garde.
• Dr Hallvard Haug, Associate Research Fellowship
• Dr Sophie Hope, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Dr Chris Horrie, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Dr Paul Ingram,  Associate Research Fellowship
• Dr Robyn Jakeman,  Associate Research Fellowship
• Dr Simon Jarrett, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Professor Adam Jaworski, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Professor Kyoung Hee Joung, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Professor Douglas Kerr,  Honorary Research Fellowship
• Dr Janette Leaf, Honorary Research Fellowship  Dr Janette Leaf’s interdisciplinary research focuses on fin-de-siècle Gothic; the Weird; Neo-Victorianism; Cultural Entomology; Egyptomania; Redheads; and Ghost Ships. She has published in Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies and Victorian Popular Fictions , and online for The British Society for Literature and Science and Birkbeck Environmental Humanities. She is writing chapters on “Spectral Insects” and “Angry Redheads” for edited collections, and a monograph on Insect Imagery. She co-edited Crawling Horror: Creeping Tales of the Insect Weird (British Library Publishing, 2021). She read English at Newnham; holds Masters from the University of Cambridge and University of Hertfordshire; and a PhD from Birkbeck.
• Professor Michael Lewis,  Honorary Research Fellowship
• Mr Brian Logan,  Honorary Research Fellowship
• Professor Ana Laura Lopez de la Torre, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Ms Elizabeth Lynch, Honorary Research Fellowship  works with artists, organisations and communities as a strategic advisor and researcher. She is interested in arts and science collaborations, youth arts, creative ageing practices and in making cultural democracy happen. Chair of Theatre-Rites, Co-Chair Creative Ageing: Development & Agency, Trustee for I Am Irish, What Next UK Leadership Group.
• Dr James Machin,  Honorary Research Fellowship
• Ms Ingrid Mackinnon , Honorary Research Fellowship, Ingrid is a movement director, choreographer and intimacy. She has recently worked with theatre companies such as Regents Park, Bristol Old Vic, Donmar, Almeida, Stratford East and National Theatre. In 2021, she won a Black British Theatre Award for best choreography for her work on Romeo & Juliet at Regents Park Open Air Theatre. She also sits on the Board of Trustees for Dancers Career Development, a charity which supports dancers through personal and professional change. Her research is focused on the Black moving body and embodied knowledge. 
• Dr Bronwen Martin, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Mr Phillip McMahon, Honorary Research Fellowship  Phillip McMahon is a playwright and theatre director based between Dublin and London. His work has shown at The Abbey and The Gate Theatres in Dublin; The National Theatre, London; and venues around the world. His most recent play, Once Before I Go has recently been added to Ireland's Leaving Certificate syllabus. He is co-founder and co-director of Irish theatre juggernauts, THISISPOPBABY.
• Professor Mandy Merck, Honorary Research Fellowship  Mandy Merck   is Professor Emerita of Media Arts at Royal Holloway and an Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck 2023-4. Her last book was Cinema’s Melodramatic Celebrity: Film, Fame and Personal Worth . Her next is provisionally titled Downsizing: Film and the Miniature.
• Dr Sharona Moskowitz, Associate Research Fellowship
• Dr Jeremy Newton,  Honorary Research Fellowship  Jeremy Newton completed his PhD in Nineteenth-Century Theatre and Culture at Birkbeck in May 2022. His thesis dealt with the works of the forgotten Victorian playwright Henry Arthur Jones, and offered a reappraisal of his importance in the history of English drama. Jeremy’s first degree was in English and American Literature at the University of Warwick, and he also has Masters degrees from the Shakespeare Institute (University of Birmingham) and from the University of Oxford. Jeremy is a regular speaker at conferences on Victorian theatre and culture.
• Dr Sean O'Brien,  Honorary Research Fellowship
• Dr Louise Owen, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Ms Diane Page, Honorary Research Fellowship   Diane is an award-winning theatre director, winning the 2021 JMK Award for her production of Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act staged at the Orange Tree Theatre. Training: MFA Theatre Directing (Birkbeck University), BA Theatre and Drama Studies (First Class. Hons, Birkbeck University). Theatre as Director; The Tempest (Shakespeare’s Globe), Yellowman (Orange Tree Theatre), Julius Caesar (Shakespeare’s Globe), Lost and Found (Royal Opera House), Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act (Orange Tree Theatre), Out West (Co- director, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre).
• Ms Deborah Pearson, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Professor Martha Pennington, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Professor Lance Pettitt, Associate Research Fellowship
• Dr Flora Pitrolo, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Professor Zoe Playdon,  Honorary Research Fellowship
• Professor Michael Robertson,  Honorary Research Fellowship  is Professor Emeritus of English at The College of New Jersey. He received the BA from Stanford, the MA from Columbia, and the PhD from Princeton. He is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships and author of three award-winning books on nineteenth-century literature and culture: The Last Utopians (Princeton UP, 2018), Worshipping Walt: The Whitman Disciples (Princeton UP, 2008), and Stephen Crane, Journalism, and the Making of Modern American Literature (Columbia UP, 1997). He is writing a biography of the artist, writer and socialist William Morris.
• Dr Louise Rolland, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Dr Emma Sandon, Honorary Research Fellowship  My research focus is on early British film and television history, British colonial film and photography and African film history. I am Co-I on the AHRC funded Colonial Reels: Histories and Afterlives of Colonial Film Collections , 2024 – 2027, and was on the core management team of the Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire project. I am a Director of the J une Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive , a Research Associate at the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative at the University of Cape Town, and a steering group of the Women’s Film and Television History Network (UK and Ireland).
• Dr Henghameh Saroukhani,  Honorary Research Fellowship
• Dr Justin Schlosberg, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Dr Sue Short, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Dr Sarah Sigal, Honorary Research Fellowship  Originally from Chicago and based in London, Sarah Sigal is a freelance writer, dramaturg, director and researcher working across new writing, devising, site-specific theatre, film and fiction. She has taught at numerous British universities and adapted her monograph Writing in Collaborative Theatre-Making (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) from her PhD. She is a Dramaturgs’ Network Advisory Board Member and has recently published her first novel The Socialite Spy (Lume Books, 2023).
• Mr Steven Spencer,  Honorary Research Fellowship  Steven Spencer is an Honorary Research Fellow in Birkbeck’s Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies. He holds an MA in History (Canterbury Christ Church University, 2005) and a Graduate Diploma in Archives and Records Management (UCL, 2008). He is Director of The Salvation Army International Heritage Centre and his research focuses on the temperance movement, periodicals and architecture, which has been published in Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, Chapels Society Journal and Twentieth Century Architecture .
• Dr Robert Stearn, Associate Research Fellowship
• Dr Alda Terracciano, Honorary Research Fellowship
• Dr Michael Warren,  Honorary Research Fellowship
• Professor Jo Winning,  Honorary Research Fellowship  Jo is Professor of Modern Literature and Critical Theory, and Head of School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Melbourne. She has published widely on 20th-century and 21st-century literature, culture, theory and practice, with particular focus on modernism and the avant-garde. She also researches in the field of medical humanities, examining the relations between illness, language and patient subjectivity, and the interface between critical theory in the humanities and clinical practice in medicine. Jo was at Birkbeck from 2003-2023, in the Department of English, Theatre and Creative Writing. She was Assistant Dean for Equalities (2017-21) and College Dean (2021-23).
• Dr Kit Yee Wong, Associate Research Fellowship
• Dr Jian Xu, Associate Research Fellowship

Associate lecturers 

• Every year, we are joined by Associate Lecturers who engage with all of our different courses and subjects. These lecturers bring an impressive breadth of expertise and experience as well as a passion for their subject to their teaching, and this leads to a dynamic learning experience.
• John Airlie , Associate Lecturer in Film Studies
• Dr Ambra Anelotti,  Associate Lecturer
• Nadine Buchmann  (German)
• Dr Daniela Cerimonia  (Italian)
• Alexandra Claridge,  Associate Lecturer
• Karen Christopher,  Associate Lecturer
• Kirsten Cooke , Associate Lecturer
• David Crombie, Associate Lecturer in Marketing
• Finn Daniels-Yeomans, Associate Lecturer in Film Studies
• Bartek Dziadosz , Associate Lecturer in Film Studies
• Helen de Witt , Associate Lecturer in Film Studies
• Amy Faulkner,  Associate Lecturer
• Dr Damian Fitzpatrick  (Applied Linguistics)
• Nicola Gaughan , Associate Lecturer
• Michael Harrigan (French)
• Henriette Korthals Altes  (French)
• Michaela Knowles Barron  (German)
• Dr Noriko Inagaki  (Japanese)
• Yoko Kagawa  (Japanese)
• Junko Kinukawa  (Japanese)
• Anna Maguire , Associate Lecturer in Screenwriting
• Colm McAuliffe, Associate Lecturer in Film Studies
• Annika Meyer (German)
• Matthew Morgan , Associate Lecturer
• Bea Moyes, Associate Lecturer
• Joseph Muller, Associate Lecturer
• Tanya Nash , Associate Lecturer in Screenwriting
• Iain Mchardy Overton , Associate Lecturer
• Ayesha Owusu-Barnaby, Associate Lecturer
• Christina Parte  (German)
• Lucia Llano Puertas (French)
• Inês Rebelo , Associate Lecturer in Digital Media Design
• Hannah Rees,  Associate Lecturer
• Dr Oscar Salgado Suarez  (Spanish)
• Paschalla Sharpe,  Associate Lecturer
• Michela Valmori,  Associate Lecturer
• Merel Veldhuizen,  Associate Lecturer
• Helen Wee, Associate Lecturer
• Ken Williams , Associate Lecturer in Screenwriting
• Noriko Yamasaki  (Japanese)

Senior practitioner fellow

• Dr Beverley Costa Dr Beverley Costa set up Mothertongue, a multi-ethnic counselling service (2000-2018), and in 2009 she created a pool of mental health interpreters within Mothertongue. She has also formed the national Bilingual Therapist and Mental Health Interpreter Forum, the Colleagues Across Borders project, and The Pásalo Project . With Professor Jean-Marc Dewaele, she won the 2013 British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, Equality and Diversity Research Award. Beverley has delivered training and supervision to statutory and voluntary sector health and social care organisations. She received funding from the National Lottery and the Arts Council to produce two anthologies of interpreters’ stories and a play about a couple in a cross-language relationship, for the Soho Theatre, London. She co-founded the performance group of interpreters, Around the Well, in 2018. In 2020, she received funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation to create an e-learning resource on multilingualism and mental health . Her book Other Tongues - psychological therapies in a multilingual world was published in 2020 by PCCS Books. Email Beverley Costa

Study skills and Learning support advisor 

• Kerry Bannister and Joy Igiebor are Learning Development Tutors for students in the School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication. They can advise on a range of study skills, including academic reading and writing, critical thinking, and referencing. For a one-to-one appointment with either Joy or Kerry, please email us or book via the appointment form on the School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication Study Skills Moodle page .

Creative Writing

Creative Writing at Winchester offers you the opportunity to evaluate and improve your creative writing in a dynamic, supportive environment. The programme is taught by professional writers and highly experienced practitioner-academics in Creative Writing, with a particular focus on fiction and literary non-fiction. There are opportunities to meet editors and published writers and, as your knowledge of the publishing industry expands, find out where your work fits within the market.

Course overview

You study a diverse range of fiction and narrative non-fiction by acclaimed contemporary writers, which allows you to explore different styles and genres including fantasy, crime, historical fiction and literary fiction and gain a critical foundation for your own writing while increasing your knowledge of the publishing world. Throughout the course, you create new work and discuss it in a supportive group of peers alongside your tutor as you redraft and refine. The structure of the programme enables you to experiment from week to week, hone your craft and develop complete short stories as well as engage with the demands of longer-form prose.

In the first semester you will take modules in contemporary fiction and literary non-fiction, and also develop a project that addresses ways in which writers engage with community audiences. The second semester focuses on genre fiction and preparation for your Independent Study project, which is a substantial creative submission of 20-25,000 words written over the summer months. This could be the first part of a novel, a collection of short fiction, the opening to a work of literary non-fiction or a hybrid submission, completed with tutor support.

What you need to know

Course start date.

On campus, Winchester

Course length

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

Apply online

Typical offer

A first or second-class honours degree

From £9,550 pa

Course features

Refine your writing across a range of styles and genres

Understand where your work fits in the current publishing world

Be inspired and encouraged by guest writers and editors

Course details

Suitable for applicants from:.

UK, EU, World

Learning and teaching

Teaching takes place:  Evenings

Start date:  September

The academic staff are professional novelists, scriptwriters, poets and writers of creative non-fiction, as well as cultural critics and playwrights. They are supported by guest writers, editors and literary agents. This course has long enjoyed a vibrant programme of visiting speakers. 

Students have the opportunity to develop their creative work, give and receive feedback in weekly workshops, and work with lecturers who are all practitioners. 

Location 

Taught elements of the course take place on campus in Winchester.

Our validated courses may adopt a range of means of assessing your learning. An indicative, and not necessarily comprehensive, list of assessment types you might encounter includes essays, portfolios, supervised independent work, presentations, written exams, or practical performances.

Each module typically comes with a creative writing assignment, or an assignment plus rationale (reflective piece) of approximately 4,000 words in total.

Students undertake a Dissertation between 20,000-25,000 words as part of their independent study with full tutorial support.

We ensure all students have an equal opportunity to achieve module learning outcomes. As such, where appropriate and necessary, students with recognised disabilities may have alternative assignments set that continue to test how successfully they have met the module's learning outcomes. Further details on assessment types used on the course you are interested in can be found on the course page, by attending an Open Day or Open Evening, or contacting our teaching staff.

We are committed to providing timely and appropriate feedback to you on your academic progress and achievement in order to enable you to reflect on your progress and plan your academic and skills development effectively. You are also encouraged to seek additional feedback from your course tutors.

Please note the modules listed are correct at the time of publishing. The University cannot guarantee the availability of all modules listed and modules may be subject to change. The University will notify applicants of any changes made to the core modules listed. For further information please refer to winchester.ac.uk/termsandconditions

This module allows students to explore a range of different non-fiction genres, including memoir, Travel Writing, and reportage. In each case they will contemplate the ethical dilemmas of so doing, and the psychological dimensions of writing about their own lives and the lives of others. They will consider issues such as perspective, narrative, politics, audience, and editing. The module will focus upon how to use language to achieve certain effects. Much of the work will occur in practical workshops, working towards the submission for assessment of a specific piece prose non-fiction and an essay exploring the world of non-fiction writing (including the media) in relation to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

This module aims to help students develop their own practice as writers of fiction, through a consideration of the form and techniques used by published writers. It will consider plotting and the structuring of texts, as well as the subtleties of characterisation, dialogue and place in short and longer fiction. The module will analyse a selection of works, paying particular attention to more recent work and considering texts that range from Booker and Pulitzer prize winners to mass-market fictions; experimental odysseys to more sentimental journeys. Students will be encouraged to consider how these fictions work as texts, how they develop character, plot story, position the reader etc., and how they relate to audiences.

Students will work individually and in groups to create/develop stories and structures, characters and scenes for or from their own fictions. This module will be the beginning of their journey towards their Independent Study.

This module is designed to enable students to become a successful writer within a community, whether that is through residencies or works celebrating or contributing to a particular neighbourhood, community or group. This may involve responding creatively with site-specific works within an urban or rural environment; working with an online community, or the temporary ‘community’ of a festival; involvement in a collaborative community-based art project; participation in or production of an anthology or collection for publication. Whatever the platform or opportunity – whether it is an existing one that is applied for, or created in a pro-active way – the emphasis here is on community engagement, widening participation, and positive impact. 

This module allows the students to explore a variety of fictional genres, including but not limited to: Horror, Sci Fi/Fantasy, Crime, and Historical Fiction. By looking at texts from leading authors in each field, students will learn about genre conventions in relation to plot, character, and setting, and will use these skills to write a creative piece of their own in a chosen genre. Alongside the creative elements of the module, students will also critically examine genre fiction, with particular attention being paid to the roles of gender and race.

This module is designed to prepare students for the rigour of writing a longer-form creative piece. Issues of structure, sub-plotting, narrative drive, character development and ‘voice’ are considered within the context of the student’s own ideas for their Independent Study and similarly targeted works of contemporary fiction or the specific genre they have chosen. The relationship between experimentation/originality and commercial imperatives/’what has gone before’ will be considered to enable students to locate their own work more fully within current socio-cultural contexts, while workshops and group discussion deepen each student’s interrogation of their own processes and challenge habitual modes of working.

The Independent Study is the culmination of the MA Creative Writing. Students will write, re-write and edit an extended creative piece, 20,000 to 25,000 words of a novel, or a script or poetry collection or work of creative non-fiction to be agreed by the Programme Leader and supervising tutor. They will realise ideas first developed in the Independent Study Preparation module and work under the expert guidance of a supervisor but with an emphasis on self-directed research and writing. The overall outcome will be a demonstration of the student’s creative integrity, confidence and accomplishment in authorship.

Entry requirements

Normally a first or second-class Honours degree or professional experience in the area of study. Applicants are required to submit a sample of their creative writing. 

Continuing students who have achieved a first or upper second-class degree in BA Creative Writing or BA Creative & Professional Writing at the University of Winchester are not required to submit a sample of their creative writing.

If English is not your first language: IELTS 7.0 overall with a minimum of 7.0 in writing or equivalent. 

Applications need to be submitted before the published deadline on our website. Late applications can be accepted throughout the remainder of the application year, for more information see our How to apply (Postgraduate) section.

If you are living outside of the UK or Europe, you can find out more about how to join this course by emailing our International Recruitment Team at  [email protected] .

2025/2026 Course Tuition Fees 

Additional tuition fee information

If you are a UK student starting your degree in January / September 2025, the first year will cost you £9,550**.

If finance is a worry for you, we are here to help. Take a look at the range of support we have on offer. This is a great investment you are making in your future, so make sure you know what is on offer to support you.

**The University of Winchester will charge the maximum approved tuition fee per year.

Additional costs

As one of our students all of your teaching and assessments are included in your tuition fees, including, lectures/guest lectures and tutorials, seminars, laboratory sessions and specialist teaching facilities. You will also have access to a wide range of student support and IT services.

SCHOLARSHIPS, BURSARIES AND AWARDS

We have a variety of scholarship and bursaries available to support you financially with the cost of your course. To see if you’re eligible, please see our Scholarships and Awards .

CAREER PROSPECTS

Many graduates of the course have obtained publishing contracts, while others work in other aspects of publishing, or in teaching, media, the arts and business.

“The MSc programmes at Winchester provide you with an excellent foundation from which to pursue your career.” Steve - MSc Graduate UWin Student Blog

How to Apply for this course

We want your application process to be as simple as possible. Find out everything you need to know about the application process, how to apply, your offer and how to secure your place.

Dr Judith Heneghan

Dr Judith Heneghan is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, a novelist and the former Director of the Winchester Writers' Festival.

View our Related Courses in English, Creative Writing and Journalism

Take a look at all our courses within the subject areas of English, Creative Writing and Journalism

Information for International Students

Our International students come from all over the world and we understand that some things are a little different when applying and then arriving at the University. We have therefore provided a list of some of the countries we work in with specific information included on Entry Requirements, Funding Opportunities, Visas and other useful information.

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