QW38: English Literature with Creative Writing

We are excited to welcome you to our School

We are so happy that you have chosen us as a place to study and hone your writing craft. Our creative writing group are eagerly looking forward to working with you. 

They include two winners of the T.S Eliot Prize, and winners of the Somerset Maugham Award, the Gordon Burn Prize, and nominees for BAFTA and Evening Standard Awards. So you will be learning from, and working with, some of the best creative artists we have.

On this page you will find:

• Some tips for developing your craft as a creative writer;
• Information about what you can do on each year of your degree;
• What academic support is available to help you develop your writing and craft;
• What opportunities there are to hear from professional writers and to showcase your own work;
• Supports you may need if you have a health condition or caring responsibilities that might impact on your degree.

 

As creative artists, we hope you will enjoy this beautiful short film made by the BAFTA and Sundance-nominated Tina Gharavi. Tina teaches documentary film-making and scriptwriting on your degree. She describes it as a 'visual poem' and it is based on 'Two Lighthouses' by the North East poet, Julia Darling. 

"Two Lighthouses"

I would like us to live like two lighthouses
at the mouth of a river, each with her own lamp.

We could see each other across the water,
which would be dangerous, and uncrossable.

I could watch your shape, your warm shadow,
moving in the upper rooms. We would have jokes.

Jokes that were only ours, signs and secrets,
flares on birthdays, a rocket at Christmas.

Clouds would be cities, we would look for omens,
and learn the impossible language of birds.

We would meet, of course, in cinemas, cafes,
but then, we would return to our towers,

knowing the other was the light on the water,
a beam of alignment. It would never be broken.

Julia Darling
from Apology for Absence (2005)

Writing Creatively

Margaret Atwood has written that: These are the three questions most often posed to writers, both by readers and by themselves. Who are you writing for? Why do you do it? Where does it come from?

(Atwood, Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002), p. xix)

 

These are important questions you will often ask yourself as you explore, develop and hone your craft. It helps a lot to read other writers and there are some tips on what to read in our English Literature section. 

You will develop your own answers to all of these questions but our best advice to help you with "where does it come from?"  is to keep a notebook.

As you read and think and remember, write down the ideas, images, metaphors, and turns of phrases that come to your mind. Don’t put pressure on yourself to polish these – just write down any thought or turn of phrase that strikes you as interesting, evocative, or having energy.  

Keeping a notebook like this – a wordhoard – will give you a rich source of prompts for your own writing.

 

What kinds of modules do I take in first year and beyond?

When you study Creative Writing here, you learn from working playwrights, film-makers, novelists and poets. This means there is a strong focus on working with you as an individual to shape and craft your ideas.

In your first year, you have two core creative writing modules – Introduction to Creative Writing which introduces you to writing prose and poetry, and Drama, Theatre and Performance which introduces you to playwriting.

In second year, your Creative Practice module teaches you the craft of writing across a range of modes. In the second half of the year you have a choice between four specialist workshops in prose, poetry, playwriting or screenwriting. Usually you choose one of these four but some students do select two. 

In third year, you will develop your final creative pieces for your dissertation. You work one-to-one with your supervisor to shape and develop your work, whether it is a collection of poems, part of a novel, a play or a film script. If you are interested in filmmaking this is the year in which you usually can take a documentary film-making module and learn the art of making and editing a short film. 

When choosing your Literature modules, you should look out for modules that offer a creative piece as an assessment option, such as first year's Transformations, which studies the art of adaptation, and invites you to compose your own adaptation of, or response to, a major canonical work. 

Academic Support for Students

If you need extra support to ensure you can fulfil your potential at university, we have services and people you can draw on throughout your degree here. 

All students can avail of two Fellows of the Royal Literary Fund who are professional writers based in the School of English. The RLF fellows are advisors dedicated to developing your writing. You can email them and have one-to-one appointments where you can develop and refine your writing style and argumentation. Students (and staff) have found their guidance extremely helpful in shaping their writing. You will also receive dedicated academic support from personal tutors and library staff in addition to the advice, guidance and support of your lecturers and seminar leaders.

The Library also offers a huge range of resources you can explore at your own pace, drop-in sessions, and advice on how best to use all the academic resources available to you. 

 

Our Royal Literary Fund Fellows

See our range of academic supports including a full academic skills set.

Who will I work with? What could I achieve?

• Hear work from undergraduates at the launch of our annual anthology of the best creative writing from our graduating year.
• Watch the trailer for Tina Gharavi’s Queen Cleopatra (Netflix).
• Read an interview with Zoe Cooper about her latest play  A Song for Ella Grey.
• Hear our Professor of Creative Writing, Lars Iyer, read from his latest novel My Weil and read this Washington Post interview.
• Listen to our Professors of Poetry, Sinead Morrissey and Jake Polley reading their work.
• Join the Creative Writing Society (CreSoc) and meet creative writers from across the university. They run regular writing sessions and social events.

 

We know that some students experience extra challenges when undertaking their degree

If you have a medical condition or are diagnosed with one during your degree, have caring responsibilities for adults or children, or experience financial or other challenges, a degree can be harder to undertake. Here we have information and advice on how to access the academic and pastoral support you need. 

We have our own dedicated support for our students. Our colleague, Kirsty Robson, is a trained social worker and now works to guide and advise our students.

‘My name is Kirsty, and I am the dedicated Student Wellbeing Advisor for SELLL students. My role as the Student Wellbeing Advisor is to act as a point of contact within the School, to support students in accessing appropriate support and resources to improve and maintain their personal wellbeing. This can be in relation to a wide range of circumstances and difficulties.

I offer confidential, one-to-one appointments, a listening ear, advice and support. I can make referrals to more specialised teams within the University, such as Counselling, Finance, and Disability Support.'

Kirsty is part of the  University's wider Student Health and Wellbeing Services team who offer a wide range of specialised support to students regarding their personal wellbeing. Students can refer themselves directly to that team or Kirsty can support you to connect with them.

You will also be assigned a Personal Tutor at the beginning of the academic year whom you will meet in induction week. Your Personal Tutor is the first port-of-call for any academic or pastoral issues. We also have a First Year Senior Tutor whose role it is to support you in your transition from secondary school to university. You will also get a Peer Mentor in your first week of university who will be a second or third-year student who can offer advice from a student perspective.