A style of your own
As a student of creative writing you join a lively, diverse community committed to high-quality literary fiction and exciting, experimental contemporary poetry. We give you lots of opportunities to practise, through workshops, writing exercises and assignments. We understand that the most ambitious work takes time and we support you as you develop your own style.
Our research culture
Our ‘practice as research’ thread of creative writing PhD programmes is a distinctive feature of our research culture. You explore original, contemporary research questions, ultimately producing a novel, a volume of poetry or a non-fiction narrative.
You are supported by a supervisory team of writers which includes:
- Scarlett Thomas (The End of Mr. Y, Our Tragic Universe and the children’s books Dragon’s Green and The Chosen One)
- Amy Sackville, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys prize, whose latest novel Painter to the King was described as ‘one of the finest historical novels of recent years’ in The Guardian
- Simon Smith, a poet who has published nine collections, including Half a Dozen Just Like You and the first translation into English of the work of the Roman poet Catullus.
Creative community
We host literary events including a weekly reading series, which has welcomed authors such as Lionel Shriver and David Mitchell and poets including Denise Riley and Christopher Reid. We also invite publishing industry professionals to the School, who offer advice on how best to submit your work to publishers, how to approach literary agents and information about editorial roles within publishing.
All our creative writing students are invited to attend these events and we also host events where students are encouraged to share their own work.
