phd in creative writing uea

Application deadline: December 1

The program provides dual emphasis in literature and creative writing, culminating in the dissertation, which combines critical analysis with creative originality. Roughly half of the dissertation is based on original research, that is to say, research contributing to knowledge which enriches or changes the field. Doctoral candidates not only read and write texts as finished products of scholarship in researching their creative work’s literary and historical milieu, but also consider the text as writers create it, then compose texts as writers, a process that goes to the source of the study of literature and of literature itself. This integration of literature and creative writing is reflected in the structure of the dissertation, which introduces the creative work within a context of critical inquiry, bringing together the examination and embodiment of the literary act, a new model of scholarship and creative innovation.

PhD candidates in literature and creative writing must pass the same departmental screening examination taken by PhD candidates in Literature who are not working in the area of creative writing. The exam tests students in various areas of emphasis (British literature, American literature, poetry, prose, etc.) and literature and historical periods as a measure of their preparedness to undertake independent research.

The literature and creative writing student takes 64 units in all, 32 in literature, 24 in creative writing workshops and seminars and 8 units of dissertation studies credits.

Admission Requirements

Requirements for admission to study in the department of English include: scores satisfactory to the department in both the verbal and quantitative General Test and the literature Subject Test of the Graduate Record Examinations; evidence of experience and ability in creative writing, as demonstrated by a creative writing sample; evidence of competence in writing English and interpreting English literature, as demonstrated by a sample of written work by the applicant on literary subjects; a satisfactory written statement by the applicant of aims and interests in graduate work; letters of recommendation from at least three college instructors; and grades satisfactory to the department earned by the applicant at other institutions. This program will accept applicants with BA degrees or transfer students with an MA or MFA in creative writing.

Degree Requirements

These degrees are under the jurisdiction of the Graduate School. Refer to the Graduate School    section of this catalogue for general regulations. All courses applied toward the degrees must be courses accepted by the Graduate School.

Graduate Curriculum and Unit Requirements

The graduate curriculum is divided into 500-level foundation courses and 600-level advanced courses. The 500-level courses offer fundamental work in theory and in the history of British and American literatures and cultures. The 600-level courses feature advanced studies in theory, creative writing seminars and workshops and special topics. Although students will normally take 500-level courses leading up to the screening procedure (see Screening Procedure) and 600-level courses thereafter, students after consultation with their advisers may be permitted to take 600-level courses in the first semester of their graduate training.

The student’s course work must total at least 64 units. No more than eight units of 794 Doctoral Dissertation and no more than four units of 790 Research may count toward the 64 units. A maximum of 12 transfer units, approved by the graduate director, is allowed toward the 64 units minimum required by the PhD (See Transfer of Course Work .)

The student will be assigned a faculty mentor in his or her first semester in the graduate program and will be encouraged in subsequent semesters to begin putting together an informal qualifying exam committee. The makeup of the qualifying exam committee may change as the interests of the student change. The faculty mentor and informal qualifying exam committee will assist the student in planning a program of study appropriate to the student’s interests leading to the screening procedure.

Screening Procedure

At the end of the student’s fourth semester (second semester for students who enter with an MA or MFA degree or near equivalent), the student will sit for a departmental examination, which is part of a comprehensive screening procedure. Rarely, and only with the approval of the graduate director and the graduate committee, will a student be allowed to postpone the departmental examination and the screening procedure, and then only for one year. Prior to the screening procedure, the student will be allowed to take a maximum of four units of independent study ( ENGL 590   ), and that independent study will normally be used to prepare for the departmental examination; all other units must be in the 500- or 600-level seminar.

Qualifying Exam Committee

Immediately following successful completion of the screening procedure, the student will nominate formally a five-member qualifying exam committee, including a chair and three other members from the English Department who are in the student’s areas of interest and an outside member from another PhD-granting department. The committee must be in place and approved by the Graduate School at the time the student chooses a dissertation topic, writes the dissertation prospectus and schedules a qualifying examination.

Qualifying Examination

Following completion of course work, the student must sit for a qualifying examination, at a time mutually agreed upon by the student and the qualifying exam committee.

This is a field examination given in the subject of the student’s proposed dissertation research. No less than one month before the qualifying examination, the student will submit to the qualifying exam committee a dissertation prospectus. The prospectus, it is understood, will not be a polished dissertation proposal, but at a minimum it should display a strong knowledge of the subject, much of the relevant secondary material and other contexts crucial to the writing of the dissertation, and should present a workable plan of attack as well as a reasonably sophisticated understanding of the theoretical assumptions involved in the subject.

The qualifying examination will consist of both written and oral portions with special emphasis areas in creative writing. It will focus on the dissertation area and its contexts with the specific format and content of the examination being negotiated among the student and all members of the examination committee. Upon successful completion of the qualifying examination the student proceeds to the writing of the doctoral dissertation.

Dissertation

The final stage of the program is the submission of a creative dissertation that makes an original, substantial and publishable contribution to creative literature: a book of poems, a novel, a collection of short stories.

Foreign Language

PhD students are required to demonstrate proficiency in at least one foreign language. This may be demonstrated by completing a course in the literature of that language at the 400 or 500 level (with a grade of B [3.0] or better) or by passing a foreign language exam that tests proficiency in reading comprehension and translation. PhD students may also be required to demonstrate proficiency in additional languages, as determined by the qualifying exam committee in view of the student’s proposed field of research.

Make the right Clearing call

BA (Hons) Drama and Creative Writing

Key Details

Book your Clearing campus visit

We are pleased to offer pre-booked guided tours during the Clearing period to give you the opportunity to get a real feel for our campus and life at UEA.

Why you should choose us

Course overview.

This unique degree unites UEA’s strengths in creative writing and in drama to give you an exhilarating immersion in writing and performance. 

You will have the opportunity to study all kinds of creative writing, with a particular focus on writing for theatre, cinema, television, and radio. Alongside this, you'll be exploring the contemporary practice, criticism, and history of dramatic writing and performance. Your writing will be enriched by an awareness of theatrical and literary traditions from around the globe. 

You’ll take practical drama modules, and you’ll have full access to our professionally equipped 200-seat Drama Studio. This comprehensive grounding in acting, directing, and all other aspects of stagecraft will enable you to graduate from this drama and creative writing degree as a writer with an instinctive feel for the world of theatre and performing arts.  

You'll gain a thorough grounding in writing for stage and screen, which will be complemented by opportunities to develop your skills in non-dramatic writing, too. Your stage and screen writing will be improved by getting to grips with the ins-and-outs of theatrical performance, while you become better able to analyse dramatic language by writing it yourself.  

At the heart of your BA Drama and Creative writing degree are scriptwriting masterclasses with practising writers, where you’ll discover the formats, conventions, and techniques of writing for different  dramatic genres and media. You’ll learn by writing scenes and short scripts, offering critiques of each other’s work, and by working closely with other Drama students.  

In your second and third years, you'll be able to develop your craft as a writer by taking workshops in prose or poetry, working closely with our world-famous creative writing colleagues.    

Throughout your degree, you will gain hands-on experience by participating in production and practical project work. You’ll have the keys to our professionally equipped 200-seat Drama Studio, giving you the chance to control everything in your own productions. You’ll also be able to pursue performance and placement opportunities, including a creative industries internship in your second year, which involves a work placement in a drama-producing organisation or environment.  

At UEA, you’ll encounter an astonishing array of drama, theatre and performance. You’ll engage with major theoretical approaches, actor- and director-training, and techniques for creating and writing your own work. You’ll examine the politics of theatre and performance and its use by the State, by political activists and by theatre and performance practitioners – to solidify or challenge structures of power. You’ll also discover the cutting-edge theatre companies that are shaping the contemporary performance landscape. 

You’ll benefit from our highly regarded student run Minotaur Theatre Company, which gives you the chance to gain additional performance, technical and scriptwriting experience, as well as exciting chances to share your writing at events such as New Writing Live . Find out more about life in the School of Literature, Drama, and Creative Writing on our Instagram @uealdc . 

Placement Year and Study Abroad

You have the option to apply to study abroad for one semester of your second year. Studying abroad is a wonderfully enriching life experience – you will develop confidence and adaptability, and will have the chance to deepen your understanding of drama and writing while learning about another culture. At UEA, you will also be surrounded throughout your degree by the many students we welcome from around the world to study with us.  

For further details, visit the  Study Abroad section  of our website.  

Study and Modules

Your first year sets up a conversation between writing, doing, and thinking, which continues throughout your degree. You’ll experiment with a wealth of new techniques in dramatic writing while also taking advantage of developmental acting exercises. In addition, you'll start to hone your creative writing across a range of literary forms, as well as develop your performance and technical skills further. You’ll then encounter rich traditions of dramatic writing, exploring how contemporary writers are reimagining or contesting older traditions

Compulsory Modules

Scriptwriting and performance, introduction to world dramatic literatures, applied drama and technical skills, theatre: theory and performance, postwar british drama, creative writing: beginnings.

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring, review and update of modules. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes and their constituent modules, the University will endeavour to consult with students and others. It is also possible that the University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. In some cases optional modules can have limited places available and so you may be asked to make additional module choices in the event you do not gain a place on your first choice. Where this is the case, the University will inform students.

Teaching and Learning

Teaching  

You'll begin your development as a writer in workshops focussed on scriptwriting and other literary forms led by a member of our world-famous creative writing team. Your Drama tutors combine a wealth of practical experience in all kinds of performance with deep academic knowledge of the history, theory, and contemporary practice of theatre. Practical workshops in technical theatre and performance will underpin your development on the stage. You'll get to grips with plays and performance in drama seminars – where you might find yourself workshopping parts for performance in order better to understand them!  

Independent Learning 

You'll spend time doing everything from reading plays and writing your own scripts to rehearsing parts for the stage, at the same time as benefitting from student-run theatre company, Minotaur, where you can gain even more experience in practical performance or get a chance to turn your own original scripts into productions. 

Assessment  

Our BA Drama and Creative Writing modules don’t have written exams (apart from one technical theatre test). As a creative writer, in the first year you'll be led through a series of writing exercises and discussions to help you produce a short, complete script as well as short pieces of prose and poetry. The technical theatre skills you're developing will be assessed through tasks such as making a 3D model of a set, designing a costume, or placing mics on a soundstage. Your performance work will be graded, and so will the rehearsals for your end-of-year production, capturing your development in the round. 

Feedback  

You're given constant feedback on your practical work, helping you to deepen your craft as a performer. You'll receive feedback on your writing from your tutors and your peers in workshops. Feedback on assessed work will be returned within 20 working days (after it has been carefully marked and moderated). As your first year does not count toward your overall degree result, it's the perfect moment to experiment and take risks.  

In your second year, you’ll extend and refine your scriptwriting skills, learning how to write for stage, radio, film, and television. Alongside this, you’ll have an opportunity to tackle poetry or prose writing in a dedicated workshop, and an array of opportunities for practical dramatic work. For example, you can take an internship, engage in outreach work, take modules to build your performance skills for stage and screen, or take innovative modules on directing or devising. You can also choose to study journalism or publishing, or choose modules in literary, film or cultural criticism.

Optional A Modules

Drama outreach project, technical theatre, performance skills: the actor and the text, devised performance, feminist theatres, practical film making and performance, optional b modules, writing in the world: placements, podcasts, creative nonfiction, scriptwriting: tv/film, creative writing: prose fiction (spr), scriptwriting: stage/audio, creative writing: prose fiction (aut), creative writing: poetry (aut), scriptwriting: screen and stage, optional c modules, victorian writing, reading and writing in elizabethan england (pre-1789), making it public: publishing, audience, & creative enterprise, literature and philosophy, european literature, critical theory and practice, contemporary fiction, reading and writing contemporary poetry, literature studies semester abroad (spring), the writing of history, medieval writing: quest, fable and romance (pre-1789), shakespeare (pre-1789), romantic transformations: 1740-1830, the short story (aut), early modern writing 1600-1740: the making of english literature (pre-1789).

Your creative work will now be taken to the next level through the 'workshopping' process (pioneered in the UK by UEA), where you'll get feedback on your writing from your peers under the direction of one of our creative writing tutors, and learn the art of offering constructive critique of your peers’ writing, too. You'll concentrate intensively on scriptwriting (for the stage, radio, TV, and film), and will also have the chance to get to grips with prose or poetry. You'll have a wealth of opportunities to make your own theatre with the support of our staff, experimenting with different directorial theories, developing skills in devising plays, discovering radical performance modes, or delving into political theatre (for example Feminist Theatre or Queer Theatre). If you choose to produce work for the screen, you'll be supported by a well-regarded independent filmmaker.  

Independent Learning  

As you make theatre and performance work with greater confidence, you'll naturally work with greater independence as both a writer and a performer. This might mean deepening your collaborations with your peers or making solo projects that showcase your development as a writer.

Your creative writing will flourish as you produce more substantial scripts for stage, radio, or screen (around 20-30 minutes in length), and, if you wish, pieces of prose (a 1250-word short story or longer 2000-word narrative), or a portfolio of poetry. You can try your hand at devised performances and write reflective pieces to understand better your own creative processes. You might write essays on books, performances or plays. You'll continue to be assessed on your practical drama work in all its forms, whether that's acting, directing, filmmaking, technical theatre, or on your collaborative work with an external organisation.  

Your creative work will be deepened by your immersion in the workshop environment, where you receive feedback from your peers and learn to give feedback on their work, an enormously valuable skill in many careers. Your practical work is constantly enriched by your drama tutors' feedback during rehearsals, and you'll continue to receive advice on 'formative' writing, too, from both your literature and drama tutors.

By your third year you will have found your voice as a playwright or screenwriter. You’ll have the chance to produce a substantial piece of writing with one-to-one support from your supervisor, which in most cases will take the form of a script for stage, screen, or radio. Alongside this you can choose from a range of options, either throwing yourself into production, pursuing an individual drama project, focusing intensively on dramatic literature (via modules on drama and literature, or contemporary drama and film), broadening out into other literary realms, taking a prose or poetry workshop, or studying creative work in the media industries.  

CREATIVE WRITING: PROSE

Creative writing dissertation (aut), writing television drama, creative writing dissertation (spr), creative writing: scriptwriting, creative writing: prose (aut), special topic in drama, drama projects, culture and performance, drama production (year 3), ghosts, haunting and spectrality, the art of murder, shakespeare's dramatic worlds (pre-1789), children's literature, the business of books (pre-1789), literature dissertation: post-1789 (spr), imaginary endings: british fiction and the apocalypse, women's writing in early-modern britain: the emergence of female authorship (pre-1789), reading modern japanese fiction: translation and canonisation, mythos: rewriting the classics (pre-1789), feminist writing, literature dissertation: post-1789 (aut), fantastic realisms (pre-1789), nervous narratives, the art of emotion: literature, writing and feeling, literature dissertation: (pre-1789) (aut), monsters, marvels and creative medieval heritage (pre-1789), the birth of the gothic: romance, revolution, empire, banned books, monsters, marvels and creative medieval heritage, literature dissertation: (pre-1789) (spr).

Your journey as a writer can be developed through a creative writing dissertation, in which you'll work one-on-one with a member of our creative writing team as you plan, develop, and write a more extended project. You can choose to spend the whole first semester of your third year working as part of a near-professional theatre company. You'll be led by a member of our core Drama teaching team and mentored by professionals in stage management, costume design, set building, movement, and marketing. Or, if you'd prefer, you can pursue a solo venture, where you'll be supervised to create an individual performance or film of your devising. 

You'll spend much of your own time writing in the forms that have come to matter to you the most. You'll either collaborate with drive and passion with your peers in the third-year production or bring together everything you've learnt across the degree by working independently on a project (supervised by a member of our Drama team or a relevant industry professional). 

In your third year, you have the opportunity to produce a substantial piece of work that truly reflects the writer you’ve become, whether that’s a 60-page script, or a collection of stories or poems. You’ll also write a reflective self-commentary on your creative process. Alternatively, you could produce a practical project, where your rehearsal and technical work will be continuously assessed by the drama tutor, and your final performance will be marked, and that mark moderated by an external examiner. You might write academic essays, reflections on your performances, or pieces of creative-critical writing, where you fuse critical with imaginative writing.  

You'll work one-on-one with a member of our creative team, receiving regular feedback on your progress. As well as constant advice on your practical drama work as it develops, you'll receive full written feedback on your work, as well as regular feedback on formative written work for all your modules. 

Entry Requirements

You are required to have Mathematics and English Language at a minimum of Grade C or Grade 4 or above at GCSE.

Applications from students whose first language is not English are welcome. We require evidence of proficiency in English (including writing, speaking, listening and reading):  

IELTS: 6.5 overall (minimum 5.5 in all components) 

We also accept a number of other English language tests. Review  our English Language Equivalencies  for a list of example qualifications that we may accept to meet this requirement.

Test dates should be within two years of the course start date. 

If you do not yet meet the English language requirements for this course, INTO UEA offer a variety of English language programmes which are designed to help you develop the English skills necessary for successful undergraduate study:  

Pre-sessional English at INTO UEA   

Academic English at INTO UEA   

Most applicants will not be called for an interview and a decision will be made via UCAS Track. However, for some applicants an interview will be requested. Where an interview is required the Admissions Service will contact you directly to arrange a time.  

We welcome applications from students who have already taken or intend to take a gap year.  We believe that a year between school and university can be of substantial benefit. You are advised to indicate your reason for wishing to defer entry on your UCAS application.  

This course is open to UK and International applicants. The annual intake is in September each year.  

Additional Information or Requirements

Extended Diploma: DDD

Diploma: DD plus B at A-level

Extended Certificate: D plus AB at A-level

Not all BTEC routes are accepted.

Special Entry Requirements

Candidates who are shortlisted will be asked to provide a sample of their creative writing:  we ask for around 5-7 pages of work, which can be on any subject and in any genre of the candidate's choice. Most choose to send a script, poetry, prose, or a mixture of all three .

If you do not meet the academic requirements for direct entry, you may be interested in one of our  Foundation Year programmes such as - 

BA English Literature with a Foundation Year  

UEA are committed to ensuring that Higher Education is accessible to all, regardless of their background or experiences. One of the ways we do this is through our contextual admissions schemes.  

We welcome and value a wide range of alternative qualifications.  If you have a qualification which is not listed here, or are taking a combination of qualifications, please contact us via Admissions Enquiries . 

International Requirements

We accept many international qualifications for entry to this course. View our International Students pages for specific information about your country. 

Admissions Policy

Our Admissions Policy applies to the admissions of all undergraduate applicants.  

Fees and Funding

Tuition Fees   

View our information for Tuition Fees .

Scholarships and Bursaries  

We are committed to ensuring that costs do not act as a barrier to those aspiring to come to a world leading university and have developed a funding package to reward those with excellent qualifications and assist those from lower income backgrounds. View our range of Scholarships for eligibility, details of how to apply and closing dates. 

Course Related Costs

Please see Additional Course Fees for details of course-related costs.  

How to Apply

Apply for this course through the  Universities and Colleges Admissions Services (UCAS ), using UCAS Hub. 

UCAS Hub is a secure online application system that allows you to apply for full-time undergraduate courses at universities and colleges in the United Kingdom.

Your application does not have to be completed all at once.  Register or sign in to UCAS  to get started. 

Once you submit your completed application, UCAS will process it and send it to your chosen universities and colleges. 

The Institution code for the University of East Anglia is  E14. 

View our guide to applying through UCAS for useful tips, key dates and further information:  

How to apply through UCAS  

Employability

After the course.

Some graduates go into careers in film, drama, radio, and scriptwriting, as writers, developers, agents, casting directors, or artistic directors of their own companies. Recent graduates from our drama degrees include the actor Matt Smith (famous for his portrayal of Doctor Who and his leading roles in The Crown and House of the Dragon), the presenter of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, Greg James, and the playwright Tom Morton-Smith (whose 2015 play Oppenheimer was performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company). For others, this degree is a stepping-stone towards careers in the arts, media, publishing, politics, charities, and NGOs, teaching, and the commercial sector. 

Our Careers Service is here to support you in launching your career by advising with CV writing, internships, and much more. Every year we run an event, Working with Words, which gives current students the chance to meet and hear from successful UEA alumni from across the creative industries.  

UEA also has its own in-house student publishing project,  Egg Box , along with many other exciting initiatives that give you opportunities to turn your love of writing and performance into a foundation for your future career.  

A degree at UEA will prepare you for a wide variety of careers. We've been ranked 1st for Job Prospects by StudentCrowd in 2022.

Examples of careers you could enter include:  

Scriptwriting  

Theatre and film  

Journalism  

Media  

Teaching  

Publishing  

Discover more on our Careers webpages.  

Drama and Creative Writing starting September 2024 for 3 years

School of Humanities

Creative Writing

You love to write, but writing is so much more than the ‘spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling’. It is a craft, an art, and every art requires patient apprenticeship, training, and professional encouragement.

Studying Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide gives you all that and more. Our world-class writers teach their craft on the basis of years of experience, award-winning publications, and hundreds of hours in the classroom. In lectures, they impart their knowledge with authority and style; and in interactive workshop seminars, they allow you to experiment, share, revise, and improve your work with a form of continuous feedback and peer review. You will learn to create skilful short stories, poems, life-writing, and creative non-fiction, and how to develop and sustain your own life-long reflective writing practices, on the basis of living examples of literary excellence. We are proud that Nobel Prize winner Prof. John JM Coetzee ( Disgrace ) has been associated with the Department for 20 years. We are passionate about our love of the craft of writing, and we want you to share in that passion by becoming the best writer you can be.

Our teaching

The Department of English, Creative Writing and Film offers a large range of undergraduate courses in Creative Writing. Our introductory first-year course in ‘the Essentials’ equips you with most of the fundamental skills you will need to pursue writing at the highest levels. At senior levels, we offer a wide range of courses: The Short Story, Contemporary Poetry, Novel Writing, Travel Writing, Script-Writing, Posthuman Writing, Editing for Writers, Political Writing, Apocalypse Fiction, and more.  Come and sample what it is like to write a literary text … and stay for the major in Creative Writing!

Our research

The Department of English and Creative Writing has a vibrant research culture, and contributes world-class monographs, research papers, and related outputs in many areas.

We welcome all inquiries to study with us at postgraduate as well as undergraduate levels in Creative Writing.

Explore the study options within the School of Humanities.

Find a researcher

Search for an expert in our database.

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University of east anglia uea: creative writing (non-fiction).

Full-Time, 1 years starts Sep 2025

**Overview**

Do you have a story to tell? A memoir you want to write? Biography? Travel? Autofiction? Consider a career as a creative non-fiction writer with an MA that gives you the best grounding possible in an exciting literary field.

This is one of the only dedicated creative non-fiction writing courses in the UK. You’ll be taught by award-winning authors who will support your development as a writer. You’ll think from day one about where you might publish your own work.

You’ll experiment with your writing and develop your skills through reading your peers’ non-fiction in workshop groups. Each week in the seminar room, with its lively, collegiate atmosphere, you’ll analyse a celebrated work of non-fiction by Joan Didion, for example, or Zadie Smith, Primo Levi or Zora Neale Hurston – to see how it’s done. In one-to-one tutorials with your supervisor, you’ll be encouraged to explore new ways of storytelling and to experiment with different subjects and voices. You’ll write a dissertation under the supervision of a faculty member; the dissertation might contain the seed of a future book.

You’ll be based in UEA’s world-famous Creative Writing department, which is part of the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing (you can follow our activities on Instagram!). You’ll also take part in Norwich’s vibrant literary culture, from regular readings and events to the well-established programme at the National Centre for Writing. You'll benefit from UEA’s connections in the publishing industry and pitch ideas for books to visiting publishers and literary agents. You’ll meet established non-fiction authors and quiz them about their craft. Recent guest speakers include Marina Warner, Olivia Laing, Julia Blackburn, Lea Ypi, and Colin Grant. At the end of each year, we publish an anthology of our students’ writing and distribute it to a key list of editors, agents and critics.

Graduates from the course, such as Andrew Kenrick (winner of the 2023 Tony Lothian Prize), Ike Anya, Caroline Davison and Pyae Moe Thet War, have gone on to publish acclaimed and diverse works of non-fiction. If you want to join them and become a biographer, nature writer, essayist, memoirist or travel writer, this MA programme is for you.

**Disclaimer**

Course details are subject to change. You should always confirm the details on the provider's website: **www.uea.ac.uk**

Full-Time, 1 years starts Sep 2024

Literary non-fiction is changing in exciting ways, and this is your chance to be a part of it.

Our best modern writers have been experimenting with new forms and subjects. Nature-writing, the personal essay, biography, food journalism, art criticism and memoir are all part of the intellectually stimulating emerging mix.

If you want to develop your own non-fiction writing in any of these genres or one of your own, this MA programme is for you. You’ll study on one of the only dedicated non-fiction MA courses in the UK at the country’s leading university for the teaching of creative writing. This enables you to graduate with the best grounding possible for a successful and fulfilling literary career.

**About This Course**

This is one of very few courses in the UK that gives you the opportunity to concentrate exclusively on writing non-fiction. Our students come from extremely varied backgrounds, and in the past have included barristers, a zoologist, actors, doctors, teachers, a Master of Wine and an asparagus farmer!

The age range is diverse, too: from people in their early twenties to those in their sixties and seventies. Students come from all parts of the globe, but all are united in their desire and commitment to writing non-fiction. The diversity of students and the range of their interests is one of the great strengths of the course, as is its collegiate atmosphere: you’ll learn as much constructively critiquing your peers’ writing as you will writing your own pieces.

Some people come with a project in mind, others have no specific idea about what they want to write. Either approach is fine – the course gives you the opportunity to develop an existing project and to experiment with different subjects and voices. Your time at UEA offers you a unique opportunity to focus on your writing in a stimulating and supportive environment.

We encourage you to take advantage of UEA’s and Norwich’s vibrant literary culture. You will also have the opportunity to meet some of the UK’s leading agents and publishers.

We publish an anthology of our students’ writing each year and distribute it to a key list of editors, agents and critics.

Part-Time, 2 years starts Sep 2024

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University of Notre Dame

Department of English

College of Arts and Letters

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• People ›

Tina Lupton

Professor, English

Ph.D., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey M.A., University of Sussex, Brighton, England B.A., Flinders University, South Australia

Research and teaching interests

Materiality of the Book, History and Future of Reading, British and American Novel, Eighteenth-Century British Literature, Literature and/as Work

Christina teaches the theory of the book, very broadly defined, and works on the history of reading from the eighteenth century to the present. Her main body of research has been into the history of reading as an activity that is both materially defined by the codex format, and politically tied up with the history of work and leisure. Reading and the Making of Time (JHU, 2018) explores these themes in the context of a group of eighteenth-century readers, largely women, and mostly professionals, who make and struggle for time for books in their lives.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Christina was part of a team studying the habits of novel readers under more recent conditions. The results of that study, Reading Novels During the Covid-19 Pandemic , (OUP, 2022) was published as a co-authored book and won the British Association for Contemporary Literature Monograph Prize in 2023.

Christina is now working at work on two different projects, Literature and the Working Day , a study of the way that the novel has reflected and complimented working life since the 1700s, and Paid Leaves: Writing a Life Around 1968 , which explores the sponsorship of life writing by state and social policy at that moment in the US and the UK. She remains interested more generally in the work of Michel Serres, Jacques Rancière, Peter Weiss, Siegfried Kracauer, Hannah Arendt, and Raymond Williams and in recent fictions that engage with the relationship between work, reading, and temporal experience.

Representative publications

“Jacques Rancière, J.M. Coetzee, and Doing Things Oneself,” New Literary History , Autumn 2024, Vol. 54, no. 4., 1595-1611.

 With Ben Davies and Johanne Gormsen Schmidt, Reading Novels During the Covid-19 Pandemic , Oxford University Press, 2022. (Winner of 2022 British Association for Contemporary Literature Monograph Prize)

“Queer Times for The Straight Book: Maggie Nelson and Michel Serres” POST 45 , September 2019.

Reading and The Making of Time , Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018.

Knowing Books: The Consciousness of Mediation in Eighteenth-Century Britain , University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.

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Anyone Have Thoughts/Opinions On The Creative Writing PhD

I recently received an MFA and I'm considering my next steps. Lit PhDs seem a little out of my reach right now but I love studying literature and writing

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PhD Creative Writing

Normally, we require applicants for PhD study to be in possession of a good honours degree (2:1 or above), and a Master's degree, in a relevant discipline. IELTS entry requirement is normally 6.5 or equivalent for overseas students.

Before making your formal application, please acquaint yourself with the research expertise of our staff to establish whether there may be an appropriate supervisor for the research project you would like to undertake. We recommend that you contact us to discuss your proposed research with the appropriate member of staff, and/or the Research Tutor, Dr Laura Mee [email protected] . 

Please include an outline research proposal with your application. Members of academic staff will advise on the length and scope of the proposal.

Download an application form

Applications should be returned to [email protected] .

Find out more information about fees for research degrees .

About the course

We welcome applications from postgraduate students interested in pursuing innovative research in Creative Writing. A Creative Writing thesis takes the form of an original full-length creative work and a critical work on a subject or subjects integral to the creative component. The critical work might take the form of a critical investigation of a related author or authors’ work or an investigation of the PhD’s candidate’s own creative practice and the practical or theoretical underpinnings of the creative work. The exact content of the critical element will be devised by the candidate with the support of their supervisory team.

The creative work should be a fully realised work of literature, whether in prose, poetry or drama. The creative work thus is research into creative practice and therefore makes an original contribution to knowledge. The two elements must be written side by side, as the research undertaken across the project will be crucial to both written documents.

A Creative Writing PhD often draws on other disciplines, so a PhD candidate may have a second supervisor from History, Media, Life Sciences, or any other discipline. Please contact staff to discuss the requirements of your particular thesis.

Our members of staff can offer supervision on a wide range of potential research projects.

Find out more about our staff and their areas of expertise .

A PhD in Creative Writing can be taken full-time (up to 4 years) or part-time (up to 7 years).  

It is based on the research and completion of a research project in any field within these subject areas for which expert supervision can be provided. 

Teaching methods

Research degrees are not taught programmes, but you are supported by a range of skills-based training.

You will meet with your supervisory team regularly to discuss your research and give you feedback on your writing. You are given the opportunity to attend the University's Generic Skills Training sessions as well as Creative Writing events.

The word count for the creative work will usually not exceed 80,000 words for a prose dissertation, although an exception may be made if the limit of 80,000 words would leave the creative work with clear gaps that would prevent the work being a publishable document. A poetry dissertation would be between 50 to 100 pages. A dramatic dissertation would be a minimum of 80 pages, which would be the length of a multi-act play. The critical work should be a minimum of 20,000 words, which might go up to 50,000 words (particularly for a shorter creative work). The word count will be negotiated between the candidate and the supervisory team.

 This thesis is defended in a viva voce (oral examination) led by an external examiner.  

What’s next for my career?

• You will be able to develop a substantial, original and creative research project with the help and support of academics who are active researchers and writers themselves. 
• You will acquire extensive subject expertise and independent research skills, honed over an extended period. 
• You will join a thriving School of Creative Arts and become part of a burgeoning research culture. As a postgraduate student, you are invited to attend and participate in regular reading series, seminars and international conferences hosted by the Creative Writing group. 
• All our students are encouraged to present work at national and international conferences and to submit their research for publication. 

Course fees

• Research degree fees for UK and EU students
• Research degree fees for international students

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Ba (hons) literary studies with creative writing.

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The BA (Hons) Literary Studies with Creative Writing degree, a comprehensive program designed to cultivate both your creative talents and your analytical abilities. This course offers a dynamic exploration of the art and craft of writing across various forms, opening up a diverse array of career opportunities in the literary and communication fields. Throughout your studies, you will refine your writing skills across creative and non-fiction genres, working in different formats and contexts to develop a versatile writing portfolio.

Your journey will include hands-on experiences such as writing workshops, digital and social media content creation, real-world projects, and contributions to in-house publications. You will also engage in pitching ideas, curatorial and exhibition writing, as well as composing reviews and articles, all of which will help you build a professional portfolio that showcases your unique voice and style.

In addition to honing your creative writing skills, this degree offers an in-depth study of English literature, where you will explore and interpret works from various historical periods and cultural backgrounds. You'll immerse yourself in vital and influential literary works, engaging with both contemporary and classic texts across a wide range of genres. The creative writing modules are designed to complement your literary studies, providing insights into the techniques and challenges faced by the authors you study, and inspiring your own creative endeavors by grounding them in rich literary traditions.

By the end of the program, you will not only have developed sophisticated reading and writing skills but also gained valuable industry experience through real-life projects, equipping you with the essential tools to pursue a successful career in writing.

Course Modules

Full downloadable information regarding all University of Suffolk courses, including Key Facts, Course Aims, Course Structure and Assessment, is available in the Definitive Course Records .

Introduction to Creative Writing 1: Prose (Mandatory)

Academic and professional skills (mandatory), reimagining the canon 1: gender and representation (mandatory), introduction to creative writing 2: poetry (requisite), the critical toolkit: theories of reading and writing (requisite), reimagining the canon 2: placing the postcolonial (requisite), creative writing development 1: voice (mandatory), a place of one’s own: researching the locality (requisite), shakespeare undone (mandatory), creative writing development 2: storytelling in the 21st century (mandatory), blood, bodices and bastards (mandatory), the women of modernism (mandatory), professional writing in practice (mandatory), race writing and identity in post-war british fiction (mandatory), from page to screen (mandatory), children’s literature (mandatory).

112 UCAS tariff points (or above)

• BBC (A-Level)
• Pass A*-C (T Level)

All applicants are required to hold GCSE English and Maths at Grade C/4 or above. Applicants who do not hold these qualifications may be considered on an individual basis based upon their overall application and the course applied for.

IELTS 6.0 overall (minimum 5.5 in all components) where English is not the students' first language. You can read more about our English language requirements here.

Applicants whose first language is not English, but who have been living in the UK for 2 years or more will be expected to hold GCSE English at Grade C or above, (grade 4-9 for the new GCSEs) or the relevant Level 2 equivalent (if applicable). 

Please select your country of permanent residence from the list below, specific requirements for your country will then be shown.

If you have previously studied at higher education level before you may be able to transfer credits to a related course at the University of Suffolk and reduce the period of study time necessary to achieve your degree.

Students aged 21 or over at the start of their course are regarded as mature students. The University of Suffolk offers a flexible admissions policy for mature students, which takes into account life and work experience.

£9,250

£14,610.

*Please contact the Student Centre for further details

Further Information

At University of Suffolk, your tuition fees provide access to all the usual teaching and learning facilities that you would expect. However, there may be additional costs associated with you course that you will need to budget for.

£15,090

To study this course on a full-time basis, you can apply through UCAS. As well as providing your academic qualifications, you’ll be able to showcase your skills, qualities and passion for the subject.

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