Bath Spa University

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Creative Writing

This course will help you to bring a novel, book of poems, book of short stories or work of non-fiction as near to publishable quality as possible. Located within the School of Humanities and Cultural Industries, the writing programme has established itself over the past 20 years as one of the most successful in the UK.

For more information about this course please visit the School of Humanities and Cultural Industries website and their Creative Writing page.

Course Structure and Content

The course is modular and is currently offered for full-time study only.

Because of the reputation of the MA in Creative Writing, we are able to recruit excellent students who, every year, form an exciting and mutually supportive community of writers. Frequent visits by other writers, literary agents, publishers, broadcasters and other professionals connected with writing ensure that students are given plentiful advice about how to place work and make decisions about their careers as writers.

The course is not for the writer whose only interest is in their own work, but rather for the writer who can benefit from working closely with fellow students and with tutors, many of whom are practising and published writers.

In recent years, several current or former students have been awarded excellent contracts for novels; two were long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, three for the Orange Prize, one for the Costa Prize and one for the Guardian First Book Award. One received the Betty Trask Prize; another the Manchester Book Award; another a W.H. Smith New Talent Award. One reached the best-seller lists.

Student poets have had their poetry accepted for publication in numerous literary journals, including Ambit, Magma, London Magazine, Poetry Wales, PN Review and The Reader, among others, and have been placed in such competitions as the Bridport, the Frogmore, Mslexia, and Writers Inc. Janklow and Nesbit Ltd, a leading literary agency, awards an annual prize for the best novel or novel in progress by a student on the course.

It is implicit in the course philosophy that critical reading aids the development of writers. Workshops, in which you look constructively at each other's writing, and context modules, to study the ways in which writers meet certain challenges, are integral parts of the course.

Teaching Methods and Resources

Students take two three-hour seminars a week for the workshop and context modules. The Manuscript is completed between June and September. Students meet tutors regularly during this period.

A residential writing weekend at The Kingcombe Centre, Dorset, is an essential part of the course.

Tutors

Tutors include prestigious, best selling and award winning writers, such as:

• Prof. Gerard Woodward;
• Prof. Tim Liardet;
• Dr. Tessa Hadley;
• Dr. Carrie Etter;
• Ms. Samantha Harvey;
• Dr. Steve May;
• Mr. Richard Kerridge;
• Dr. Paul Evans;
• Ms. Lucy English;
• Dr. Mimi Thebo;
• Dr. Jonathan Neale;
• Ms. Tricia Wastvedt;
• Ms. Celia Brayfield;
• Ms. Greta Stoddart.

Visiting Writers

In addition you will have the opportunity to meet a wide range of writers, publishers and literary agents. Past Visiting Writers include:

• Moniza Alvi;
• John Burnside;
• Helen Dunmore;
• Nick Hornby;
• Mimi Khalvati;
• Toby Litt;
• Benjamin Markovits;
• Les Murray;
• Ashley Pharoah;
• D.B.C. Pierre;
• Philip Pullman;
• Fiona Sampson;
• Michael Schmidt;
• Matthew Sweeney;
• Fay Weldon.

Assessment Methods

Assessment is by coursework only. Each writing workshop is assessed on the basis of a folder of creative writing and an early draft of part of the Manuscript. Each context module is assessed on the basis of an essay and a folder of creative responses. The Manuscript is 35,000–40,000 words (or the equivalent for poetry and scriptwriting).

Entry Requirements

Admission to the course is based on a portfolio of creative writing, our estimate of the student's commitment and potential as a writer and ability to benefit from the course, and normally, but not invariably, on a first degree.

Applicants will need to submit a short piece of creative writing with their application form, such as two chapters of a novel, two short stories, six poems, or the equivalent.

Highly Recommended

In a recent Institutional Audit by The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education commented that:

In the case of the MA Creative Writing, the QAA believed that the curriculum content and design, and the development of the programme over time, represented leading-edge practice in the field.

Will Francis, of Janklow & Nesbit Associates wrote:

In believe, in terms the expertise of the faculty, the quality of the teaching and the sheer number and range of alumni who go on to get deals with major trade publishers each year, that Bath Spa's is now the best creative writing MA in England, bar none.

Student Profile

Being at Bath Spa was something invaluable and indefinable for me. I was worried that going on a creative writing course might be a bit like being in a slightly sick, 'show us your underwear' form of group therapy. I was very wrong. Instead I was thrust into the company of some of the most interesting writers around - the current spread of tutors in the department - who have managed to create a space where ideas really are exchanged rather than reduced to templates. I wrote more than half of my novel there and am indebted for the way in which being on the course made writing the centre of my life.

Nikita Lalwani, MA Creative Writing.

Nikita's debut novel, Gifted, was included in the long-list for the 2007 Man Booker Prize, the shortlist of the Costa first novel award, and won the 2008 Desmond Elliott prize for sparkling new fiction. Nikita's novel was conceived on the MA course, and a first draft was her manuscript submission.