Creative Writing and English Literature

Contemporary creative writing is diverse. It’s digital and on the page; social and singular. Our comprehensive programme includes prose fiction, YA, flash fiction, poetry, scriptwriting for live performance and screen, life writing and memoir.

In fact, whatever you want to write, you’ll find an opportunity to explore it with us. We have modules on graphic novels and comics alongside modules in live literature, creative enterprise and professional practice to support your career development. You'll have the opportunity to collaborate on creative projects with other students both within and outside Creative Writing.

You’ll be able to work on magazines, local literary festivals and podcasts, while collaborating with fellow students through our creative writing, publishing and journalism student-run societies.

Year one
The course is carefully designed to enable you to explore and experiment with your writing and understand the foundations of writing craft. In the Writer’s Workshop modules you’ll be introduced to an array of different writing forms and genres and you’ll be experimenting with them each week. You’ll have your first experience of the BSU writing workshop where you’ll learn how to work with other writers, giving and receiving feedback. You’ll have additional modules in poetry, fiction and script writing alongside a module where you’ll learn about the publishing industry and editing. You’ll also attend lectures from visiting writers and members of staff who will talk to you about their writing lives and experiences in the industry.

Year two
In the second year of the course, you have access to a range of modules that will enable you to specialise in a particular form or genre of writing. You’ll take a mixture of core and optional modules from a list that includes, for example, genre fiction, life writing, short stories, form and listening in poetry, and writing for screen. You will also take the project module, Professional Portfolio. This is an opportunity for you to develop your own creative project, designed to help you develop the skills you need as a professional writer. You will be assigned a member of staff to be your project supervisor. They will help guide and advise you as you develop your idea. If a collaborative project suits you, you can take a Publishing module where you work with a small team of fellow students to create your own independent magazine.

Year three
The final year of the programme is designed to consolidate your writing practice and support your progression into a writing-related career. You will take a dissertation-equivalent module in at least one of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, scriptwriting or writing for young people. These modules run through the year. Alongside that you have a choice of career-focused modules which include Live Literature and Professional Practice which offer you the opportunity to develop your own industry-facing creative projects. We also offer an extended project module, Creative Enterprise, over two semesters. This module helps you focus on developing a creative project into a commercial opportunity. 

Assessment is based on 100% coursework (no exams). Most modules will require you to submit a portfolio of creative writing along with a reflective or contextual essay in which you describe what you have learned in class, what you have learned from the set texts and working on your own writing.

Creative Writing at Bath Spa University is taught through a mixture of workshops, lectures, presentations and tutorials. Workshops offer you the opportunity to read and discuss each other's work in a supportive, informal and informative atmosphere. Lectures are used to introduce techniques and themes in detail. Tutorials provide you with the opportunity to discuss your work with your tutor on a one-to-one basis.

We believe that for you to achieve your maximum potential you have to take yourself and your writing seriously, and that the best way to do this is to develop a professional approach. Therefore, wherever appropriate, our modules run to industry standards and adopt industry practices.

The Creative Writing course is taught at our stunning Newton Park campus, where you’ll be surrounded by wildlife and a beautiful 18th century landscape and lake.

You'll have access to a range of excellent facilities, including:

• Commons building with its state-of-the-art classrooms, study spaces and cafe
• Digital labs (Mac rooms) for students learning new media
• Virtual Learning Environment to support you in your modules.

As a Creative Writing student, you'll be able to benefit from:

• Cameras, audio recording equipment available for students to borrow absolutely free
• Technical staff to help students use industry standard software
• Library with print and ebooks, digital resources, literary magazines and journals.

You’ll have the opportunity to study in a wide range of locations around the world. Our students have completed exchange programmes in a variety of countries including Spain, Sweden and the USA.

Creative Writing students often find exciting subject-related placements and we do our best to help students make connections and gain experiences in companies and organisations that interest them. Students often work with the Bath Literature Festival, for instance, or with production companies such as the BBC. The course team will help you on an individual basis as opportunities present themselves.

Past students have benefited from industry-based opportunities and experiences that have been incorporated into their modules, enabling them to secure credit for the time they have spent in industry environments.

Current graduate careers include:

• Novelist
• Science magazine editor
• Children’s author
• Playwright
• Digital Marketing Executive
• Social media writer
• Commercial copywriter for brands or charities
• Regional editor for an online magazine
• University lecturer
• Editor (Random House)
• Poet.

Many of our students go on to study one of our specialist MA programmes in either Creative Writing, Writing for Young People, Screenwriting, Travel and Nature, or Children’s Publishing.

Each year Creative Writing awards a range of prizes to its students to celebrate the best writing produced in the final year. The department also awards the Les Arnold Prize for the top student in the second year, honouring the memory of poet Les Arnold, who started the writing programme in 1992.

Students are given numerous opportunities to focus on project work – from the first year core module (Writer's Workshop One) to the second year core module and into several project modules in the third year. Student projects are a core part of the Creative Writing curriculum and students are assisted to develop project ideas that support their creative and career ambitions. 

This optional placement year provides you with the opportunity to identify, apply for and secure professional experience, normally comprising one to three placements over a minimum of nine months. Successful completion of this module will demonstrate your ability to secure and sustain graduate-level employment.

By completing the module, you'll be entitled to the addition of 'with Professional Placement Year' to your degree title.

Before your Professional Placement Year, you'll work to secure your placement, constructing a development plan with your module leader and your placement coordinator from our Careers and Employability team.

On your return to University for your final year, you'll submit your Placement Portfolio, detailing your development on your placement.