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MA Creative Writing
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Year of entry
2023/24 See 2024/25 entry -
Course duration
Full Time: 12 months Part Time: 24 months
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Year of entry
2023/24 See 2024/25 entry -
Course duration
Full Time: 12 months Part Time: 24 months
Develop your flair for writing, with expert guidance and support from published authors, with our MA Creative Writing programme.
Creative writing can simultaneously be a vocation, a career and a transferable skill. This programme focuses on the multiple roles that writing can play in your life. We’re in the top 150 universities in the world for this subject (QS World Rankings by Subject, 2023).
The University of Reading is 6th in the UK for research outputs in English Language and Literature (Times Higher Education analysis of the latest Research Excellence Framework 2021 – English Language and Literature, when scoring by GPA Output).
Our experts will mentor you in how best to develop and complete mid-sized creative projects – whether you have existing written work or are starting out – while introducing you to a range of modules closely related to the life of writing.
You will work on a writing project of your own devising, which you’ll develop through a combination of individual supervision and group workshops. In the first two terms, core modules will focus on the effective planning, research and development of your project, then on the early stages of drafting and revising the text as it develops.
In the final term, you’ll work on your dissertation and receive supervision to complete your portfolio of writing. You’ll also write a reflective essay on the creative writing process.
Core modules will include:
- Project Development
- Materiality and Textuality
- Creative Writing Dissertation.
Optional modules draw on the University’s expertise in areas such as archival research, the history of publishing, persuasive writing, and teacher training. These modules will prepare you for the literary marketplace, or for careers in which creative writing can play a significant part.
Placement opportunities
In the Spring Term, optional modules will provide the opportunity to explore careers involving creative writing:
- Publishing and the Business of Books encourages placements in publishing companies.
- Persuasive Writing can lead to placements in journalism.
Our creative writing modules are taught by practising, published authors working at the highest professional level. You’ll be taught by means of individual supervision, workshops and seminars.
Creative Writing at the University of Reading
At Reading, we foster a friendly and cohesive community of writers in the Department of English Literature.
We are committed to teaching through the workshop model. These small group sessions are the heart of Reading’s writing community: guided by one of our lecturers, you and your fellow students will gain confidence as you share your writing and help each other improve.
Seminars will concentrate on specific, practical issues: character development, dialogue, imagery, form and theme interrelations, or at a more advanced level, how to conceive and revise work in relation to generic constraints and reader expectations.
Our award-winning team will provide you with first-hand insights into the creative process, analyse and comment on your work, and guide you towards your areas of particular strength.
All our teaching staff have links with professional writing communities. We regularly invite published authors to read from their work or deliver guest lectures. We’ll also help you to become a published writer. During the year we publish our own Creative Arts magazine, containing work from within and beyond the University, chosen and edited by our students.