Study creative writing at Keele and you’ll join a thriving, close-knit and passionate community of academics, published writers, students and researchers. We share the same goals: to develop our creative and professional skills as a writer, build connections, support and inspire each other. Many of our graduates – ‘Keelites’ – have gone on to become successful novelists, authors, biographers and poets, including Stoke’s first poet laureate and winner of the Roy Fisher Prize. They’ve helped set up community-based literary festivals, artist in residence initiatives and even brought poetry to the masses via a car boot sale and a travelling ambulance.

In our modern, uncertain and ever-changing world, words – written or spoken – are needed perhaps now more than ever to help us share experiences, process thoughts and feelings, and fuel our imagination.

The MA Creative Writing course at Keele brings together a strong community of published and aspiring writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and storytelling who, like you, appreciate the potential power of words and have embarked on a journey of self-expression.

You’ll be taught and mentored by published writers, prize-winning poets and novelists, both from here within the University and from the active participation of invited guests, for example, at the fortnightly Keele Creative Writing Anthology. Last year, this included acclaimed writer Okechukwu Nzelu, whose first book won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Polari First Book Prize.

You’ll also have the option to participate directly in a wide range of on campus, online and local events, publications, workshops and short courses. This provides experience in event management, curation, reading, presenting and even teaching, as well as the reviewing and editing that is often a writer’s secondary source of income.

Graduates of this course include: Chris Prendergast, whose debut novel was published to high acclaim by Salt in 2014 Deborah Alma, whose ‘Emergency Poet’ project has received international press coverage and Liz Lefroy, who won the first Roy Fisher Prize in 2001, an award for new poetry endorsed by the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

The MA provides an excellent foundation for further doctoral (PhD) training or academia, here in the UK, Europe or the rest of the world. The excellent communication skills you develop can open doors to careers in publishing, culture, heritage, marketing, public relations or copywriting.

Your career

Many of our graduates have gone on to become successful poets and novelists some are dedicated to spreading the positive vibes that creative writing can bring.

Throughout your studies, you will be encouraged to reflect on the academic, creative and general skills you are developing and, more importantly, how you can articulate these skills in applications and interviews.

Taking your studies to postgraduate level develops a range of personal and professional skills, including clear and critical thinking, originality, problem-solving, innovative questioning and, of course, excellent communication.

Our graduates typically go on to work in fields such as agenting, bookselling, culture and heritage, education, marketing, communications, public relations, publishing, copywriting, and information management.

Positions may include:

Academic

Author

Copywriter

Curator

Events manager

Marketing executive

Novelist

Poet

Philosopher

PR Officer

Researcher

Teacher