Our MA in Creative Writing helps you to develop your potential as a novelist, poet, scriptwriter or non-fiction author. It is taught by distinguished writers, with the support of a superb range of guest seminars and masterclasses by visiting authors, editors and agents, through our Institute of Creative and Critical Writing.

Our MA Creative Writing will help you to fulfil your potential as a writer, whether you work in fiction, poetry, screenplay or creative non-fiction. It is taught by distinguished authors, with the support of a superb range of guest seminars by visiting speakers organised through our Institute of Creative and Critical Writing.

Writers are perpetual students. Our programme is designed to help you learn how to keep learning, enriching and refining your practice as an independent author, through disciplines that strengthen your creative imagination, develop your literary knowledge, and cultivate your critical sensitivity.

You will hone the skills you need and refine your practice in an atmosphere of creative experiment. Our course is founded upon the philosophy that writers can benefit from the same kind of professional training enjoyed by actors, dancers, musicians, and visual artists, and connects our writers to the creative sector in which they work.

You’ll have the opportunity to develop your writing across forms and extend your range in fields that may be new to you, under specialist guidance in fiction, poetry, screenwriting and creative non-fiction. You’ll be part of a Faculty with a long history of working with the creative industries, and a College with strong connections to literary culture beyond the university, including Writing West Midlands, the Birmingham Literature Festival, the National Writers’ Conference, Verve Poetry Festival, The Emma Press, and Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, which was founded by alumni of the MA Creative Writing programme. Like our partners, we see the literary arts and their study and enjoyment as fundamental to civic and cultural life.

The Professional Placement version of the course is optional and is offered as an alternative to the standard version of the course.

This will allow you to complete a credit bearing, 20 week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Master’s Degree. The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market. Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace.

You will be responsible for finding and securing your own placement. The University, however, will draw on its extensive network of local, regional and national employers to support you in finding a suitable placement to complement your chosen area of study. You will also benefit from support sessions delivered by Careers+ as well as advice and guidance from your School.

Placements will only be confirmed following a competitive, employer-led selection process, therefore the University will not be able to guarantee placements for students who have registered for the ‘with Professional Placement’ course. All students who do not find a suitable placement or do not pass the competitive selection process will be automatically transferred back to the standard, non-placement version of the course.

Employability:
We believe that with its focus on language, pleasure, and the creative imagination, the study of creative writing is immensely rewarding in itself. Moreover, the ability to think and communicate