Overview

This challenging, practice-based course will lift you as a writer, offering you a unique approach emphasising innovation and experimentation, and encouraging you to develop your best and most authentic work. You will graduate with the skills required for professional practice in the creative writing industry.

Why study Creative Writing at Kent

• A wide range of expertise: Teaching is delivered by practising, award-winning writers with a wide range of experience. We bring expertise in the industry to our teaching and research.
• Make your voice heard: Be at the forefront of debate in our lively, confident, and engaged research community
• Join a new generation of critical thinkers: Develop your own critique of a culture in crisis and sharpen your critical language
• A vibrant academic community: Join a lively, diverse community committed to high-quality literary fiction and exciting contemporary poetry.
• Share your work: Join regular open mic nights, or get involved in Canterbury’s lively poetry scene. You can publish your work in the biannual Kent Review.
• Choose your location: The Creative Writing MA can also be studied at our Paris centre or with your year shared between Canterbury and Paris.

What you’ll learn

You are encouraged to try new approaches and to work across poetry, fiction, non-fiction, TV drama, or even translation. In your course you’ll read a wide variety of texts, share ideas in collaborative workshops, deepen your understanding of form and technique, experiment and develop your own ideas and those of your fellow writers. You can specialise from the start.

We take a rigorous and creative approach to enable you to develop your ideas, voice and craft. We understand that the most ambitious work takes time and we support you as you develop your own style. We can help you discover how to make your writing more effective, and learn how to assess your work professionally.

Our community

Attracting students from around the world, the University’s School of English counts major literary names such as David Mitchell, Sarah Waters and Kazuo Ishiguro among its alumni, and the Centre for Creative Writing has nurtured innovative new talents such as Jessica Andrews, Gonzalo Garcia Ceron, Sarah Crewe, Emmi Itäranta, and Amy Lilwall.

Many Creative Writing graduates have been awarded contracts for novels and poetry collections with a range of publishers, and have been short-listed for (and won) a range of literary prizes. Others have moved into publishing, journalism or teaching.