Creative Writing and English

Creative writing and English literature is a degree that places reading and writing in productive dialogue with each other. Literary study develops the interpretive and analytical skills to understand how texts create meaning across different genres and historical periods, examining the formal choices, cultural contexts and ideas that make literature significant. Creative writing develops your own voice as a writer, asking you to make the same fundamental decisions, about form, structure, character, perspective and language, that the writers you read and study have made.

The two disciplines illuminate each other continuously, because close reading sharpens the writer's eye and writing practice deepens literary understanding.

At Birkbeck College you will study creative writing and English on a full-time basis, on an acclaimed programme designed for emerging writers who want to develop their creative practice while expanding their knowledge of literature in a rigorous academic environment. You will engage with a wide range of literary texts across periods and genres, developing the critical vocabulary and interpretive skills that literary study rewards, while pursuing your own writing through workshop-based practice and independent creative projects. Birkbeck's central London location provides access to a rich literary culture, and its connections to the contemporary writing community give the programme a distinctive professional dimension.

The typical tariff of 104 reflects a programme accessible to motivated students from a range of educational backgrounds.

Graduates work as writers, poets, novelists, short story writers, scriptwriters, journalists, editors, publishers, literary agents, communications professionals and educators. Many develop portfolio careers combining creative practice with teaching, editing or writing for commercial contexts, and some move into communications, marketing or content roles where strong writing is the core requirement. Many graduates go on to postgraduate study in creative writing, publishing, English literature or education, using the undergraduate formation as the foundation for specialist practice or research.

The combination of literary critical depth and creative writing craft is a distinctive and consistently valued profile.