Creative Writing and English Literature

Creative writing and English literature are disciplines that belong together. Literature provides the history, theory and critical framework within which creative writing can be understood and evaluated; creative writing offers a practical method for testing and inhabiting the ideas that literary study generates. Studying them in combination means you read as a writer, attending to technique and craft, and write as a reader, aware of the traditions and possibilities you are drawing on.

The result is a fuller and more reflexive engagement with language and form than either subject alone provides.

At the University of Winchester you will explore literary writing across a broad historical and generic range, from poetry and drama to fiction and non-fiction, alongside practical workshop-based development of your own creative work. The programme combines critical theory with what the course describes as practical workshops, meaning your academic study and your creative practice develop in dialogue with each other. You will engage with major writers, movements and debates in English literature, developing your capacity for close reading, sustained argument and clear academic writing, while also developing your voice and craft as a creative practitioner.

The three-year full-time programme gives you both depth and range.

Graduates of creative writing and English literature go on to careers in publishing, journalism, copywriting and content creation, education at secondary and higher level, arts administration, broadcasting, and cultural organisations. Many work as writers in some form, whether as novelists, poets, journalists, screenwriters or freelance professionals, often building a portfolio career that combines creative work with other uses of their writing skills. Postgraduate study in creative writing, English literature, publishing, journalism or education is a well-established route, and some graduates pursue academic careers through doctoral research on aspects of literature, writing, or cultural theory.