Creative Writing with Foundation Year

Creative writing is the practice of making original literary work, bringing craft, intention, and imagination to bear on the production of fiction, poetry, drama, screenwriting, and creative non-fiction. Studying it seriously means learning to read as a writer, understanding how formal choices about voice, structure, imagery, and rhythm create their effects, and developing your own practice through sustained writing, revision, and honest critical engagement with your own work and that of others. It is a discipline that rewards genuine commitment and intellectual curiosity.

At the University of Keele, this four-year, full-time programme includes a foundation year that provides the literary and academic foundations needed before progressing to degree-level creative writing. You will develop your voice as a writer within a community of academics, published authors, and creative peers, working across a wide range of literary texts, genres, and cultures as both a reader and a practitioner. The programme is designed for those who aspire to become writers as well as those who plan to explore the wider creative industries, recognising that the skills developed through creative writing, including precision in language, structural thinking, creative problem-solving, and the ability to engage an audience, transfer to many professional contexts.

A typical entry tariff of 120 points reflects an accessible admissions threshold for a programme that values creative potential alongside prior academic achievement. Graduates from creative writing programmes go on to careers as novelists, poets, screenwriters, copywriters, editors, literary agents, communications professionals, journalists, and arts educators. Many develop portfolio careers that combine writing with other professional work.

Further study at postgraduate level in creative writing is a common route for those who wish to develop their practice under sustained literary mentorship, and the community built on programmes like this one often provides lasting creative and professional networks.