English Literature and Creative Writing

English Literature and Creative Writing is a degree that treats reading and writing as complementary intellectual and creative practices. The best writers are serious readers, and the best literary critics have thought carefully about what it means to make the choices that writers make. Studying English Literature alongside Creative Writing allows you to develop both capacities at once, and the understanding that grows from moving between them is richer than either discipline can offer alone.

At the University of Gloucestershire, the three-year full-time programme develops your critical reading skills across a range of literary periods and forms, from medieval and early modern writing through to contemporary fiction and poetry, alongside your creative writing skills in a range of modes. You will learn to read closely and critically, to understand texts within their historical and cultural contexts, and to apply theoretical frameworks to the literature you encounter. The creative writing strand develops your own voice and practice, with workshop-based learning that helps you give and receive constructive feedback, experiment with form and develop the discipline that sustained creative work requires.

Gloucestershire's library and digital resources support independent research and give you access to the broad secondary literature that literary study demands.

Gloucestershire is a pleasant environment for this kind of study, with a rich cultural heritage and an active local arts scene.

Graduates of English Literature and Creative Writing degrees work in publishing, journalism, copywriting, content creation, education, communications, public relations, broadcasting and the arts. Many pursue freelance or portfolio writing careers alongside other professional work. Postgraduate study in creative writing, English literature or education, including PGCE programmes, is a common route for those who want to specialise.