Program Overview

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Explore the urge to create and build new worlds, to share language and stories with others. On our course you work on the craft of writing through a multi-genre approach, through and across a variety of writings from fiction and poetry, to non-fiction, psychogeography, performance writing and beyond. At Essex we offer an unusual approach to the practice of writing, combing innovative and traditional methods in order to develop your writing skills and abilities to judge your work critically, while expanding your knowledge across different modes and genres. In the Centre for Creative Writing we encourage a culture of experiment and creativity, enabling you to feel part of a community of writers. Uncover the history and theories of writing practices through studying familiar as well as unfamiliar writings from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to Wordsworth, and Kae Tempest, as well as writers taking alternative approaches to text production, from contemporary revisionings of fairytales, to new nature writing, science fiction, and the experimental language play of the French Oulipo group. You will enhance your skills by engaging with a range of techniques, practical exercises and creative approaches and opportunities, including:

• Discover how words and ideas move across the world and are transformed through translation
• Write an independent creative project developed over eight months in your final year
• Explore the psychological foundations of creativity in relation to myth
• Surrealism and Defamiliarisation
• Creative use of social media
• Writing for radio and playwriting

Essex has nurtured a long tradition of distinguished writers whose work has shaped literature as we know it today, from past giants such as the American poets Robert Lowell and Ted Berrigan, to contemporary writers such as mythographer and novelist Dame Marina Warner, and Booker Prize winner Ben Okri. Our course offers a varied, flexible and distinctive curriculum, focused on developing your abilities as a writer, while allowing you to take options from the other courses within our Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies including literature, filmmaking, journalism and drama. Why we're great.

• You can respond both critically and artistically to your studies in our unique literary conservatoire.
• We encourage innovation, experimentation, and originality in writing and thinking.
• Our literature and creative writing courses are taught by leading academics and writers.

Study abroad

Your education extends beyond the university campus. We support you in expanding your education through offering the opportunity to spend a year or a term studying abroad at one of our partner universities. The four-year version of our degree allows you to spend the third year abroad or employed on a placement abroad, while otherwise remaining identical to the three-year course. Studying abroad allows you to experience other cultures and languages, to broaden your degree socially and academically, and to demonstrate to employers that you are mature, adaptable, and organised. If you spend a full year abroad you'll only pay 15% of your usual tuition fee to Essex for that year. You won't pay any tuition fees to your host university

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Placement year

When you arrive at Essex, you can decide whether you would like to combine your course with a placement year. You will be responsible for finding your placement, but with support and guidance provided by both your department and our Employability and Careers Centre. If you complete a placement year you'll only pay 20% of your usual tuition fee to Essex for that year.

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Our expert staff

Our teaching staff are experienced and established writers who have a breadth of experience across literary genres, from novels, prose and plays, to poetry and song. The Centre for Creative Writing is part of a unique literary conservatoire that offers students the skills, support and confidence to respond artistically and critically to the study of writing with the guidance of experts. The Centre for Creative Writing currently hosts two Royal Literary Fund Fellows, professional writers who are on-hand to help students develop their writing on a one-to-one basis.

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Specialist facilities

• Access the University’s Media Centre, equipped with state-of-the-art studios, cameras, audio and lighting equipment, and an industry-standard editing suite
• Write for our student magazine Rebel or host a radio show
• View classic films at weekly film screenings in our dedicated 120-seat film theatre
• Hear writers talk about their craft and learn from leading literature specialists at regular talks and readings
• Our on-Campus, 200-seat Lakeside Theatre has been established as a major venue for good drama, staging both productions by professional touring companies and a wealth of new work written, produced and directed by our own staff and students
• Improve your playwriting skills at our Lakeside Theatre Writers workshops
• Our Research Laboratory allows you to collaborate with professionals, improvising and experimenting with new work which is being tried and tested

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Your future

Many of our students have gone on to successfully publish their work, notable recent alumni including:

• Ida Løkås, who won a literary prize in Norway for The Beauty That Flows Past , securing a book deal
• Alexia Casale, whose novel Bone Dragon was published by Faber & Faber and subsequently featured on both the Young Adult Books of the Year 2013 list for The Financial Times , and The Independent’s Books of the year 2013: Children
• Elaine Ewert, recent graduate from our MA Wild Writing, placed second in the New Welsh Writing Awards 2015
• Patricia Borlenghi, the founder of Patrician Press , which has published works by a number of our alumni
• Petra Mcqueen, who has written for The Guardian and runs creative writing courses

. Our graduates are also ideally prepared for careers in the media, education, publishing, and the film and theatre industries. Two particular areas in which our graduates have had recent success are publishing and the theatre. One of our former students is now in charge of editorial at a large publishing house, and another has just taken over running one of the country’s major theatres. Other recent graduates have gone on to work in a wide range of desirable roles including:

• The Civil Service
• Journalism and broadcasting
• Marketing
• Museum and library work
• Commerce and finance
• Teaching

We also work with the university's Student Development Team to help you find out about further work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities.