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Postgraduate Taught
| UCAS code | 1234 |
|---|---|
| Duration | 1 year full time 2 years part time |
| Entry year | September 2025 |
| Campus | Streatham Campus |
| Discipline | English |
| Contact | Programme Director: Professor Andy Brown |
| Typical offer | 2:2 Honours degree |
|---|---|
88% of our English research is internationally excellent
Based on research rated 4* + 3* in REF 2021, submitted to UoA27 English Language and Literature
Top 50 in the world for English Language and Literature
QS World University Subject Rankings 2024
A thriving and supportive writing community - our team of prize-winning and best-selling authors will help you develop your creative writing skills
Top 15 in the UK for English
11th in the Complete University Guide 2025; 14th in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025
88% of our English research is internationally excellent
Based on research rated 4* + 3* in REF 2021, submitted to UoA27 English Language and Literature
Top 50 in the world for English Language and Literature
QS World University Subject Rankings 2024
A thriving and supportive writing community - our team of prize-winning and best-selling authors will help you develop your creative writing skills
Top 15 in the UK for English
11th in the Complete University Guide 2025; 14th in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025
We will consider applicants with a 2:2 Honours degree with 53% or above in their first degree in a relevant subject area. While we normally only consider applicants who meet this criteria, if you are coming from a different academic background which is equivalent to degree level, or have relevant work experience, we would welcome your application.
Applicants may also be asked to submit a personal statement and an academic writing sample. The writing sample requested is normally around 2,000–3,000 words of prose, such as a critical essay or an excerpt from one produced for an undergraduate degree, or 3-4 poems. However, this is not mandatory for your initial application. You are welcome to include a writing sample if you wish.
International students need to show they have the required level of English language to study this course. The required test scores for this course fall under Profile E. Please visit our English language requirements page to view the required test scores and equivalencies from your country.
The MA in Creative Writing is designed for students to develop a longer piece of work during the MA, or find out what their strengths are in the different forms. It is for people, of any age, whether recent graduates or older, who wish to grow their talent quickly by acquiring knowledge and practice in the art of fiction, poetry, life-writing, nature writing or the writing of screenplays.
Our Creative Writing staff are well-published, practicing writers who take great pride in designing and delivering modules in their specialist areas.
Full time students take two modules in term 1, two modules in term 2, and write their dissertations in term 3. Each module has one two-hour seminar per week, with homework set that involves intensive, self-motivated practice and research.
The modules we outline here provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand.
Stage 1: 60 credits of compulsory modules and 120 credits of optional modules (you may take up 30 credits from the MA English Literary Studies)
All students must take EASM123 Creative Writing Dissertation.
| Code | Module | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EASM123 | Creative Writing Dissertation | 60 |
You must choose 120 credits of optional modules (30 credits can come from English Literary Studies)
| Code | Module | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MA Creative Writing - option modules 2024-5 | ||
| EASM121 | The Poetry of Events - Building a Plot | 30 |
| EASM169 | Publishing and Power: Black and Asian Literary Networks in the UK | 30 |
| EASM156 | Writing Nature: Ecology, Place, Memoir (Creative Writing) | 30 |
| EASM133 | The Structures of Realism | 30 |
| EASM122 | Writing for the Screen | 30 |
| EASM144 | Image, Shape and Music | 30 |
| EASM166 | Prose Writing Workshop | 30 |
| EASM196 | Writing for the Planet: Creative Writing as Climate and Ecological Activism | 30 |
| EASM185 | Story Machines: Interactive Texts and Narrative Games | 30 |
| EASM198 | Text & Image: Creative Writing | 30 |
| MA Creative Writing - English Literary Studies options 2024-5 | ||
| EASM099 | Making Progress? Literature in a Changing Environment | 30 |
| EASM100 | The Cultures of American Modernism | 30 |
| EASM106 | Criticism and Theory: Current Debates | 30 |
| EASM109 | Bodies Politic: Cultural and Sexual Politics in England, 1603-1679 | 30 |
| EASM142 | Revival and Return: Using the Past from Pope to Keats | 30 |
| EASM150 | Empire, Decadence and Modernity: Literature 1870-1910 | 30 |
| EASM151 | Modernism and Material Culture | 30 |
| EASM152 | Criticism and Theory: Critical and Literary Theory in a Global Context | 30 |
| EASM154 | The Body and Identity | 30 |
| EASM157 | The Literature of Cold War America | 30 |
| EASM167 | World Cinema / World Literature | 30 |
| EASM169 | Publishing and Power: Black and Asian Literary Networks in the UK | 30 |
| EASM171 | Expanding Queerness: Critical Debates in Theory, Literature, Film and Television | 30 |
| EASM174 | Writing Women in the English Middle Ages | 30 |
| EASM179 | Translation and Publishing: New Approaches to Literary Activism | 30 |
| EASM180 | Crossing Medieval Boundaries | 30 |
| EASM191 | Environments of Early Modern Drama | 30 |
| EASM192 | Global Voices: Shakespeare and the Early Modern World | 30 |
£12,500 full-time; £6,250 part-time
£25,300 full-time; £12,650 part-time
We invest heavily in scholarships for talented prospective Masters students. This includes over £5 million in scholarships for international students, such as our Global Excellence Scholarships*.
For more information on scholarships, please visit our scholarships and bursaries page.
*Selected programmes only. Please see the Terms and Conditions for each scheme for further details.
Whether you already know what kind of books or screenplays you wish to write or are still searching for the best form in which to express your creativity, we offer the chance to try your hand in a range of genres, and to benefit from feedback tailored to your writing needs.
A programme of visiting speakers takes place throughout the academic year with writers, publishers and agents coming to talk to students about the next steps in their careers. The roll call changes every year to reflect both our students’ interests and new trends. Recent guest lecturers have included the Booker prize winning novelist Hilary Mantel; the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize-winning novelist Hisham Matar; the Pulitzer Prize winning US Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey; the writer, editor and publisher Richard Cohen, and many others.
Our MA can be taken over one-year full time, or two years part time. During your study, you will build a portfolio of creative work for possible publication, including a dissertation in your chosen genre. You will also be able to take a range of optional modules and explore literary genres and forms with a mutually supportive, like-minded group of fellow writers.
Exeter’s creative writing staff practise and publish in a range of literary genres. Their experience of the literary world is not limited to writing and teaching. They also worked – and continue to work - as editors, publishers, agents, radio producers, and journalists. This wealth of experience is reflected in the vibrancy and diversity of our workshops and tutorials.
As a creative writing student, you will also benefit from the academic expertise of the many world-leading scholars working in the English Department at our Exeter Campus, a lively community of doctoral students, and the activities of four dedicated research centres: the Medieval and Renaissance Research Group; the 18th-Century Narrative Consortium; the Victorian Studies Research Group; and the 20th and 21st Century Literature, Creative Writing and Film Research Group.
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Whether your ambition is to become a full-time writer, a teacher of writing, or to develop a creative career which includes writing in one of its many forms, we have a strong track record of supporting our students through to publication and doctoral level work.
While at Exeter, our MA students publish their creative work in ENIGMA and in the new postgraduate journal EXCLAMATION.
Former University of Exeter students who have gone on to develop a writing career include poets such as Luke Kennard, Abi Curtis, Eleanor Rees, Izzy Galleymore, Jaime Robles, Jos Smith, Sally Flint, and Samuel Tongue; novelists Virginia Baily, Lucy Wood, and Ruth Gilligan; and non-fiction writers such as Miriam Darlington.
Many of our former students now work in film, broadcasting, advertising, journalism, PR, publishing, teaching – including the teaching of creative writing – as well as other careers in the growing number of fields where good writing is an asset.
While studying at Exeter you can also access a range of activities, advice and practical help to give you the best chance of following your chosen career path. For more information visit Careers pages.
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