Welcome to Creative Writing at Edge Hill University!
Creative Writing is one of the fastest growing subjects in the curriculum. The English Department at Edge Hill University is one of its pioneers, with a long established track record at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Our degrees will appeal to students who are looking for a challenging and innovative programme which will stretch their abilities and encourage independence.
––Daniele Pantano, Programme Leader for Creative Writing
We cover all aspects of Creative Writing, including poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction and writing for stage, screen and radio. All the teaching is carried out by practitioners, who have specialist knowledge in one or several of these fields. The team is led by four internationally known writers: distinguished poet and critic Professor Robert Sheppard, award-winning poet and literary translator Daniele Pantano, award-winning short story writer Ailsa Cox and award-winning playwright Kim Wiltshire. Students also get the opportunity to attend workshops and readings with guest writers who have included Lee Harwood, Maggie Gee, Iain Sinclair, Robert Shearman, Jerome Rothenberg, Carol Ann Duffy and Billy Collins. Details of forthcoming readings are available through the Rose Theatre.
As a BA (Hons) Creative Writing student you will learn the habits of a professional writer, including keeping a writer’s journal, research and observation, re-drafting and editing and presenting work to a high standard. You will also gain insights into the processes of publishing, broadcasting and performing. At Edge Hill University, we place particular emphasis on reading and reflection, nurturing the ability to evaluate your own work and develop a consciousness of your own identity as a writer.
Whether you see writing as a lifelong vocation or would simply like to try your hand at something different, a degree in Creative Writing offers a sound practical basis for the future. Creative Writing graduates have many skills sought by employers, including:
- The ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both on the page and in oral presentations
- To carry out research
- To think creatively ‘outside the box’
- To be flexible and self-motivated
- To collaborate with others on small or large scale projects
Creative Writing graduates may enter a whole range of professions, including teaching, journalism, publishing, arts administration, marketing, management or personnel work. Edge Hill graduates often continue studying writing at postgraduate level through our own MA in Creative Writing. Several have also chosen to stay at Edge Hill University for their doctoral studies.
Creative Writing has a strong cohort of PhD students, undertaking practice-based research and exploring the poetics of fiction and poetry. Our particular strengths are in linguistically innovative poetry and the short story and we especially welcome proposals in those two areas.
In addition to the regular research forums run by the department, we host the annual Short Story Conference, Edge Hill Prize for the Short Story competition and meetings of two research groups for writers – ‘Poetry and Poetics’ and the ‘Fiction Research Group’.
The programme team publish and/or edit a variety of academic and literary journals, including the Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry, Short Fiction in Theory and Practice and 21: Journal of Contemporary and Innovative Fiction. And we also publish The Black Market Review, an international literary journal edited exclusively by Creative Writing students.