Creative Writing And English Literature

Creative writing and English literature is a degree that takes seriously both the making and the reading of texts, combining practice as a writer with rigorous scholarly engagement with literature. The two activities are deeply complementary: close study of how skilled writers achieve their effects makes you a more conscious and capable writer yourself, while practising writing makes you a more attentive and insightful reader of others. Together they develop a distinctive combination of creative imagination, analytical depth and precise use of language.

At Edge Hill University, this three-year full-time programme includes a sandwich year, a work placement and a year abroad. The sandwich and placement elements give you structured professional experience in publishing, journalism, creative industries, education or arts settings, connecting your creative and analytical skills to real professional contexts. The year abroad adds a different cultural and linguistic dimension to your reading and writing, which can be genuinely productive for both the creative and the critical aspects of the programme.

You will read widely across genres, periods and traditions, studying how writers have responded to their times and places, how literary forms have evolved and what different critical approaches reveal about texts. Alongside this, you will write in multiple forms, receive close feedback through workshops, develop your own voice and style, and build the self-critical awareness that distinguishes developing writers. The programme develops your ability to tap into your creative potential while also grounding it in intellectual rigour.

Graduates go into careers in writing, publishing, editing, journalism, teaching, arts administration, communications, broadcasting and the wider cultural sector. Some go on to postgraduate study in creative writing or English literature, including MFA programmes. The ability to read closely, write clearly and think creatively is valued across many fields beyond the arts.