English Literature with Creative Writing

English literature and creative writing make natural partners at degree level: studying how great writers have constructed their work deepens your understanding of the craft, while practising writing yourself sharpens the close attention to language that literary criticism demands. The combination trains you to move between the roles of reader and writer with equal purpose, and the insights generated in each direction reinforce the other. It is a discipline for people who are serious about both understanding and making literary art.

At the University of Huddersfield, this programme is offered on a part-time basis, allowing you to balance your studies with other commitments. It includes a sandwich year, meaning you will have the opportunity to undertake a professional placement as part of your degree, gaining real workplace experience in a creative or literary context. You will study canonical and contemporary works across poetry, fiction, and drama, exploring questions of form, genre, context, and meaning alongside the history of literary criticism and theory.

In the creative writing strand, you will write in multiple forms, receive structured feedback on your work, and develop the discipline and self-awareness that sustained creative practice requires. The placement element opens the degree to the professional world of publishing, writing, education, and the arts in a direct and practical way.

Graduates of English literature with creative writing go on to careers in publishing, journalism, copywriting, content creation, teaching, broadcasting, and the wider creative industries. The ability to read critically and write with precision and imagination is valued by employers across many sectors beyond the obviously literary, including marketing, public relations, and the civil service. Many graduates pursue further study at master's level, whether in creative writing, literature, publishing, or a professional qualification in teaching.

The part-time mode makes the degree particularly accessible to those who are already working or have family responsibilities.