English with Creative Writing
English with creative writing is a degree that brings together the systematic study of literature with the active practice of writing, recognising that reading and writing illuminate each other in ways that studying either alone cannot match. Literary study develops your understanding of how language works, how narratives are structured, how writers have used the full range of literary forms to explore human experience, and how texts are situated in their historical and cultural contexts. Creative writing translates that understanding into practice, asking you to produce original work and to develop your own distinctive voice.
At Queen Mary University of London, this four-year full-time programme gives you a sound knowledge base in literature alongside the tools you need to become a writer. You will read widely across literary periods and traditions, developing the close reading and critical analysis skills that are central to the study of English, and you will write across a range of genres and forms, working on fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, and other kinds of writing under the guidance of practising writers and literary scholars. The combination encourages you to read as a writer and to write as a reader, developing a doubled sensitivity to how literary texts are constructed and what makes them work.
QMUL's location in London and its connections to the literary world provide a stimulating context for this dual engagement.
Graduates go on to careers in publishing, journalism, education, arts administration, communications, the charity sector, and the creative industries, as well as building careers as novelists, poets, essayists, and screenwriters. The combination of critical and creative skills the degree develops is valued across virtually every field that depends on intelligent engagement with language, and many graduates find that their English and creative writing training gives them a distinctive profile in competitive graduate contexts. Many continue to postgraduate study in creative writing, English, or related fields.