Literature and Creative Writing

Literature and creative writing is a degree that takes seriously both the reading and the making of literary texts. Studying literature at degree level means learning to read with attention and precision, understanding how narrative, form, voice, and language create meaning, and engaging with how writers have responded to the societies, histories, and ideas of their time. Creative writing is the complementary practice: the attempt to make something original with words, which requires not only technique but the kind of deep engagement with literary tradition that literature study provides.

The two activities inform each other in ways that are difficult to separate.

At the University of the Highlands and Islands this part-time programme allows you to progress through the course on a schedule that fits around other commitments, studying most days of the week but taking fewer units per week than a full-time student. You will engage with literature in English across a range of periods, traditions, and genres, developing critical skills in close reading, contextual analysis, and written argument. Alongside this, the creative writing component will develop your own practice through workshops, drafting, revision, and reflection on craft.

The programme pays serious attention to the specific literary traditions of Scotland and the Highlands, while also engaging with the wider canon in English.

Graduates from literature and creative writing programmes work in publishing, editing, journalism, education, libraries, arts organisations, and the wider creative industries. Creative writing skills are increasingly valued in content creation, communications, marketing, and digital media. Many graduates go on to postgraduate study in creative writing, English literature, or publishing, and some develop careers as writers, though most complement literary and writing work with other professional roles.

The analytical and communication skills developed across both strands of the degree are genuinely broad in their application, valued wherever careful reading and clear, effective writing are needed.