English Literature and Creative Writing

About this programme

From the sonnet to the novel, and theatre to video-games, you will hone your craft with extensive professional support from our many celebrated novelists, poets, and playwrights. You’ll be part of a vibrant culture with literary events in the city’s Castle Quarter, multiple student-run literary journals, visiting authors, and opportunities to present your writing live. Your time will be divided evenly between English Literature and Creative Writing. Lancaster was one of the very first UK universities to teach Creative Writing. Today we continue to lead the way in the discipline with celebrated authors as tutors and students who go on to publish their work. Follow in the footsteps of celebrated authors such as Camille Ralphs, Andrew McMillan, Martha Sprackland, and Daisy Johnson, the youngest-ever author shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In your own writing you will be able to explore traditional forms such as the short story, the novel, poetry, or scriptwriting, as well as non-traditional forms such as digital media, game writing, screenwriting, fantasy, and writing for young adults. You will also have the chance to explore texts from ancient civilisations to the present day studying the great names in literature, as well as voices that have been forgotten or overlooked. We believe that reading is not passive but active. It is something that acts upon both the texts that we read and the world in which we live; and neither those texts nor the world is left the same. We are pioneers in experimental or creative forms of literary criticism as well as encouraging the st