Creative Writing – (M.A.)

The Lancaster University postgraduate Creative Writing Programme is one of the longest established and most prestigious writing programmes in the UK. It forms an integral part of the larger Department of English & Creative Writing and is located in Bowland College for most teaching and administrative purposes. It also, however, has rapidly growing virtual learning programmes at both MA and PhD level, enabling students to study wholly or partly away from the university campus.

The MA takes three forms, all of which share common academic and creative objectives: the campus MA, full-time; the campus MA, part-time; the distance learning MA, part-time. Our full-time campus MA course runs every year, the part-time models enrol alternately and biennially. Distance learning enrols in even calendar years and the part-time campus MA in odd calendar years.

The PhD in creative writing can be undertaken as a full-time attending student, a part-time attending student, or as a distance learning student. All models of study involve close supervision by one or more expert supervisors.

Postgraduate study in Creative Writing has recently been strengthened by the establishment, in May 2007, of the Centre for Transcultural Writing and Research (CTWR), which links Lancaster University's postgraduate student community to extensive research activity in creative writing and its impact on society. The Centre incorporates a range of pre-existing transcultural and intercultural research activity - Moving Manchester, Crossing Borders, Radiophonics, Trans-Scriptions - and aims to promote the generation and comparative study of creative writing across cultures. Lancaster's distance learning MA in Creative Writing and our new distance learning PhD recruit internationally and deploy the latest virtual learning technology to support their programmes of writing and research, which have a strong intercultural dimension.