Creative Writing - Undergraduate Degrees 2021 - Lancaster University
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Creative Writing Undergraduate Degrees 2021
2
Contents Welcome
03 Welcome
04 Everything you want from Professor Sharon Ruston
your Creative Writing degree Head of Department
06 Degrees and entry
requirements
07 Your global experience
08 Modules in depth Creative Writing at Lancaster University such as poet Paul Muldoon and graphic
has a long and distinguished history. We novelist Benoît Peeters, and some by
16 Joint major degrees
were the second university in the UK to invited professionals in broadcasting or
18 Meet our staff begin teaching the subject, and we have the publishing industry.
20 Life on the degree continued to lead developments in the
The Department offers a rich, creative
22 Your future career field. Our Creative Writing tutors are
environment in which to undertake
practicing authors, many of them award-
your studies by supporting a wide
winning, who will not only help you to
range of extra-curricular activities
develop your writing but will also advise
for its students. Members of staff
2 you on professional development,
lead reading groups, organise public
3
including how to approach publishers
lectures and special workshops, and
and agents. Many of our graduates go
ensure that our students make the
on to publish and broadcast their work,
most of our proximity to the historic
in some cases winning national and
city of Lancaster by organising
international awards.
drama productions at venues such
We cover all of the core genres as Lancaster Castle or in the Dukes
(poetry, prose, short fiction, drama, Theatre. Our students also contribute
scriptwriting), as well as offering by coordinating writing groups,
training in writing for new media. performing readings, and running three
You will study Creative Writing student-led journals: Flash, Cake and
alongside another subject (English Lux. Finally, you can take advantage of
Literature, English Language, Film, opportunities to undertake a placement
Theatre, or Fine Art) and this will feed year or study abroad at one of our
Get in touch into and enrich your writing. You will partner universities.
be taught through lectures, seminars
Department of English Literature & Creative Writing I hope that you will choose to join us.
and workshops, some delivered by
County College
our Visiting Distinguished Professors
Lancaster University
LA1 4YD
United Kingdom
E: englishugadmissions@lancaster.ac.uk
T: +44 (0)1524 592129
www.lancaster.ac.uk/creative-writing
Speak to a student: www.lancaster.ac.uk/chat
Connect with us
@lancaster_words
@lancasterwords
www.lancaster.ac.uk/creative-writing
Everything you want from
your Creative Writing degree
#1
1st for Creative Writing
Complete University Guide, 2021
Our Creative Writing lecturers are experienced, published practitioners
in their chosen specialist areas. We have a long-established tradition of
student-centred, workshop-led teaching.
#1
1st for Creative Writing graduate prospects
Complete University Guide, 2021
4 5
Our degrees combine practical and academic skills for careers in
writing, publishing and many more fields. We offer credit-bearing
work placement modules, placement years, and internships in
some of the leading publishing houses in the UK.
Perform
Perform your work at both on- and off-campus events, and
attend readings and literary events such as the Lancaster
Words Festival, with its rich program of invited writers, open mic
evenings, and the North West Literary Salon series.
Publish
I have loved every second second year, I was Secretary of
of Creative Writing here at Lancaster University Writers’
Lancaster. The workshops Society and in my third year, I
are incredibly diverse; you was an Editor for Cake Magazine,
Publish your work in student-run journals such as
Push your are exposed to many kinds of
writing, which really inspires
the University’s in-house literary
journal. The opportunities for
Cake, Flash, and Lux.
creative limits and challenges you to push your
creative limits. The Department
writers here are endless…
Daisy Brown
is friendly and supportive, and
BA (Hons) English Literature,
the course has such an active
Creative Writing and Practice,
presence on campus. In my
Year 3
www.lancaster.ac.uk/creative-writing
lancaster.ac.uk/creative-writing
Degrees and
entry requirements
Your global
experience
Degree Award Duration UCAS code Typical offer
English Literature, Creative Writing and Practice BA (Hons) 3 years QW38 AAB
English Literature with Creative Writing BA (Hons) 3 years Q3W8 AAB
English Language and Creative Writing BA (Hons) 3 years Q3WV AAB
Film and Creative Writing BA (Hons) 3 years PW38 ABB
Fine Art and Creative Writing BA (Hons) 3 years WW18 ABB
Theatre and Creative Writing BA (Hons) 3 years WW48 ABB Study abroad
Grow in independence and confidence while immersing yourself in
Placement year and study abroad degrees a new culture and way of learning. At Lancaster, you can apply to
study abroad for the whole of your second year, providing a unique
You can take a placement year with the majority of our degree programmes. With specialist support and dedicated
modules, you will apply for a professional, paid work placement in Year 3 and return to Lancaster to complete your degree experience to add to your CV. Our current partner universities
in Year 4. Check online for the relevant UCAS codes and find out more here: www.lancaster.ac.uk/placement-year are located in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland and the
USA. You register your interest and apply for your preferred
6 You can apply for a study abroad year when you arrive at Lancaster. On our 3-year study abroad degrees you spend your
destination once you arrive at Lancaster. Living in another country 7
second year studying at one of our international partner universities. Find out more: www.lancaster.ac.uk/study-abroad
and studying your subjects from a different perspective offers
considerable benefit both in terms of your understanding of the
Lectures Creative writing workshops third years. You will have set reading
subject and your preparation for life
and assigned writing for each of
The lectures in the first year focus Our creative writing staff bring these classes, so this results in a full, after university.
on the tools and techniques applied a wealth of experience from the though flexible, study schedule.
by other writers and how these worlds of writing and publishing
techniques may be applied to your to enrich their teaching. Creative Vacation travel
own work. Genre specific concerns – writing workshops are at the core
Assessment
such as tools for effective dialogue, of our teaching. You meet regularly
Discover a new world in the Easter and Summer vacation periods
In Creative Writing, most modules
poetic form and stagecraft – are in small groups with a tutor to read are assessed by the submission of with our short trips to destinations around the globe. You will
studied, alongside broader lectures and comment on each other’s work a writing portfolio, developed return with a CV that truly stands out from the crowd in the
on craft, such as methods for dealing and to revise it in the light of this through the workshop group with
with writer’s block. In the second and feedback. You will also have the feedback from the tutor, along increasingly global world of work.
third years, the lectures focus more opportunity to respond to the weekly with a reflective essay to show an
on the next stages; how to approach lecture topics here. understanding of the market and In the Easter vacation, we typically offer a ten-day trip to New York
publishers, where to send your work literary contexts of your work. We and Boston in which you join fellow students and lecturers from
and how to make a living as a writer.
Lancaster staff are supplemented by
Contact hours aim to return coursework to you,
your faculty to take part in academic, cultural and
graded and with comments from
speakers from the creative writing You can expect to be in class for your tutor, within four weeks. Other personal development activities.
industry who give lectures which around nine hours a week in your first subjects that you combine with
explore what it takes to get published year, depending on which courses Creative Writing will be assessed by During the summer, we usually run three-week trips to
as well as the wider literary contexts you sign up for. Classroom contact a combination of coursework and
of being a writer. time is similar in your second and
destinations such as Malaysia, India, Ghana and China. These
end-of-year examinations.
trips include meeting local students and businesses as well as
academic study and cultural discovery. For a classroom-based
For information on fees, scholarships and any additional costs you might need to consider, please see our website: experience, you can also attend summer schools delivered by one
www.lancaster.ac.uk/study of our many overseas partner universities.
Find out more: www.lancaster.ac.uk/your-global-experience
Our Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) Gold rating is based on high quality teaching,
excellent teaching facilities and the good careers our graduates attain.
www.lancaster.ac.uk/creative-writingModules in depth Year 2
reative Writing at Lancaster is always taken as a joint major or a minor alongside another subject.
C
It benefits greatly from being in combination with other subjects, and we offer many flexible pathways.
In the module breakdown that follows, you will see how Creative Writing is combined with the study
of English Literature: Core Core
Intermediate Creative Writing Workshop The Theory and Practice of Criticism
BA (Hons) English Literature, Creative Writing BA (Hons) English Literature with
and Practice (50/50% split) Creative Writing (75/25% split) In a series of weekly lectures, you will study more This module encourages you to reflect on your
advanced techniques and approaches to various approach to the study of literature. Key concepts in
On this joint major degree, you will spend as much time on This major-minor degree comprises three-quarters English
literary forms, encouraging you to push the contemporary literary studies such as ideology, the
Creative Writing as you do on English Literature. Creative Literature and one-quarter Creative Writing.
boundaries of your work, with an eye towards entering unconscious, discourse, and biopolitics are studied
Writing workshops, lectures, and readings will help you to This means that a very intensive focus on English Literature
the wider literary context and the public eye. You’ll through the work of major thinkers such as Marx,
develop your own writing, and this will be accompanied by is accompanied by a Creative Writing workshop.
put the lectures into practice in your weekly writing Freud, Foucault, and Derrida.
a rigorous and inspiring study of Literature.
workshop. Assessment is by portfolio.
We keep our degree programmes under constant review, and regularly introduce and update modules. In any academic
year, the modules offered may therefore differ from those presented here. Similarly, the structure of our degrees may
change, in response to curricular developments and following consultation with students. Please check our website for the
latest information: www.lancaster.ac.uk/study
Year 1 English Literature, Creative Writing and
Practice students take:
English Literature with Creative Writing
students take:
Optional Optional
Core Select 2 term-long specialist Select 1 English
Core Optional
Introduction to Creative Writing modules Literature module
English Literature World Literature
Creative Writing
8 9
+ Short Fiction: Genre and Practice + Late Medieval to Early Modern Literature
You will examine the basic A broad range of literature is You will explore a wide and
techniques of prose and addressed, from the Middle Ages exciting range of texts from world + Poetry: Genre and Practice + Victorian Literature
poetry. Divided into two parts, to the contemporary period. literatures in English that have + Creative Non-Fiction: Genre and Practice
‘Approaching Writing’ and ‘Putting This module is a taster of famous influenced the development
it into Practice’, each is assessed and infamous texts through of English Literature, including + Writing Place and Landscape
by a portfolio of your work. the Renaissance, Victorian, the Bible and classical writers + Writing for the Stage
Romantic, and modern periods such as Ovid, Homer, and Dante.
and the many and varied possible You’ll look at modern world
approaches to reading literature. authors in translation, like Kafka,
You will be introduced to the key and at today’s culture through
debates in literary study and contemporary authors such as
given a foundation in the skills, Salman Rushdie and Mariama Bâ, Optional Optional
tools, and knowledge that can as well as new media writing and Select 1 year-long Select 1 further English
open up new and exciting ways the graphic novel. English Literature module Literature module
of reading.
OR
+ L ate Medieval to Early Modern Literature + American Literature to 1900
Optional + Victorian Literature + British Romanticism
Minor module + American Literature to 1900 + Literature, Film and Media
+ British Romanticism
You can select a module in another + Literature, Film and Media
subject to complement your
studies in Creative Writing. Your
department will provide a list of
module options prior to starting
your studies at Lancaster along
with information on how to register
for your preferred choice.
www.lancaster.ac.uk/creative-writingYear 2
Modules
English Literature Modules
Late Medieval to Early American Literature to 1900 Literature, Film and Media
Modern Literature What do we mean by ‘American You will survey formal, generic,
You will examine the literature of a Literature’ and how do we define historical, cultural, narrative and
century of revolutionary change, America and ‘the American theoretical relationships between
both in politics and culture. The focus experience’? How has American literature and film across a range of
is generically and historically wide- Literature evolved from its colonial periods, genres, topics and cultures,
ranging, from Spenser’s provocative origins? You will answer these examining the practice and analysis
Elizabethan verse epic The Faerie questions by engaging with many of literary film adaptation. You will
Queene, to the brilliant and edgy different voices, many conflicting also study other modes of literary
theatre of the likes of Christopher and contrasting views, a diversity of adaptation, such as television
Marlowe, Ben Jonson and the prose complex experiences, and a great or graphic novels. Questions
writings of revolutionaries like John range of writing in form and style. of originality, authorship and
Milton and monarchist libertines like intertextuality will be addressed
Aphra Behn. British Romanticism across the course as a whole.
Specialist Creative Writing Modules This module develops a well-
Victorian Literature rounded sense of Romanticism,
Students of English Literature, Creative Writing and Practice (50/50 split) choose
What is a ‘Victorian attitude’? You will a movement that includes the
two term-long modules in Year 2. poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge,
address this question by examining
This list is indicative of current and future options, but these remain subject to the role played by literature in the and Shelley, but also relates to
change from year to year depending on staff availability. defining cultural debates of the the development of Gothic writing
time, concerning progress, science, and to the novels of Jane Austen.
religion and gender. You will examine Themes of politics and poetics and
a wide range of Victorian literature, of imagination and identity will be
including novels, poetry, short examined across a range of texts.
stories, drama, social criticism, travel
10 Short Fiction: Writing for the Stage Writing Place and Landscape
writing and children’s fiction. 11
Genre and Practice The module enables you to write This module is designed for
You will gain experience in reading, for the theatre and to develop your students who are interested in
writing, workshopping and reflecting awareness of the processes by writing imaginatively about places
on the short story, as well as flash which a written script makes its and/or landscapes, providing a
fiction. The module seeks to develop way to performance, culminating grounding in the broad field of
– Dr Andrew Tate talks to students about
a knowledge of the history and in a performance showcase in nature, environmental and place
American literature at Walden pond,
development of the form, current which you will be actively involved. writing (which has been undergoing
You will be taught through something of a renaissance in recent USA, on a vacation travel trip, 2019.
theoretical approaches to reading,
and an awareness of their own weekly seminars/creative writing years). You will be encouraged to
literary context. During the module, workshops to explore the effects consider your own work as part of a
you are also expected to keep a that different staging approaches larger, ongoing literary conversation
journal, in which you reflect upon and performance strategies have on about place. The module also
your writing and reading. The journal your scripts. Over the course of the contains an element of fieldwork,
will form the basis of the reflective module, you will develop your own linking the act of physically walking
element of your final portfolio. writing styles and gain an awareness through a landscape to the practice
of the professional requirements of of reading and writing about it.
Poetry: Genre and Practice playwriting.
This is an intensive ten-week study Creative Non-Fiction:
of poetic form and technique, Genre and Practice
coupled with a workshop where you
will give and receive feedback on This module specialises in memoir,
your own poems. travel writing, reviewing and the
personal essay, and explores the
The emphasis is on reading as well ways in which non-fiction writers
as writing poetry; it will explore how use creative writing techniques in
our own experience translates into their work.
poetry and how poetry becomes an
experience generated by language, You will explore the writing of
memory, imagination and form. creative non-fiction through
The writing of poetry is dependent the development, in a workshop
on your abilities as a reader and environment, of your own work,
interpreter of poems and on the combined with the directed reading The above modules are only available
textures of lived experience. of a selection of contemporary work if you study Creative Writing as a joint
and secondary texts. major, rather than a minor, subject.
www.lancaster.ac.uk/creative-writingYear 3 Year 3
Modules
Core
Advanced Creative Writing Workshop Specialist Creative Writing Modules
Students of English Literature, Creative Writing and Practice (50/50 split) choose four
term-long modules in Year 3.
A series of lectures will look at the practicalities of life as a writer, including approaching editors, publishing in This list is indicative of current and future options, but these remain subject to change
magazines, and getting work commissioned for the stage. Our core staff are typically joined by guest speakers
from the industry. This will feed into further workshops, developing a portfolio with an experienced and
from year to year depending on staff availability.
practicing tutor.
English Literature, Creative Writing and English Literature with Creative Writing Creative Non-Fiction II Advanced Short Story: Longer Fiction: Skills and
Form and Practice Techniques for Approaching
Practice students will take: students will take: You will develop your practice across
a range of creative non-fiction forms You will study structure, time,
a Novel
and topics and extend your reading genre and endings and write your During this module you will examine,
in this area. own short fictions. This module through the set reading and in-
Optional Core provides the opportunity for you to class writing prompts and tasks,
Select 4 Creative Writing modules Dissertation This module will concentrate
develop your knowledge and skills the unique features of long fiction
on reviews, essays, and cultural
of the short story form, history and (novellas and novels). Through
reflection. The module should be
practice with a more advanced seminar discussion of set texts, the
considered to have a cumulative
course. Each week you will discuss, workshopping of creative writing in
+ L
onger Fiction: Skills and Techniques for This is a long essay on a subject of your choice. effect, in that the books discussed
in detail, one or two specimen short progress and the writing of synopses
Approaching a Novel It could be something that caught your attention earlier in the term (as well as those
stories, as well as workshop your and other planning documents,
earlier on in the course that you want to approach in discussed in the second year
+ Creative Non-Fiction II own creative work. Topics covered you will develop competence in
more depth, or a long-standing enthusiasm that you Creative Non-Fiction module) may
will include: plot, narrative and approaching a long fiction project.
+ Writing/Reading Poetry would like to study in a more systematic and focused be drawn upon in later weeks to
‘the twist in the tale’; the epiphany This includes: strategies for planning
way. Whatever you choose, you will be helped by illustrate different aspects of writing.
+ Narrative and New Media and other ways of ending; writing and structuring, choosing point
regular supervision from a member of staff. extreme experiences, and rewriting
12 + Advanced Short Story: Form and Practice Narrative and New Media
fairy tales, folk tales and myth.
of view and tense, developing
plot, addressing theme and
13
+ Poetry and Experiment This module will provide the space characterisation, experimenting with
for you to work on a creative project Poetry and Experiment form and considering an ending.
that utilises opportunities afforded
This module challenges the received
+ + by new interactive media. During
structures of language in your own
Writing/Reading Poetry
the module we will examine new
poetry through a close reading of This module will deepen your
media narratives. The topics will
experimental poets. The first hour of engagement with both the writing
respond to your own project ideas
every seminar will look at how poets and the reading process. Both
and interests, but may include:
Optional Optional from Alice Oswald to Ezra Pound closed and open forms will be
interactivity and immersion; space,
Select modules in English Literature to Select 2 x 15-credit English Literature stretch or break the lyric formula. explored through a wide-ranging
place, mapping and journeying; the
make up 60 credits modules such as: We will encourage you to experiment selection of poems. A portion
problem of character; or explore
either as a continuation of the radical of each seminar will be spent
the question of authorship in
departures first implemented by the discussing the set poems for the
collaborative fictions. You do not
See pages 14-15 for module options. + Science Fiction in Literature and Film poets in question, or to break from week. The dual assessment (a
need to have any special computer
comfortable notions of confessional portfolio of your own poems plus a
+ Women Writers programming skills – only an interest
You may also choose to complete a dissertation: a or lyric poetry. close reading of two of the syllabus
in the opportunities afforded to
10,000 word project on a subject of your choosing. + Victorian Gothic poems) reflects the course emphasis
writers by new media forms.
See page 14-15 for more module options. on the inter-relationship between
reading and writing.
+
Optional
Select further modules in English Literature to
make up 30 credits
See page 14-15 for module options.
The above modules are only available if you study Creative Writing
as a joint major, rather than a minor, subject.
www.lancaster.ac.uk/creative-writingYear 3
Modules
English Literature English Literature
15-Credit Modules 30-Credit Modules
These half-unit modules are typically designed around the current These full-unit modules are taught
research of members of staff, and so are subject to frequent changes. over the course of two terms.
This list, therefore, is offered as a snapshot of some of our current
modules rather than as an indication of what may be running in future
years. We usually offer around twenty half-unit modules each year.
Science Fiction in Literature Victorian Gothic Literature and the Bible Modernism towards Shakespeare Contemporary Literature
and Film In the Victorian period, the This module considers the Bible as
Post-modernism This module examines You will encounter the explosion
You will trace the development of decaying castles, corrupt priests, literature and looks at the reciprocal You will look at a range of Shakespearean drama in its own of new literatures from the
science fiction, providing an insight and ancestral curses that were relationship between the Bible and experimental Anglo-American time, as a platform on which early decolonising/newly post-colonial
into the conventions of the genre so prominent in the first phase of other literary texts. We will consider writing from the early twentieth modern debates about agency world and the rise of new literary
and in particular how key themes the Gothic novel gave way to an the ways in which knowledge century – the period of modernism and government, family and forms in the post-war period.
have been successfully adapted increased emphasis on spectral of biblical texts provokes more proper – to the emergent post- national identity were put into play. The module foregrounds literature
for the screen. You will interrogate and monstrous others: ghosts, profound readings of literature and modernism of the 1960s. Through By examining texts from across in English in its international
themes such as war and trauma werewolves, vampires, mummies ask whether rewritings of the Bible close examination of path-breaking Shakespeare’s career, we will explore dimensions, from South Asia
(Starship Troopers, The Forever War, and other creatures of the night. refine or subvert the original text. works from T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, their power to shape thoughts and and the Caribbean, as well as
Akira), encounters with the alien or You will explore these phenomena in and Wallace Stevens through feelings in their own age but also from multicultural and devolved
other (War of the Worlds, Monsters) their historical, cultural, and literary Women Writers to Samuel Beckett and Thomas in ours. Texts might include Julius Britain. Recurrent themes include
the imagination of dystopia (The contexts, with particular focus on Pynchon, you will examine the Caesar, Twelfth Night, Henry IV Part I, margins, haunting, migration, and
Virginia Woolf famously asked
Dispossessed, Children of Men, emerging discourses of gender, meaning and usefulness of two King Lear, and The Tempest. metamorphosis. Texts include
14 Moxyland), and questions of human sexuality, colonialism and class.
‘what would have happened had
Shakespeare had a wonderfully of the most powerful aesthetic Achebe, Things Fall Apart; Selvon, 15
subjectivity, transcendence, love, concepts of the last century. The Lonely Londoners; Atwood,
Postcolonial Environments gifted sister?’ and went on to explore
and loss. Oryx and Crake; Coupland, Hey
the obstacles to literary success
Nostradamus!
This module explores how encountered by women writers.
Jane Austen postcolonial writing grapples with This module follows Woolf’s lead
This module will give you the environmental change, crisis and by seeking to redress the historical
opportunity to study all the major collapse. You will read a wide range marginalisation of women writers in
Schools volunteering module Placement in local creative
works of one of the most celebrated of twentieth and twenty-first century the English literary canon through Employability - and heritage industries
novelists in English literary history. literature from places such as South an exploration of how women have If you are considering training to
It will combine close attention to Africa, Nigeria, Israel/Palestine, come to writing at different historical 15-Credit Modules be a teacher, this module gives you There are opportunities to undertake
the stylistic textures and narrative and indigenous North America, and moments, what they have chosen to invaluable hands-on experience of an assessed work placement module
strategies of Jane Austen’s fiction therefore develop an understanding write, and how. working alongside a teacher in the in the Lent term. The placement
with broader consideration of key of modern and contemporary You can select one of the classroom for half a day a week over takes place at a relevant host
themes and preoccupations such postcolonial/world literatures, and following modules which offer the course of a term. You will devise organisation, with typically 30-40
the environmental sensibilities
as friendship, desire, matchmaking, hands-on opportunities to apply a special activity to do with students hours being spent on placement.
snobbery, illness, resistance, they articulate and contest. Topics and reflect on the experience in an
may include land, enclosure, waste, your knowledge and skills in a Previous students have been placed
transgression and secrecy. end-of-placement essay. at organisations such as publishers,
toxicity, climate change, and urban real-life environment. These
museums, newspapers, heritage
space. opportunities aim to help you sites and arts venues.
approach your professional life
with more confidence.
www.lancaster.ac.uk/creative-writingCreative Writing
joint major degrees
In addition to English Literature, you
can combine Creative Writing with:
+ English Language
+ Fine Art
+ Film
+ Theatre
You can refer to the details on the
previous pages for the Creative
Writing and English Literature
modules; details for your second
subject can be found online at
www.lancaster.ac.uk/study
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Core Core Core
Introduction to Creative Intermediate Creative Advanced Creative Writing
Writing Writing Workshop Workshop
16 17
+ + +
Core Core Core
Your joint major core Select 2 specialist Creative Select 2 specialist Creative
module Writing modules from: Writing modules from:
+ English Language + Short Fiction: Genre and Practice + Longer Fiction: Skills and
+ Film + Poetry: Genre and Practice Techniques for Approaching a
Novel
+ Fine Art + Creative Non-Fiction: Genre and
Practice + Creative Non-Fiction II
+ Theatre
+ Writing Place and Landscape + Writing/Reading Poetry
+ Writing for the Stage + Narrative and New Media
+ Advanced Short Story: Form and
Practice
+ Poetry and Experiment
+ + +
Core / Optional Core / Optional
Optional
Joint major subject core Joint major subject core
Select one of the following
and optional modules and optional modules
+ World Literature + English Language + English Language
+ English Literature + Film + Film
+ Minor subject + Fine Art + Fine Art
+ Theatre + Theatre
www.lancaster.ac.uk/creative-writingMeet our
staff Taj has been writer on attachment
at the West Yorkshire Playhouse,
have been shown at festivals
around the world. He is currently
Tajinder Singh Hayer
Our Creative Writing lecturers are experienced, published practitioners in their chosen specialist writer in residence at BBC Director of Lancaster Words (the
areas, including poetry, the novel, short fiction, script writing, creative non-fiction, and new media. Radio Drama Manchester, and Department of English Literature
They have won multiple national and international awards. Our full selection of staff profiles is Lecturer in Creative was nominated as one of the
Royal Court’s fifty promising
and Creative Writing’s literary
festival).
available on our website. Here are introductions to three of them:
Writing, scriptwriter playwrights in 2006-7. He has
written for the West Yorkshire
Paul Farley has received and others, and is a well-known Playhouse, Peshkar, Freedom
widespread acclaim for his broadcaster, having written and Studios, Menagerie, and
Prof Paul Farley poetry, including the Whitbread
Prize, the Somerset Maugham
presented many arts features
and documentary programmes
Look Left, Look Right Theatre
Company. He won the BBC’s Spin
Professor in Award, the Cholmondeley Prize,
the E. M. Forster Award from the
for radio and television, as well
as writing several original dramas
new writing award in 2003 with
People Like Me, and has written
Creative Writing, American Academy of Arts & and adaptations. He also presents for BBC Radio Four, Radio Three
Letters, two Forward Prizes and BBC Radio 4’s contemporary
poet, writer and the Sunday Times Young Writer of poetry programme, The Echo
and the Asian Network. He has
also written for the CBeebies
the Year. His Selected Poems was Chamber. Paul’s book Deaths of
broadcaster published by Picador in 2014. the Poets (2017), is a series of
channel, and his short films
non-fiction journeys into the myth
As well as writing poetry, his
of the doomed poet.
award-winning non-fiction book
18 Edgelands (2011), a series 19
of journeys into England’s
overlooked wilderness, was a
BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.
Paul has also written more widely
on the arts and literature for
The Guardian, Granta, Art Review
Jenn Ashworth won the Betty Jenn’s research interest lies in
Trask Award for her first novel, exploring what a novel might
A Kind of Intimacy (2009) and look like in the digital age, and
Dr Jenn Ashworth on publication of her second
novel, Cold Light (2011), she
in collaborative and disruptive
ways of delivering a novel-sized
Lecturer in Creative was featured on the BBC Culture reading experience. This research
Show as one of Britain’s 12 best informs her current teaching on
Writing, novelist and new novelists. Her third novel the third-year module, Narrative
short story writer The Friday Gospels (2013) is
published by Sceptre and her
and New Media, which explores
the interactive, participatory,
fourth book, Fell – called ‘Dark, immersive and cross-platform
compelling, beautifully written’ nature of new means of story-
by the Guardian – was published telling.
in 2016. As well as writing novels
and short stories, Jenn also
reviews contemporary literary
fiction for The Guardian and the
Independent and is co-founder of
the writers’ and artists’ collective, Internationally celebrated literary scholar and cultural theorist,
Curious Tales. Distinguished Professor Terry Eagleton chats to students after
a talk at Lancaster Priory, 2019.
www.lancaster.ac.uk/creative-writingLife on the
degree
Student-run journals
We have three in-house, student-run, creative
writing journals. The print publication Cake
publishes poetry, flash fiction, and reviews of work
Meet
Thom
from established poets and newcomers alike. Flash
is an undergraduate-run online and print journal
which publishes fiction, poetry, critical and hybrid
work by current Lancaster undergraduates. Lux is
an interdisciplinary journal that seeks to showcase
incisive and original work from students across the
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
I think one of the most important parts of studying Creative Writing
at Lancaster is the fact that every single tutor and staff member
There are many other opportunities for writing + Developed new scripts in the Dukes Theatre
shares exactly the same passion that you do for writing. They might
in Lancaster. Here are some of the activities our in Lancaster.
students have taken part in recently: not always have expertise or experience in a specific area, but the
+ Attended guest readings of poets and writers department is very well connected and you will always be directed
20 + Run their own workshops in the Writer’s Society, such as Vahni Capildeo, A J Blakemore, Paul 21
one of the student-run societies at Lancaster. McVeigh and PJ Harvey.
to where you need to be.
+ Set up reading and writing groups, such as + Taken a student production of the Canterbury
the Graphic Novel Reading Group, or the Sci-fi Tales to the Edinburgh Festival.
I’ve taken part in Flash, the student-run flash fiction and poetry
Reading Group.
+ Made major contributions to the volunteering journal that I am an editor for, and that’s been a brilliant exercise in
+ Attended and organised monthly literary salons programmes of Lancaster University Students’ publication and editorial work that will do me wonders going into any
with nationally and internationally acclaimed Union.
authors in Lancaster city centre under the
work that requires those skills.
+ Made short promotional films about life in
auspices of ‘Stories at the Storey’.
the Department.
Thomas Lingard
BA (Hons) English Literature,
Creative Writing and Practice, Year 1
Volunteering and the Lancaster Award
The Lancaster Award is a non-academic certificate Potential employers increasingly value a profile
developed in partnership with employers to help that includes more than just strong academic
you make the most of your time at Lancaster and to results, and the Lancaster Award recognises and
demonstrate the skills you have developed along validates these.
the way. It is designed to reward the wide range of
Find out more:
volunteering activities and placements undertaken
www.lancaster.ac.uk/lancaster-award
by many of our undergraduates.
– Illustration by Tanyaporn Leewiriyakulchai, MA Design Management, Lancaster University
www.lancaster.ac.uk/creative-writingYour future
career
#1
For Creative Writing graduate prospects
Publishing
insight
I completed a 5 week placement
with Carcanet Press as part
of a third year module. The
experience gave me a whole new
breadth of insight into marketing
new book releases, and also
experience, which in turn has
helped me to shape my career
prospects after graduation.
Kayla Jenkins
BA (Hons) English Literature,
Complete University Guide 2021 for the publishing industry as the
complex creature that it is.
Overall, I’m grateful to Carcanet
Creative Writing and Practice,
graduated 2019
Kayla and the University for giving me
the opportunity to gain such
Throughout your degree, we encourage you to gain Careers
work experience that will support you in achieving
A degree including Creative Writing can underpin
your chosen career. A wide range of placement and
many careers and, as well as helping our students
internship opportunities are available, including
make good academic decisions while they are
credit-bearing modules that include working in
with us, we also recognise the need to think ahead
creative, cultural and heritage organisations or
to life after graduation. In addition to offering
schools. We offer the option of a placement year
placement modules, we deliver professional
22 with the majority of our degrees, which will boost
development sessions on employability-
23
your employability.
related matters, including bespoke talks by the
University’s Careers Service and we host visits
from potential employers and alumni of the
Placement year degrees Department. Our graduates have gone on to be I enjoyed the ‘Writing for the in Lancaster, collaborating
Stage’ module. It gave me with actors and directors in a
Industry
On our placement year degrees you apply for authors, poets, screen writers, journalists, new
media and content writers, as well as working in the the chance to see my work professional environment made
a year of paid, professional work experience
professions listed below. performed professionally the module very valuable. It
between your second and final year of study.
and establish contacts in the allowed me to develop my writing
contacts
Lancaster University students have worked with
Our track record speaks for itself: we are 1st for industry. The tutor, Taj Hayer, skills whilst gaining experience
companies as diverse as Johnson + Johnson,
graduate prospects in the Complete University was very passionate about in a career environment;
Warner Bros, Microsoft, Marks & Spencer, and Walt
Guide 2021. A degree in Creative Writing opens up the subject. I had never really something which very few other
for
Disney. We support you with specialist staff and
exciting and varied career opportunities: tried writing scripts before and creative writing courses do.
dedicated preparation modules.
+ Teachers + Librarians Taj’s workshops were expertly
Abbie Grundy
Abbie
delivered and feedback was
+ Publishers + Editors concise and honest, showing BA (Hons) English Literature,
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences where you needed to improve Creative Writing and Practice,
+ Archivists + Journalists
Internship Scheme quite clearly. This, combined graduated 2018
These internships take place during the summer + Media and PR + Advertising with the professional experience
vacation and part-time during term time. They of working in the Dukes theatre
+ Writers
provide work experience in small and medium
sized businesses as well as third sector and not- Find out more about our lifelong careers support:
for-profit organisations. Past employers have www.lancaster.ac.uk/careers
included Carnegie Publishing, The Dukes Theatre,
British Red Cross, Institute for Strategic Dialogue Important information
and the National Trust, with roles ranging from The information in this booklet relates primarily to 2021/22 entry to the University and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is
correct at the time of printing in June 2020. The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the course as described but the University
marketing and PR to specific research projects.
reserves the right to make changes after going to print. You are advised to consult our website at www.lancaster.ac.uk/study for up-to-date
Find out more: www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass- information before you submit your application.
placements
Further legal information may be found at www.lancaster.ac.uk/compliance/legalnotice.
www.lancaster.ac.uk/creative-writingEnglish Literature
and Creative Writing
www.lancaster.ac.uk/creative-writing
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