Course details

Our BA (Hons) Creative Writing degree explores ‘how to put the best possible words in the best possible order’. Your imagination is boundless and we’ll help you to focus and control your ideas to give them shape, energy and structure. Our dedicated team of professional writers and lecturers will guide you on a journey through the worlds of prose, poetry and drama, and contemporary creative practice.

We’ll nurture and support you in exploring the rich, expressive potential of the English language and your development of the crafts of writing. Alongside this, we’ll examine, from a writer’s point of view, a wide range of creative work in various forms. Small group teaching and one-to-one support are central to our approach, allowing our expert team to offer personalised guidance that’s tailored specifically for you.

You’ll have opportunities to refine and develop your skills at every stage, from initial concept, through planning, background research and first drafts, to editing, re-writing and self-critique. The final year combines the creative, the critical and the practical. You’ll write a significant piece of creative work: a calling card script, collection of poetry or an extended piece of fiction; you’ll research and analyse a chosen area of creative practice; and you’ll undertake a work placement in an area associated with your individual career goals. Throughout the course, you’ll gain confidence, skills and knowledge, preparing you for a successful career in a multitude of industries.

Key features

You’ll be encouraged to get to know your peers from other subjects such as English, Theatre, and Media, Writing and Production, with whom you’ll be participating in a variety of external creative events and/or collaborative projects.


Your tutors

All our lecturers are professional writers and researchers who’ve produced and continue to publish poetry, prose, plays and papers with national and international periodicals and imprints.


Employability

Develop a range of skills alongside your writing that are highly valued by employers, such as creative thinking, problem solving, communication, team working, time management, research and critical analysis, IT, cultural awareness and lifelong learning.


Guest lecturers

There’ll be guest lectures from professionals from all aspects of the writing industry: producers, scriptwriters, poets, novelists, agents, publishers, promoters, and directors. Names you may recognise such as Sally Wainwright, Patrick Ness and Jenn Ashworth have given presentations in recent years.


Professional recognition

The University of Bolton is linked via creative partnerships with Bolton’s own Octagon Theatre and Carcanet, a leading and prize-winning poetry publisher based in Manchester. The university is currently fostering links with South Yorkshire’s leading literary development organisation, The Poetry Business. Writers and lecturers who teach on the course have established links with a variety of media and organisations, including The Guardian, The Poetry Society, NAWE, The British Council and Arts Council England.

Highlights

  • Our dedicated lecturers are active professional writers and researchers whose work continues to be published, or produced on stage, screen or radio. They bring this wealth of expertise and practical knowledge to their teaching.
  • We have excellent industry contacts and strong links with external creative organisations such as publishers, production companies, theatres, libraries, art galleries, schools, funding bodies and arts development agencies that allow us to offer work experience placements in a wide variety of settings.
  • In particular, our partnership with the nationally acclaimed Octagon Theatre, Bolton means you have opportunities for privileged access to rehearsals, dress rehearsals, professional actors and directors, and discounted tickets for productions.
  • In your final year, you’ll have the opportunity to enter the Octagon Student Prize. Awarded annually for outstanding achievement in writing drama, the winning piece is given a professional presentation with practitioners.
  • We’ll encourage you to submit your work to our ISSN recognised literary magazine ‘The Bolton Review’, and to our annual poetry competition.
  • The annual New Writing Showcase offers you a chance to perform your work at the Bolton Octagon Studio or similar venue.
  • As a Creative Writing student, you’ll be eligible to enter work for the Carcanet Poetry Prize and for the And Other Stories Fiction Prize.