Creative Writing MA (PGCert PGDip)

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

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Top reasons to choose this course

• Develop as a portfolio writer and creative practitioner, somebody who can apply good writing to real-world scenarios and work to specific briefs.

• A transformative experience that goes beyond looking to get your first novel published, so you can explore copywriting and publishing while nurturing your passion for storytelling.
• Be taught by published writers who bring real-world experience, industry insights and a passion for storytelling into the classroom.

• Guest lectures from publishers and professional writers – guest writers have included John Mccullough, Eleanor Knight, Errina Mettler, Emma Donoghue and Tanaka Mhishi.
• Tailor your studies to reflect an interest in writing practice, literary theory, community engagement or any combination of these.
• Strong local publishing connections – we organise a programme of visiting writers and publishing professionals. Take a look at some of our prizes and partnerships.
• Theatre visits, open mic nights and exciting events, including a short-story slam at Brighton festival.
• Online journal and in-house creative anthology for you to share your work with other students and the wider community.
• Become a writer in residence – specific modules are dedicated to engaging you with the Brighton community and local creative industries where you can link your individual creative practice with a professional scenario.

Syllabus

Modules

Core modules

• Practising Rhetoric

  This module will help develop your writing confidence and creative skills. You’ll work individually and collaboratively to explore how to write for different audiences as well as focusing on writing as a process. By studying rhetoric (the art of effective communication), you’ll learn the theory and practical techniques needed to communicate clearly and persuasively.

• Practices of Storytelling

  This module offers you a practical writing experience, guided by writer/research-active tutors. You will explore styles of storytelling and research-led practice to help you develop an original portfolio of work and reflect on the ideas and theories that have enriched your creative writing. You will be supported in building a unique creative practice and encouraged to critically reflect on your growth and identity as a writer.

• Communities of Practice

  You will identify an artistic residency, subject-specific placement or research placement and undertake a specific work-based project to design and fulfil a professional working brief. You will then develop a research project/creative practice project inspired by your residency/subject specific placement. During the module, you will be taught by experts in a series of on and off-campus workshops that will explore site-specific work.

• Dissertation

  Through a range of classes and tutorial supervision you will agree a dissertation topic, develop an original research project and detail how this has informed an extended writing project in a style or genre you are passionate about. Prose, poetry, life writing, script, graphic novel and other styles are all encouraged as you showcase the writer that you are and produce work that matters to you.

Options*

• Globalisation and Global Politics

  This module provides an advanced introduction to the key theories, concepts and critical debates associated with contemporary globalisation and global politics. It draws on approaches developed within the academic fields of politics and global studies in areas such as the world economy and the changing global order; global governance and the United Nations system; global poverty and development; and the politics of sustainability.

• Performing Identities

  This module debates how performing identities – of gender, sexuality, ethnicity or country – are central to cultural, social and personal notions of the self in particular cultures at specific historical and political moments. Drawing on dramatic, postcolonial, linguistic, feminist and queer theories to debate literary form and practice, the module uses case to promote discussion about performing identities both theoretically and practically.

• Life Writing

  In this module you will develop your skills and confidence in curating, producing and analysing life writing by undertaking a research project through collection and/or creation of (for example) short stories, poetry, performance, home movie materials, letters, diaries or photograph collections. It gives you the opportunity to explore the ethical and political implications of life writing and highlights the interplay between personal and cultural contexts.

• Prose Fiction

  In this module you will develop confidence and innovation in prose fiction and develop your close and analytical reading skills. You will apply your expert knowledge of technique and genre to your own original writing practice. This module will also include master classes from visiting writers.

• Writing Black Britain

  This module introduces you to a diverse body of Black British writing. By exploring the issues around its marginalisation, co-opted and often tokenistic inclusion, the module repositions Black British writing as an integral part of British history and literature. You will have the opportunity to study Black British writing across a range of genres and modes, including examples of film, television and art.

• Literature and the Contemporary World

  In this module you will consider the relationship between contemporary literature and the world. You will examine how literature responds to and shapes the reader’s understanding of a globally connected world and think critically about concepts such as cosmopolitanism, environmentalism, globalisation, neocolonialism, internationalism, the planetary and worldliness. You will be encouraged to think about literature as a practice of representation that can depict the world in different ways

• Queer and Now

  Capitalising on Brighton’s location as the UK’s unofficial LGBTQ+ capital, this interdisciplinary module will explore traditions of LGBTQ+ community spaces and local and global writing in the context of the histories and politics of sexuality and queer identities and their contemporary manifestations. Using a wide range of case studies, you will examine current and potential forms of community and radical kinship, informed by key critical debates in queer theory.

• Protecting Human Rights and Building Peace

  This module offers a comprehensive overview of human rights and contemporary peacebuilding. You will gain an understanding of the United Nations Human Rights system, analysing the effectiveness of international efforts to protect, respect and fulfil human rights. You will also look at attempts to defend human rights in the context of contemporary conflict and insecurity, focusing on a range of peacebuilding initiatives.

• Mediating Objects

  This module looks at how everyday objects and people influence each other’s identities and are connected in important ways. You will analyse how they are represented in various texts and contexts such as photographs, works of fiction, correspondence and blogs, film and advertising. You’ll also examine how things are transformed through everyday actions and traditions, like giving gifts or remembering personal and shared experiences.

• Screenwriting

  This module combines creative practice and screenwriting theory in the production of original screenplays. You’ll gain an awareness of the requirements and development structures for screenwriting in various media platforms, including pitching and selling work. You will also grow confidence in your ability to use a range of screenwriting techniques and develop your skills in drafting and redrafting in a workshop situation.

• Poetry: Theory and Practice

  This module explores the crafts of writing and performing poetry and looks at how contemporary poetry connects with and shapes a changing public readership. It will enable you to create poetry confidently and creatively in a variety of styles and genres as well as equipping you with a range of relevant critical lenses.

• The Process of Publishing

  This module will develop your knowledge of publishing and equip you with practical skills that will support you to develop your own creative work for publication. You will gain an insight into aspects of professional publishing and apply your practical skills to your own practice as a member of the editorial team for the school’s anthology website, Pier Review.

• Exploring Objects

  This module will introduce you to a series of theories and approaches in design history and material culture such as historical materialism, feminist critiques, ideas of affect, concepts of the Anthropocene and decolonising practices. Drawing on the period from the late 18th century to the present time, you will examine and make sense of designed objects in terms of how they are produced, circulated, consumed and used in everyday life.

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Lab facilities

Mithras House has a series of lab rooms which can be used for teaching on your course or in your independent research work.

Life lab
A skills-based lab for practice-based teaching, social work, psychotherapy and counselling, and employability. The Life lab is fitted with lounge furniture to provide a comfortable space for conducting qualitative research with larger groups. The lab can be used to conduct research activities with children of all ages and can be used for meetings and events. The room also contains a dedicated space to conduct assessed role play or interviews with children.

City lab
This is a qualitative research methods and creative methods resource for all students, staff and researchers, as well as research participants, including children, community groups and the general public. It can also be used for meetings and events. The City lab contains a kitchen, a teaching/meeting room with enhanced acoustic isolation and two meeting spaces that can be separated with a screen or combined to accommodate larger groups.

Design lab
Housing our extensive collection of historic dress and textiles, which are used in some teaching on our History of Art and Design courses, this has the space and equipment for you to work on textile projects. Displays created by students on these programmes are on view in the social spaces of the building.

Community lab
A space designed for collaborative student learning, this is used by students and staff involved in the university’s Global Challenges programme – our collective mission to contribute towards solutions to tackle the pressing issues facing our world.

Stats lab
A specialist workspace with computing equipment for statistical analysis and projects involving video and audio editing software. The lab contains eight acoustically treated booths for both recording and transcribing interviews undertaken as part of dissertation research and for recording and editing podcasts.

Applied Cognition lab
A dedicated research space for psychological research involving measures such as electrodermal activity (EDA) and electroencephalography (EEG). The space is designed to allow the participant and researcher to sit at separate desks whilst psychophysiological data is being collected. 

VR and eye tracking lab
The VR and Eye-Tracking Lab is used for psychological research using equipment, such as eye-trackers and virtual reality headsets. The space has adjustable lighting and a blackout blind for maintaining consistent lighting conditions during eye-tracking research, as well as sensors set up in the room to allow individuals to move freely around the room during virtual reality research.

Meet the team

Jess Moriarty, course leader

Jess Moriarty researches in the field of pedagogy in writing practice, especially in auto-ethnographical academic writing and in creative writing with undergraduates.

She graduated from the University of Sussex with a Creative Writing MA in 2002 and joined the University of Brighton soon after. Jess won a Teaching Excellence award for her workshops with undergraduates in which she aims to ignite inspiration and motivation within the writing process.

Jess is the co-founder of Work Write Live, which provides a range of writing short courses and volunteering opportunities for students across arts and humanities courses to develop the vocational and academic skills they are acquiring on their degree programme. She has been interviewed by the Times Higher Educational Supplement about her workshops and won an Innovation Award for her retreats, where participants are encouraged to develop confidence with writing and speaking. Under the banner of Work Write Live, students are able to run open mic evenings, produce creative writing anthologies and organise an end-of-year graduate show.

Jess’s doctorate looked at how to make academic writing more personal and creative and included a play based on her autobiographical and researched experiences with academic life. Her work looks at cross-disciplinary practice, community engagement and linking creative processes with the employability agenda.

Meet the rest of the course team:

• Craig Jordan-Baker
• Dr Beatrice Hitchman

Listen to a podcast with course leader Dr Jess Moriarty where she discusses the role of fiction in self-expression and personal wellbeing, a previous ‘Big Read’ book and sharing a moment with her former student and honorary graduate Munroe Bergdorf.

Student views 

Course fees

Scholarships, bursaries and loans

We offer a range of scholarships for postgraduate students. Bursaries and loans may also be available to you.

Find out more about postgraduate fees and funding.

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2025–26.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international postgraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• About the university’s fees by checking our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Local area

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Support and wellbeing

Sport at Brighton