The University of Hertfordshire MA in Creative Writing offers you the opportunity to develop your creative, critical and professional writing skills in a stimulating and supportive environment.

Through writing workshops and intensive tutorial-based supervision our teaching staff - all established authors themselves - will help you improve your own writing as you explore the advanced craft, theory and techniques of poetry, prose and drama.

Whether you have an unfinished novel you’re passionate about or want to learn how to write powerful dialogue or create memorable characters, this MA Creative Writing offers a range of modules that give you both literary context and practical professional guidance.

In all modules you will be taught by lecturers who are leading writers whose work encompasses a wide range of approaches and styles and who bridge the gap between creative and academic approaches in their fields.

• Wayne Holloway-Smith’s collection Love Minus Love was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and his poem ‘the posh mums are boxing in the square’ won the National Poetry Award.
• Lorna Gibb has won the Granta Memoir prize and been shortlisted for the Sperber Biography Prize.
• Joe Thomas’s most recent novel, Bent, was a Guardian Best Book of 2020 and picked by the Irish Times in their selection of the Best Crime Fiction of 2020.
• Helen Gordon – a former editor of Granta magazine – has published the critically acclaimed novel, Landfall, and a non-fiction book on nature and travel, Notes From Deep Time is forthcoming in 2021.
• Simon Vinnicombe’s work has been produced at the National Theatre and The Old Vic in London, the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York, and on BBC TV and BBC Radio.  
• Drew Pautz’s work has been performed at the National Theatre, Soho Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, and on BBC Radio.

Find out more about the programme tutors in the UH Arts showcase series Family Is.

Guided by our staff, you’ll take two core Writing Workshop modules examining creative and critical processes in your first two semesters. These workshops provide supportive spaces for you to contribute your own writing, reading your work to your fellow students and learning in turn to critique their work from a writer’s point of view.

Other modules may change but could include Working as a Writer and People and Places. As part of Working as a Writer you’ll submit your work to magazines and creative writing competitions, helping you to gain a practical understanding of the publishing world and how to approach editors and prepare your work for publication.

People and Places focuses on aspects of writing with communities, including the methods and approaches writers have used to portray communities or locations in creative work, and the tradition of writers working with communities to create joint artistic projects.

In your final semester you’ll complete a dissertation. This can take the form of a novel, script for stage, TV or film, a work of creative non-fiction, short story or poetry collection. Wherever your writing ambitions lie, this is your opportunity to add polished work to your portfolio and look ahead to your future writing life. 

This MA will give you the opportunity to create a body of work alongside the skills and confidence to continue to the next stage of your life as a writer. You’ll gain practical knowledge and transferable skills, such as critical and analytical thinking, which can be applied to a range of professions, including publishing and the media, teaching, advertising and marketing. Some of our graduates go on to higher levels of studying, engaging in research in their chosen area or to pursue a Creative Writing PhD.