You’ll learn to:

• Plan a manuscript (a novel, collection of short stories, collection of poems or book of literary non-fiction) and complete it, or a substantial part of it, brought to publishable quality or as near as possible.
• Understand literary form, style and genre, as relevant to your chosen form of writing.
• Acquire a variety of relevant writing techniques, and research techniques to support writing, and adapt them to your particular creative project.
• Understand and respond creatively to questions arising from the subject-matter, themes, genres, traditions and other literary contexts with which your chosen manuscript is engaged.
• Receive and give precise and sensitive critical feedback in workshop groups and one-to-one tutorials.
• Respond creatively to feedback provided by tutors and other students, adapting that feedback to your particular vision of your book.
• Understand choices and opportunities relevant to your chosen manuscript, including questions of how to place your work, and the role of agents, publishers and editors.

We offer places on the course on the basis of your portfolio of creative writing and an interview, which for overseas applicants may be virtual or by telephone. We are looking for writers of prose fiction (any genre), poetry or literary non-fiction whom we consider to have the potential to publish their work in the near future.

The portfolio you provide should consist of no more than twenty pages of prose fiction, poetry or literary non-fiction, or a combination of these. It is most helpful if the portfolio includes the kind of writing you wish to develop on the course.