Creative Writing at Leeds
Harness your creativity
From poetry to prose and scripts to songwriting, we offer a range of courses to help advance your career in the professional writing industries.

Events and readings
Our busy programme of events and engagements allows you to collaborate and build connections across industry and academia.
Find out more
Our expertise
Our courses are led by renowned writers of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and expertise from the stage, screen and radio.
Explore our staff
Creative Writing at Leeds
Creative Writing at Leeds is rooted in a critical engagement of the wider world. The subject encompasses the study and practice of new writing, led by notable authors and researchers from the School of English and the School of Performance and Cultural Industries.
Our creative writing community benefits from partnerships with lkley Literature Festival, Leeds Playhouse, Leeds Grand Theatre, University of Leeds Poetry Centre and the School of Night (led by national Poet Laureate Professor Simon Armitage). We also support a thriving range of events and workshops with visiting writers.
Courses
Develop the skills and experience to enhance your career opportunities as a creative writer. Our undergraduate and masters degrees allow you to explore the theory and practice of writing, through research-led teaching from internationally-recognised writers:
BA English Literature with Creative Writing
Blend creative and critical approaches to literature as you explore writing from Old English to the contemporary period, including American, postcolonial literature and world theatre. You’ll produce creative work across genres, including fiction, poetry, plays, life writing, screenplays, short fiction and more.
More on BA English Literature with Creative WritingMA Creative Writing
Combine creative and critical writing at Masters level to develop your skills and knowledge in the context of the study of English. You'll engage with a wide variety of literary genres as a critical reader and a creative practitioner, with expert guidance from published creative writers and academic researchers.
More on MA Creative WritingMA Writing for Performance and Digital Media
Develop your unique voice as a writer and storyteller in the context of the School of Performance and Cultural Industries’ outstanding research in the fields of contemporary performance practice, creative and adaptive writing, digital and intermedial art, audience studies and cultural policy.
More on MA Writing for Performance and Digital MediaResearch degrees
The interdisciplinary nature of Creative Writing at Leeds means your research will benefit from expertise in a wide range of specialisms across the fields of prose, poetry, scriptwriting and performance:
We offer a broad range of funding opportunities to support research, including fees scholarships and doctoral loans.
Find out more about funding through School of English scholarships and School of Performance and Cultural Industries scholarships.

Our expertise
Creative Writing at Leeds has a great history of alumni and former staff, including Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Geoffrey Hill, JRR Tolkien, and our recent Douglas Caster Poetry Fellows Helen Mort, Vahni Capildeo, Malika Booker and Zaffar Kunial.
Our current staff includes Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, Kimberly Campanello, Campbell Edinborough, Zaffar Kunial, Karina Lickorish Quinn, Alison Peirse, Jay Prosser, Adam Strickson and John Whale.

Broadening with Creative Writing
All undergraduates at Leeds benefit from the opportunity to take modules to help to pursue writing as a profession. You can take a creative writing module at any point throughout your course, or choose to follow a progression pathway from Year 1 to Year 3.
News

Research and collaboration inspires a breakthrough book for children
The University of Leeds has published its first children's book as part of a…
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Third Tenter Hook anthology showcases creative writing at Leeds
A new volume of breakthrough creative writing from the School of English has…
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Leeds graduate scriptwriter to write for BBC
Television scriptwriter Lizzie Watson is one of five new and emerging…
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Publishing success for Dr Rachel Bower
Associate Lecturer Dr Rachel Bower’s poem, I crossed the Humber Bridge…
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