Activities and societies

Our School offers many opportunities to get involved and explore your interests outside of your studies. You can meet students from courses across our School through the English Society, which runs regular socials, careers events, sporting fixtures, and trips to places both in the UK and abroad.

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Playhouse Lab

The Playhouse Lab is a playreading group based in our School which stages unrehearsed, improvised, script-in-hand performances of plays from the English Renaissance. The sessions are informal and welcoming, and no acting experience is needed.

Alison Morland Poetry Prize

The Alison Morland Poetry Prize presents a great opportunity for aspiring creative writers. Shortlisted entries receive feedback from established professional poets, while the winner receives a cash prize and publication in our prestigious magazine Poetry and Audience.

Talks and readings 

We regularly host readings and talks by well-known and emerging contemporary writers, and you’ll have access to a vibrant community of researchers and creative practitioners. The highly respected literary magazine, Stand, is produced in the School, and publishes the best in new and established creative writing. Work by students on the BA English Literature with Creative Writing course is published in the annual anthology Tenter Hook. Students can also publish alongside professional writers in the long-standing poetry periodical Poetry and Audience.

Interconnections

Interconnections is exclusively for postgraduates in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures and aims to create spaces where you can meet, relax and develop friendships across different disciplines through a series of social and cultural events.

Student societies

Leeds University Union is home to over 300 student societies dedicated to performance, music, culture, faith, sports, academic interests and more. Our students often join creative societies where they can meet people from other subject areas across the University.

Writing and editing

Media

Performance

Robert Cairns MA American Literature and Culture

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I cannot stress enough just how important and enriching societies can be to your life as a student, wherever you study. While it is important to focus on your studies, it is equally important to push yourself to try new activities, and student societies offer the perfect platform to do just that, as well as to meet great friends who may not live in the same halls as you or study the same course.
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