Research opportunities in creative writing are available for either full-time or part-time study.
Our teaching staff’s research expertise ranges across all the major genres and mixed genre writing. In conjunction with colleagues in English we can also offer extensive supervision experience in contemporary writing. Topics include contemporary poetry and poetics; novel writing and short story writing; drama, radio and screenwriting; hybrid writing; transgressive writing; and the creative process. The research undertaken will have a strong practical creative focus. The aim will be to produce a thesis which contains a groundbreaking and original text of publishable standard and a
complementary discourse which contextualises its critical and creative aspects.
As well as research students at MA and PhD level there is a very strong taught MA programme in Creative & Critical Writing in the Department and this provides a healthy and diverse postgraduate community of dedicated and talented writers. There is also a thriving extra-curricular literary scene in the county. Students benefit from the Dymock Poets Archive and Study Centre, containing manuscripts, first editions and other materials relating to Robert Frost, Lascelles Abercrombie, Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Gibson and Eleanor Farjeon. The learning centre also includes a wide selection of contemporary writing and creative writing journals.
The Humanities department maintains close links with the Cheltenham Festival of Literature, and sponsors the annual Laurie Lee Memorial Lecture in tribute to this celebrated Gloucestershire writer. Our stimulating research environment includes access to visiting writers, lecture programmes and seminars across the university, and we will expect you to contribute to the latter. We will encourage you to attend relevant conferences, as well as giving readings of your creative work and academic papers in the course of your studies. You will be well supported by your supervisory team and can expect regular tutorials with supervisors, combined with peer group seminars and discussions.
Interdisciplinary study
We offer opportunities for interdisciplinary research within Humanities and across the university. Our system of using a supervisory team, as opposed to an individual supervisor, makes this mode of study particularly appropriate.
Training in Research Methods
All research students who have not completed a relevant Masters Degree, or other appropriate research methods training, are required to complete two core modules of the Master of Research (MRes).
Entry requirements
- you will normally need an honours degree of upper second class or above from a UK university in a subject area relevant to the proposed research topic
- in exceptional circumstances, the university will consider applications from non-graduates who already have a track record of publication
- registration may be for an MA by Research, an MPhil or a PhD
- candidates with a recent Masters qualification in a relevant subject, which contained appropriate research methods training, may register for a PhD directly. Masters by Research and MPhil students have the possibility of
transfer to a PhD.
Staff offering supervision
Michael Johnstone, BA MA
Lecturer in Creative Writing
Postmodern fiction; historiographic metafiction; radical political writing; the intersection of continental philosophy and contemporary fiction
Tyler Keevil, BA MA
Lecturer in Creative Writing
Speculative literature (slipstream/science fiction); short fiction
Nigel McLoughlin BA MA PhD FHEA FRSA
Reader in Creative Writing
Poetry; Poetics of Creative Writing; The Creative Process; Pedagogy of Creative Writing
Rebecca Nesvet BA MPhil MFA
Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing
Playwriting, Writing & Science, Historical Drama
Kate North BA MA PhD FHEA
Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing
Hybrid Writing, Contemporary British Poetry and Prose, Feminist Literature and Theory, Postmodern Literature and Cyborg Theory
Martin Randall BA MA PhD
Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing
The Holocaust, Postmodern Fiction, Satire, Transgression, Fiction & History.