Creative Writing at Liverpool Hope will give you the chance to experience the joys of crafting the written word. The degree focuses on developing you as a writer of poetry and prose (fiction and non-fiction), broadly within the field of literature (poems, short stories, novels, long-form essays). Some professional writing - reviews, blogs and articles for different kinds of media - is also studied. Our focus on creativity and employability means you will be able to produce engaging, innovative and marketable texts.
By studying Creative Writing, you will be empowered with an enhanced command of your craft, increased confidence in expressing your thoughts and emotions, an understanding of the values that inform your writing practice, and the technical skillset to deliver your work to various audiences. Your writing will be enhanced by studying under celebrated writers and academics, as well as developing a range of workplace skills to prepare for fulfilling careers.
The degree will often challenge you and ask you to reach beyond your own experience and interests into those of contemporary and historical communities. Using these as creative stimuli, you will be required to reflect upon social contexts, power, and how truth and justice can be communicated or miscommunicated through creative writing. By the end of the degree, you should have a wide appreciation of forms, genres and applications. Included in the degree are field trips to Wales, and Liverpool museums and galleries, which provide material for writing exercises as well as widening your student experience.
Teaching on this degree is structured into lectures, in which lecturers provide you with information and you are asked to input your ideas, seminars, during which you carry out writing exercises, and tutorials, which in your first year typically have no more than 10 students.
For the Creative Writing part of your degree, there will be approximately 7 teaching hours in your first year, which decreases to approximately 6 teaching hours in your second year and 5 in your third year. On top of teaching hours, you are also expected to spend a minimum of 9 hours studying independently each week, as well as studying in groups to prepare for any group assessments you may have.
Assessments are varied and reflect the diverse nature of the curriculum. During each year of study, there will be critical and reflective essays and a written exam, as well as a practice-based portfolio in which you present a range of writing styles written to set word-limits.
Feedback is crucial to developing as a writer. In the first year, you receive weekly verbal constructive feedback on your work-in-progress during seminars and tutorials, plus detailed written feedback on all formal assessments, returned within four weeks of the assessment deadline. One-to-one appointments are also used to discuss the written feedback on work-in-progress prior to assessment deadlines.
In year two, feedback follows a similar pattern to year one. You are also required to participate in a weekly writing workshop, in which you receive detailed feedback from your peers as well as your tutor.
In year three, you receive regular feedback during your small-group specialist option seminar and one-to-one supervision on their research project.
The Foundation Year is a great opportunity if you have the ability and enthusiasm to study for a degree, but do not yet have the qualifications required to enter directly onto our degree programmes. A significant part of the Foundation Year focuses upon core skills such as academic writing at HE level, becoming an independent learner, structuring academic work, critical thinking, time management and note taking.
Successful completion of the Foundation Year will enable you to progress into the first year (Level C) of your chosen honours degree. Further details can be found here.
The curriculum in year one is designed to develop confidence in your creativity and develop your writing skills across a diverse range of literary and professional genres. These will include fiction, poetry and types of professional writing such as reviews and blogs. You will be introduced to the importance of reading as a writer and encouraged to read widely and to think critically about contemporary writing and classic older texts. You will focus on core writing techniques such as description, narrative, metaphor, dialogue, and characterisation. You will also be encouraged to reflect on your development as a writer in order to nurture an imaginative and independent attitude to your work.
The curriculum in year two builds on the core techniques learnt in year one, but now challenges you to engage more deeply with contemporary themes. You will be asked to consider important cultural and political concerns and to find creative and original responses to challenging subject matter. You will continue to write across and through a diverse range of genres such as short fiction, novel chapters, poetry, articles, reviews, blogs and opinion pieces. In the writing workshop, you will present your own work-in-progress and offer detailed critique of the writing of your peers.
The curriculum in year three focuses your attention on a specialist literary genre such as prose fiction or poetry. In these seminars, you will work with leading writers in these genres and will be challenged to create work of a publishable standard. You will also explore the professional opportunities available to writers and important topics such as working with an agent or editor, writing to commission, cross art-form collaborations, writing for new media, and the business of working as a freelance writer. You will further develop your skills in the critical close reading of contemporary published texts. You will also undertake an independent academic research project in an area of creative writing of your choice.
Creative writing at Liverpool Hope University will set you on the road to interesting and fulfilling careers. You will be able to publish as a poet, fiction writer, critic or blogger, write compelling features for magazines and broadcasters, develop multimedia applications for businesses, work on copy for advertising and public relations companies, or progress onto postgraduate study.
Employability is very much at the heart of this subject. Creative approaches to the production of factual or fictional material will be nurtured in order to maximise the development of transferable skills.
The Service and Leadership Award (SALA) is offered as an extra-curricular programme involving service-based experiences, development of leadership potential and equipping you for a career in a rapidly changing world. It enhances your degree, it is something which is complimentary but different and which has a distinct ‘value-added’ component. Find out more on our Service and Leadership Award page.
As part of your degree, you can choose to spend either a semester or a full year of study at one of our partner universities as part of our Study Abroad programme. Find out more on our Study Abroad page.
The tuition fees for the 2021/22 academic year are £9,250 for full-time undergraduate courses.
If you are a student from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, your tuition fees will also be £9,250.
The University reserves the right to increase Home and EU Undergraduate and PGCE tuition fees in line with any inflationary or other increase authorised by the Secretary of State for future years of study.
As well as paying your tuition fees, you will also need to consider the cost of purchasing core texts, which we estimate to be around £100.
You will also need to consider the cost of your accommodation each year whilst you study at university. Visit our accommodation pages for further details about our Halls of Residence.
We have a range of scholarships to help with the cost of your studies. Visit our scholarships page to find out more.
The International tuition fees for the 2021/22 academic year are yet to be confirmed. Further details will be available shortly.
Visit our International fees page for more information.
This course is also available with Foundation Year as a Combined Honours degree with the following subjects: