Undergraduate

Creative Writing and English

A student sits reading a book on the seventh floor of the Brynmor Jones Library, University of Hull.
The exterior of the seven-storey Brynmor Jones Library lit up at night.
A group of students smile and laugh outside a red-brick, ivy-clad University building.
An English student looks up at a statue of the poet Philip Larkin in Hull Paragon Interchange train station.
A student sits reading on a bench in the library plaza, surrounded by plants, trees and dappled sun.

Look around

Study the breadth of English and American poetry, short fiction, drama and novels. From medieval and Renaissance to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter.
The 7-storey Brynmor Jones Library is home to 1 million+ books. Our Rare Books room includes a variety of titles published between 1473 and 2002.
Join our student-led English Society and HUWrites. Share your unique voice at open mics. And publish your work in our in-house literary magazines.
Renowned poets and writers Philip Larkin, Andrew Marvell, Stevie Smith, Tom Paulin, J.R.R. Tolkien and Winifred Holtby all have ties to Hull.
This degree doesn’t just pave the way for a literary career. The ability to showcase a creative mind through writing is a rare and valuable skill.
Retreat to the sanctuary of the Reading Room where you can catch up on the newest poetry, prose and criticism in our library of literary journals.
A student sits reading a book on the seventh floor of the Brynmor Jones Library, University of Hull.
The exterior of the seven-storey Brynmor Jones Library lit up at night.
A group of students smile and laugh outside a red-brick, ivy-clad University building.
An English student looks up at a statue of the poet Philip Larkin in Hull Paragon Interchange train station.
A student sits reading on a bench in the library plaza, surrounded by plants, trees and dappled sun.
Brynmor Jones Library Reading Room

Code

Duration

Mode

Hull’s been called the country’s “most poetic city”. Renowned poets and writers from Andrew Marvell to Philip Larkin, Stevie Smith to Tom Paulin, J.R.R. Tolkien to Winifred Holtby, all have ties to the University and city.

We’ll teach you how to harness the power of words to bring about positive change. You’ll work on real-world projects, and study global literature from medieval to contemporary.

Our current writing scene is buzzing. Join our thriving English Society and engage with world-leading authors. And share your unique voice at regular open mics and in student-run magazines.

  • 1 million+ books

    and journals available at the Brynmor Jones Library

  • 1st in the UK

    for Teaching on my course 1

  • Published writers

    and scholars teach on this course

  • 1st in the UK

    for Student Satisfaction 2

  • 90+ years

    of teaching English, since 1928

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Course overview
Module options

About this course

You’ll hone your writing craft through practical workshops and seminar discussions. Developing core skills in characterisation, storytelling and creating a sense of place. And you'll experiment with different genres and forms. From fantasy and science fiction, to scriptwriting and short stories, to poetry and non-fiction.

You’ll also gain a solid grounding in English and American literature. From the medieval and Renaissance eras through to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. You’ll cover a wide range of poetry, short fiction, drama and novels. And you’ll debate urgent issues including the environment and social justice.

There's a lot to get involved in outside of the lecture theatre, too. You can join our active, student-led English Society and HUWrites. HUWrites provides a platform for performance with showcases and student-led podcasts. You’ll also get the chance to design, edit and publish with our in-house magazines, Document 1 and Hull Scribbler.

Scheduled study hours and how you’re assessed

You don't do exams at work, so why do them at university? We take a different approach and focus on giving you the skills and experience to succeed, whatever career you choose.

So here, 100% of your assessments will be through coursework, which could include essays, blogs, vlogs, group projects or presentations. But don't worry, you won't be forced to present live if you don't want to.

Throughout your degree, you’re expected to study for 1,200 hours per year. That’s based on 200 hours per 20 credit module. And it includes scheduled hours, time spent on placement and independent study. How this time is divided across the year varies and depends on the module you are studying.

Choose your modules

Each year, you’ll study modules worth a certain number of credits, and you need 120 credits per year. Most modules are 20 credits – so you’ll study six modules each year. Some longer modules, such as a dissertation, are worth more. In these cases, you’ll study fewer modules - but the number of credits will always add up to 120. Some modules are compulsory, some are optional, so you can build a course that’s right for you.

Foundation in Data Analysis

Develop a strong foundation in data collection and analysis. This module will introduce you to qualitative and quantitative data and how to analyse it; the collection of primary and secondary data; the production of high quality graphics; and report writing.

Compulsory20 credits

Introduction to Study in the Humanities

This module equips you with a suite of analytical and theoretical tools to support you as you progress along your academic journey. You'll develop an interdisciplinary understanding of approaches to study in the humanities by working with a variety of resources, including novels, films and aspects of the visual arts.

Compulsory20 credits

Research in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Education

This module will equip you with the necessary skills to conduct and analyse research in a specific interest, supported by academics within your subject. You'll navigate through the research process, from identifying an area of interest to presenting their findings to your peers.

Compulsory20 credits

Group Challenge (Humanities)

Formulate and execute a group led enquiry into texts, cultural artifacts, film, music or dance. You'll explore their topics in groups at supervised workshops and develop questions on the cultural object relates to the living world of human experience, as well as developing your own methods to answer these questions.

Compulsory20 credits

Academic Writing Skills

Developing confidence in expression, oral as well as written, is a key feature of this module, which also aims to familiarise you with submission and assessment procedures in the context of Higher Education. This is a clear building block onto your degree programme and places you at a distinct advantage when you move into the following year.

Compulsory20 credits

Preparing for Learning in Higher Education

This module is designed to give you the best possible start to your university studies, making sure you have all the essential skills you need to succeed. Through lectures and workshops we will teach you how to write in an academic style, how to find quality sources, how to reference work, culminating in writing up a mini-research project.

Compulsory20 credits

Students who require Foundation Year study will register on the English with Foundation Year programme.

Upon successful completion with a score of 50% or above you will progress directly onto BA Creative Writing and English. The foundation year has been designed to prepare you for entry on the degree.

6 Modules

The Writer’s Toolkit

‘The Universe is made of stories, not of atoms’ – Muriel Rukeyser. This module will help you to nourish the writer within you, and introduce you to the key concepts that will allow your imagination to flourish through writing exercises, workshops and advice from published writers.

Compulsory20 credits

Facts into Art

Discover how to convert real life into good storytelling. Extend your creative writing skills by generating ideas from daily life, and crafting them into well-conceived, skilled pieces.

Compulsory20 credits

Poetry, Performance, Play

Do you love the sound of words, the rhythm of poetry and the power of the human voice? Then this module is for you. Join us to learn how to craft your words into shape as you play with form and perform your own monologues, sonnets, haiku and more, letting your words travel out through the dark.

Compulsory20 credits

Just Read

Reignite your passion for literature by selecting and analysing current ‘must-read’ texts recommended by peers, tutors, and an online community. Explore reader-reception, market influence, and how publishers and writers shape what we ‘just read.’ Develop your critical reading and reflection skills while preparing for more complex concepts to come.

Compulsory20 credits

Emotional and Artificial Intelligence

Explore two of the most critical issues of today: artificial intelligence (AI) and emotional intelligence (EQ). Learn to use generative AI tools like MS Copilot and critique their societal impacts, including challenges in academia and ethics. Explore EQ through literature and film, developing skills in empathy, critical thinking, and emotional management. Equip yourself for the future of work and life in an AI-driven world.

Compulsory20 credits

Transforming Stories

Study key concepts like adaptation, appropriation, and intertextuality, examining how literature transforms existing stories. Explore texts like Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Chaucer, and Shakespeare to see how myths and narratives are reworked across time and cultures. This module incorporates feminist, postcolonial, and LGBTQ+ perspectives and encourages creating creative responses, blending English Literature and Creative Writing.

Compulsory20 credits
6 Modules

The Storyteller’s Art

Write your own tales of transformation and adventure, drawing on the world’s greatest stories studied in this module.

Core20 credits

Green Thoughts, Blue Stories: Literature and the Environment

Explore environmental issues, focusing on 'green' (land) and 'blue' (sea) themes. Analyse Anglophone eco-writing, including Native Indian and Indigenous perspectives, and texts on pollution, climate change, and sustainability, such as Juliet Blaxland’s The Easternmost House and W. G. Sebald’s Rings of Saturn. This module fosters cross-cultural and creative approaches to global environmental crises.

Compulsory20 credits

Scriptwriting

Learn about story, plot, characterisation, dialogue, structure and adaptation. Develop your skills in giving and receiving feedback on creative work. Learn how to work effectively in a group, sharing work, encouraging other writers and being encouraged by others to be the best scriptwriter you can be.

Optional20 credits

Writing Poetry Now

Do you want to take your poetry further? If you are ready to become a more skilled practitioner, able to present your work to an audience, and willing to go deeper into your study of contemporary poetry, then join us. Learn how exciting contemporary poetry is, and feel more confident in your own contributions to the poetry world.

Optional20 credits

The Short Story

Do you love reading, writing or listening to short stories? Immerse yourself in classic and contemporary stories, learn about how writers deliver their magic, using limited word counts to make every word sing. Go on to craft your own stories, drawing on the limitations of the form to turn it into a strength.

Optional20 credits

Shakespeare and co.

Rethink connections between plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries and their links to contemporary issues like racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and gender identity. By exploring how these plays address ongoing social issues, we gain an insight into the origins of modern social constructs, while deepening our understanding of dramatic forms and historical context.

Optional20 credits

Visual Narratives: Reading Word and Image

Understand the relationship between text and image, from medieval manuscripts to modern multimedia. Utilising visual narratives like comic books, graphic novels, webcomics, video games, and virtual reality, the course highlights how they challenge power structures, featuring works from William Blake to contemporary queer and antiracist webcomics.

Optional20 credits

Literary Lovers

Study literary representations of love and desire through modern works like Sally Rooney’s Normal People, as well as famous literary couples and texts depicting passionate and homoerotic love, such as Wuthering Heights. By analysing depictions of love from classical to contemporary literature, you'll reflect on traditional and transgressive views of desire, building on earlier studies of identity and global voices.

Optional20 credits

Engaging Audiences

A unique collaboration between English at Hull, HMPPS, and local colleges. Analyse literary engagement with external audiences, gaining skills in quantitative research, ethics, and audience reception theory. Explore responses to literature and social issues. The module enhances employability through real-world challenges, preparing you for advanced research and practical applications.

Optional20 credits

Scandalous Lives

This module explores 'scandalous' texts, focusing on themes like prostitution, domestic abuse, and incest. Analyse works addressing maternity, authority, and relationships, to understand changing perceptions of scandal. Spanning various genres and periods, the module invites you to reflect on contemporary and historical understandings of scandal and how literature challenges and redefines societal norms.

Optional20 credits

Dystopian Worlds

A study of contemporary dystopian fiction, featuring key texts from the 20th and 21st centuries, including George Orwell’s 1984. The module covers themes such as totalitarianism, surveillance, rebellion, post-apocalyptic scenarios, and genetic modification, relating them to current political issues

Optional20 credits

Difference and Divergence

Explore concepts of ‘difference’ and ‘divergence,’ examining both positive and negative connotations. Analyse how ‘normality’ is defined and use ‘otherness’ to understand differences, focusing on texts with neuro-divergent, disabled, gender-fluid, non-binary, or

homosexual protagonists. The course builds on Level 4 Performing Identity, deepening understanding of how literature addresses diverse experiences.

Optional20 credits
12 Modules

Creative Writing Portfolio: Preparation

Everyone has a story to tell – through Creative Writing Portfolio: Preparation, you will research, plan and begin development of a creative project that is uniquely yours. Continue your development with masterclass seminars and writing workshops that will provide you with the skills needed to take your creative project from conception to completion.

Compulsory20 credits

Creative Writing Portfolio

You will intrigue us with your fascinating characters, move us as they tackle dilemmas, arcing across landscapes set in believable worlds. You will entice us with your lyricism and imagery, and draw us in with your control of language. As your stories and poems of the unexpected buzz across the page, you will make us want to read on.

Compulsory20 credits

Research Project

This year-long module allows you to develop and complete an independent project, including a dissertation, creative work, or digital output. Guided by an academic supervisor, you’ll learn how to apply your knowledge, set goals, and manage your time effectively to showcase your competencies and skills.

Optional40 credits

Writing the Novel

Learn to read like a writer and write like a reader as we encourage you to develop the story that is smouldering inside you. This module reveals many of the secrets of how to plan, write, edit and rewrite long-form prose. Upon completion, you will have the skills, technique, drive and determination to begin writing a novel – your novel.

Optional20 credits

Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror: Writing the Wondrous and the Weird

A module for those for whom magic is real, technology is limitless and there are monsters hiding around every corner – Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror: Writing the Wondrous and the Weird will take you on a journey through your imagined world and encourage you to explore, to play and to craft high-quality genre fiction.

Optional20 credits

Writing the City

Do you want to write dystopian fiction? Or imagine how to make our cities happier, more democratic places to live? Then Writing The City is the module for you, with its opportunities for debate, writing, workshopping and editing your view of the city.

Optional20 credits

Prized Texts

This module explores how literary prizes shape prestige and cultural value, focusing on their impact on perceptions of 'popularity' and 'quality' and how authorial resistance affects these hierarchies. You’ll analyse prizes like the Man Booker and Pulitzer and evaluate their influence on texts and market trends. Building on Level 4’s ‘Just Read,’ the course considers literature’s evolving role in the digital age.

Optional20 credits

Terror, Horror, and the Gothic

This course develops an understanding of the Gothic’s cultural significance and contemporary relevance. Study how Gothic literature, film, and art use horror to critique societal norms and address issues such as architecture, nature, and patriarchy, including feminist and anti-racist perspectives. The course includes case studies, museum collections, and Gothic festivals, and the chance to present work through digital presentations and essays.

Optional20 credits

Banned Books: Literature on Trial

A study of landmark literary libel cases and evolving concepts of decency, censorship, and literary trials. Investigate historical and contemporary instances of literary scrutiny, connecting them to modern cancel culture and book banning. The course explores how censorship reflects cultural biases, politics, and trade, and challenges authorial autonomy.

Optional20 credits

Movement and Migration

Explore migration literature, featuring diverse voices across genres and backgrounds. Themes include identity, belonging, and displacement, covering both voluntary and forced

migration, including departures, journeys, arrivals, and returns. The course deepens understanding of how migration shapes identities and promotes global empathy.

Optional20 credits

Writing Now

A study of contemporary novels and plays, focusing on themes like immigration, social division, gender, and political issues such as Brexit and terrorism. Ustilising both realist and avant-garde works, the course highlights global issues and encourages connections to current debates and individual experiences.

Optional20 credits

Cults, Conspiracies, and Criminal Worlds

Explore texts on cults, conspiracies, and related criminal activities, including both fiction and real-world accounts. Topics include JFK's assassination, the Manson Family murders, British fears of communism, and decolonial perspectives on India. The module analyses how conspiratorial thinking impacts societies and applies narrative analysis to contemporary issues like disinformation and the 'post-truth' era.

Optional20 credits
12 Modules

Playlist

Dr Ed Hurst

Course Overview 2 mins

Maya Tyrrell

Student story 1 min

Rising Tide of the Humber

Research Highlight 3 mins

Life on campus

University Life 2 mins

Entry requirements

What do I need?

When it comes to applying to university, you'll need a certain number of UCAS points. Different qualifications and grades are worth a different amount of points. For this course, you'll need…

We consider experience and qualifications from the UK and worldwide which may not exactly match the combinations above.

But it's not just about the grades - we'll look at your whole application. We want to know what makes you tick, and about your previous experience, so make sure that you complete your personal statement.

Have questions? Our admissions team will be happy to help.

What do I need?

If you require a student visa to study or if your first language is not English you will be required to provide acceptable evidence of your English language proficiency level.

See other English language proficiency qualifications accepted by the University of Hull.

If your English currently does not reach the University’s required standard for this programme, you may be interested in one of our English language courses.

Visit your country page to find out more about our entry requirements.

Fees & funding

How much is it?

Additional costs you may have to pay

Your tuition fees will cover most costs associated with your programme. There are some extra costs that you might have to pay, or choose to pay, depending on your programme of study and the decisions you make:

  • Books (you can borrow books on your reading lists from the library, but you may buy your own)
  • Optional field trips
  • Study abroad (incl. travel costs, accommodation, visas, immunisation)
  • Placement costs (incl. travel costs and accommodation)
  • Student visas (international students)
  • Laptop (you’ll have access to laptops and computers on campus, but you may want your own)
  • Printing and photocopying
  • Professional-body membership
  • Graduation (gown hire and photography)

Remember, you’ll still need to take into account your living costs. This could include accommodation, travel, food and more.

How do I pay for it?

How much is it?

Additional costs you may have to pay

Your tuition fees will cover most costs associated with your programme. There are some extra costs that you might have to pay, or choose to pay, depending on your programme of study and the decisions you make:

  • Books (you can borrow books on your reading lists from the library, but you may buy your own)
  • Optional field trips
  • Study abroad (incl. travel costs, accommodation, visas, immunisation)
  • Placement costs (incl. travel costs and accommodation)
  • Student visas (international students)
  • Laptop (you’ll have access to laptops and computers on campus, but you may want your own)
  • Printing and photocopying
  • Professional-body membership
  • Graduation (gown hire and photography)

Remember, you’ll still need to take into account your living costs. This could include accommodation, travel, food and more.

How do I pay for it?

Take a look at our facilities

Brynmor Jones Library

Our 7-storey library is home to 1 million+ books, extensive digital resources drawn from libraries and archives across the world, and stunning panoramic views of the city from the 7th floor.

Reading Room

You’ll find the Reading Room on the first floor of our library. It offers a comfortable space and a quiet environment to study – away from the hustle and bustle of the campus.

Rare Books

Our collection includes a variety of titles published between 1473 and 2002. Texts are in 18 languages. Places of publication range from Amsterdam to Zwickau, covering 26 countries on 5 continents.

Study Rooms

You'll find over 1,000 work spaces in our library. From boardroom-style meeting venues with big-screen PCs, to informal group-study areas and interactive whiteboards.

See more in our virtual tour

Look around

Look around

Look around

Look around

Brynmor Jones Library Observation Deck
Brynmor Jones Library Reading Room
Brynmor Jones Library Rare Books Room
Brynmor Jones Library Group Study Room
A student in a recording studio recording the voiceover for a University of Hull TV advert.

Future prospects

Hull counts poets Douglas Dunn and Roger McGough among its alumni. But an English and Creative Writing degree doesn’t just pave the way for a literary career. It trains you to analyse, research and communicate at a very high level. The ability to showcase a creative mind through writing is a rare skill and highly valuable to employers.

Our graduates develop skills that are prized in many professions, and acquire the adaptability to flourish in various arenas. They’ve gone on to work for a wide range of public and private sector companies and organisations, like East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Sainsbury, Marks and Spencer, the Ministry of Justice, and more.

University of Hull Open Day

Your next steps

Like what you’ve seen? Then it’s time to apply.

The standard way to apply for this course is through UCAS. This will give you the chance to showcase your skill, qualities and passion for the subject, as well as providing your academic qualifications.

Not ready to apply?

Visit our next Open Day, and see all that Hull has to offer for yourself. Talk to our lecturers about your subject, find out what university is really like from our current students, and take a tour of our beautiful campus and amazing facilities.

1.Creative Writing is ranked number 1 in the UK (HEIs) for teaching on my course. National Student Survey (NSS) 2024, HEIs only.

2. Creative Writing is ranked in 1st place for Student Satisfaction (out of 50 institutions.). Complete University Guide 2025

All modules presented on this course page are subject to availability and this list may change at any time.

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