Creative Writing
Welcome From Your Course Team
The Creative Writing BA at the University of Bedfordshire was established in the year 2000 and was one of the first single-honours undergraduate degrees in Creative Writing in the country.
Over the years we have developed into a course that values the input and individuality of our students. We aim to help and support you in developing your skills in, and understanding of, creative writing.
Our openness towards genre and experimental writing, with our specialisms in the speculative genres of horror and fantasy, and in innovative writing, makes our course exciting and just a little different. We also offer a screenwriting strand and encourage students to explore other forms, in particular the graphic novel, podcasting, and games writing, in collaboration with students on courses in those areas within the wider faculty of the university in which the course sits.
Creative Writing Staff
Be part of a writing community
When you join the Creative Writing course you enter a community of committed writers, lecturers and students, who will support you as you develop your own direction in creative writing.
Study Creative Writing at Bedfordshire and you will learn from experienced writers, academics, research students and alumni who present readings, seminars and workshops.
They come from a variety of backgrounds, in the speculative genres of fantasy and horror, in innovative writing, and in digital media and performance writing. You will have the opportunity to work in all of these areas and more.
Creative writing facilities
In addition to School-wide facilities shared with other courses we also have:
- two dedicated hubs for workshops, meetings, small performances and screenings
While studying creative writing within the School of Arts and Creative Industries you will have lots of opportunities to publish and perform your work, building your confidence and your portfolio.
You can see work from our students in the Creative Writing Anthology 2019/20.
And here is an example of one of our students' visual work.
Visual poetry by Shana Kiely
The course regularly receives 100% overall ratings in the NSS (National Student Survey) in eligible years.
Over the years a variety of writers have presented seminars, talks, workshops, and readings, including Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist, Stephen Kelman , best-selling self-published thriller writer, Adam Croft, poets John Hegley, Lawrence Upton, David Miller, Holly Pester (Holly subsequently worked as a visiting lecturer for a year), and US fiction-writer and editor Lou Rowan.
In November 2017, we held the Edge Poetics conference on genre and innovative practice, where speakers included Professor Robert Sheppard, fiction writer Nicholas Royle, and weird fiction writer Helen Marshall.
Children’s Literature Marketing Manager for MacMillan, Kat McKenna, has presented talks on the publishing industry.
In 2022, an event in the university’s Beds Talk programme was organised by Course Coordinator, Dr Tim Jarvis, and featured award-winning novelist and short story writer, Toby Litt, games writer, best-selling self-published thriller writer, Adam Croft, and award-winning games writer Emily Short. And in 2019, another Beds Talk was organised by scriptwriting lecturer, Toby Norways, and featured Greer Taylor Ellison, Head of Development, Blue Shadows Films; Merlin Merton, Producer /CEO, Blue Shadows Film; Martin Gooch, Director, Writer, Producer, and Director of Photography; and Benjamin Cyrus-Clark, Director, Bute Street Film Festival.
Gary Budden, writer, and co-founder of award-winning independent publisher, Influx Press, gave a talk on small press publishing and his own work in 2019.
We will encourage you to broaden your experience across a range of extracurricular activities, to build your portfolio and multiply your opportunities for the future. These include:
- Sharing your work in the annual anthology, at open-mics, and gaining experience in organising events, editing and proof-reading.
- Getting involved in our community radio-station RadioLab, participating in or presenting literary programming
- Working with our online television station BedsTV
- Writing for the Students' Union monthly magazine Focus.
Our annual degree show allows you to showcase work that you have created in your final year to a wider audience of fellow students, staff, members of the public and creative professionals.
As a graduate of the Creative Writing BA within the School of Arts and Creative Industries, you will join a growing band of former students who have gone on to have successful careers in the creative industries.
Evaldas Bladukas, Creative Writing BA (Hons) and Masters by Research
Evaldas is one half of No Pun Included, a board games YouTube review channel, subject of a recent successful Kickstarter campaign to allow it from a hobby to a professional enterprise.
Clive Gresswell, Creative Writing BA (Hons)
Clive Gresswell is a published author. Clive has published two collections of poetry with Knives Forks and Spoons Press. Jargonbusters (2018) and Rages of the Carbolic (2019), and two with Erbacce, Atoms and Strings (both 2021).
Edward Cox, Creative Writing BA (Hons) and Masters by Research
Gemmell Award nominated Ed is a successful fantasy novelist with a trilogy The Relic Guild published by Gollancz. He also has two novellas published, along with a host of short stories, reviews, articles and poems. His latest novel is The Wood Bee Queen (2021), published by Gollancz. View his website
Juliet Troy, Creative Writing BA (Hons) and Masters by Research
Juliet Troy is a published poet. Her collection, Motherboard (2017) is available from Knives Forks and Spoons Press and she has three self-published books available online at Kindle, all well-reviewed. Her latest collection, Amnion, was published in 2020 by Knives, Forks and Spoons.
Cathy Weedon, Creative Writing BA (Hons)
Cathy Weedon is a published poet. Her poetry collection called 1-50 was published by Blart Books (2015). This was written as the creative submission for her Masters by Research in Creative Writing at University of Bedfordshire.
Jennifer Bibby, Creative Writing BA (Hons)
Jennifer Bibby’s debut novel, The Cornish Hideaway, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2022.
Elleesa Rushby, Creative Writing BA (Hons)
In 2018 Elleesa was awarded the Irish Post’s Listowel Writers Week competition prize for he supernatural tale, ‘New Pet’. You can read her story here
address
School of Culture & Communications
University of Bedfordshire
University Square
Luton, LU1 3JU
United Kingdom