COURSE CURRICULUM

The MA Creative Writing at Bath Spa University combines intensive workshops, contextual study, and one-to-one manuscript guidance to develop students’ writing to a professional level. The course begins with the Professional Skills workshop in the first trimester, where students bring short pieces of writing to small, tutor-led groups in either prose or poetry and submit a manuscript proposal midway through. Later in the course, students continue with a second workshop, focusing on their chosen manuscript project, further refining their writing and receiving critical feedback. Context modules run alongside the workshops, exploring connections between students’ creative writing and wider literary, thematic, or genre-based concerns. Seminars involve studying set texts for practical lessons while workshopping students’ own writing. Full-time students take context modules in the first and second trimesters, while part-time students take them in the second and fourth trimesters. The manuscript module is the culmination of the course, focusing on producing a book or a substantial part of it through intensive one-to-one tutorials, allowing students to consolidate the skills, techniques, and insights gained throughout the program. Through workshops, contextual study, and individualized guidance, students develop the craft, critical awareness, and professional understanding necessary to produce a polished manuscript and to engage confidently with the literary and publishing industries.