Gain a solid grounding in the rich traditions of literature while developing your talents as a writer, editor and publisher in our unique project-based programme. Find your own voice, and discover how to make it heard in today's literary marketplace.
Kent's School of English is a large, energetic and pioneering department. Our staff include published poets and novelists, world-renowned scholars and innovative digital practitioners. You will be taught by a wide range of lecturers who use a wide range of approaches, and will therefore encounter new texts, authors and ideas throughout your degree.
Our degree is project-based. Along with poems, stories, literary non-fiction and research essays, you will have the opportunity to produce your own documentary, publish your own book, edit your own online magazine or produce other creative outputs as part of your degree.
To ensure you receive the individual attention and mentoring required, we keep our class sizes small and offer you additional training through Summer Schools and Arts Festivals.
Our degree programme
In your first year, you will learn the essentials of creative writing practice, such as journaling, workshopping, editing and redrafting, while taking modules on the major forms of literature (poetry, drama and fiction), core concepts in critical theory, and writing and research skills. You will also take a range of option modules where you can explore how literature addresses crucial issues such as the environment, power and protest, the social impacts of technology or contemporary feminism.
Instead of exams, your first year will conclude with a program of short courses, workshops and exhibitions during the summer term, where you can pick up essential job skills, intern on research projects in the School, or taste areas of literature and creative writing you missed in your main modules.
In second year, you will take specialised modules on the writing of fiction, poetry and other forms, while choosing which aspects of literary history to study from the 1300s to the present day. In this year, will also decide what you would like to do as your project in your final year, which may take any form, from a dissertation, novel or poetry collection to an online exhibition, community project, or mobile applicationand more. You will receive additional assistance to refine your proposal during the summer program.
