English with Creative Writing BA(Hons) Degree

Course outline

Stage 1

• Introduction to Literary Studies
• Introduction to Cultural Theory
• The Craft of Writing
• The Knowing Self (1540-1688)
• Critical Practices
• Craft & Criticism 

Stage 2

• Freedom & Experiment (1688-1832)
• Cultural Theory & the Politics of the Popular
• Making Nations (1832-1914)
• The Politics of Subjectivity & Identity

Options include*:

• Poetry & Form
• Writing Lyrics
• Writing for Radio
• Writing a Novel
• Writing for Theatre
• Science Fiction

* You can also pick options from BA(Hons) Creative Writing and BA(Hons) English

Stage 3

• Aftermaths (1914-1968)
• To the Millennium & Beyond (1968-present)
• Dissertation& Portfolio

Plus two additional options, for example:

• Business & Editorial Writing
• Writing for a Digital Age
• Travel Writing
• Creative Non-Fiction
• Writing for Children
• Pitching for Publication

 Download the BA(Hons) English with Creative Writing Award Map (89.83 KB)

Tell me more about the BA(Hons) English with Creative Writing course

 BA(Hons) English with Creative Writing award information form (414.50 KB)

English at Falmouth has a reputation for excellent teaching, innovative courses and for producing graduates equipped to succeed in a highly competitive global marketplace. In the 2010 National Student Survey, English and Writing achieved 87% in terms of overall student satisfaction.

Taught by an experienced team of academics and published writers, the course gives you access to some of the best facilities and media resources in the UK. Enhancing your employability is a vital component of this degree, with modules such as Business & Editorial Writing and Poetry for Publication providing seminars and workshops from professional practitioners.

By choosing to study for a degree in English with Creative Writing at Falmouth you will:

• Benefit from being taught by an approachable and experienced team of academics and published writers, who are specialists in their given fields.
• Benefit from courses that are unique, distinctive and highly flexible.
• Benefit from guest lectures and workshops from nationally renowned creative writers, literary experts and media professionals.
• Study a more conventional English course but with an additional focus on your own creative writing practice.
• Be able to tailor your degree to your own specialist interests and for your chosen career or postgraduate destination.
• Be assessed through a combination of coursework, project work, formal presentations, portfolio work and dissertations.

How is the course taught?

This full-time course is delivered through modules, with a choice of options that enable you to specialise in subjects that interest you. Teaching is a combination of lectures, seminars, workshops and self-directed learning. We offer our students a minimum of 12 hours contact time every week and the opportunity for frequent one-to-one tutorials to support formal learning. In the third year you'll produce a critically informed portfolio that showcases your skills in a range of writing styles, genres and techniques.

Assessment

• Continual assessment with no formal examinations
• Coursework
• E-learning exercises
• Critical evaluation
• Final year creative portfolio and accompanying critical essay

Facilities

The libraries at Falmouth and Penryn provide extensive resources for study, creativity and inspiration within an integrated learning environment for all students, including:

• A specialist art and graphic design library with wide-ranging collections including 50,000 books, e-resources and journals.
• Our Media and Design collections. 
• An extensive collection to meet all students' needs, including 100,000 books, a wide range of journals, online and electronic resources, and specialist video and DVD collections. 
• A service allowing items to be transferred between sites.

Successes

• Writers-in-residence programme with internationally renowned writers including Lionel Shriver, Owen Sheers, Philip Marsden and Louis de Bernières
• Longstanding track record of fully funded postgraduate study
• Many alumni have gone on to secure publishing deals
• High-profile guest lecturers have included writer and film-maker Iain Sinclair, poets Zoe Skoulding and Penelope Shuttle, and playwright Stephen Wakelam
• We publish WiTH, a student journal of new writing

Career opportunities

Our graduates are employed across a range of creative arts industries. Careers include:

• Work in publishing, television, arts administration, marketing and PR
• Career as an in-house or freelance journalist, editor or screenwriter
• Teaching and postgraduate study

Writers-in-residence

Award-winning authors Louis de Bernières, Philip Marsden and Owen Sheers will be writers-in-residence within our Department of Writing for 2012-13. Their involvement will give Falmouth students a unique opportunity to exchange ideas and tips about the craft of writing. Located in an area of outstanding natural beauty, Falmouth's first phase of residencies is distinctive for its thematic focus on 'place'; each of the writers selected is renowned for their powerful evocations of landscape and identity, and their exceptional ability to write across genres.

The inaugural residencies are workshop based but will also include public events to promote the role of reading and writing within the wider community. Students will be invited to sign up to workshops that focus on travel writing, fiction, poetry and screenwriting and will also be able to book one-to-one tutorials with the writers. All sessions are offered in addition to core teaching.

Find out more about the writers-in-residence scheme here

The Biographers' Club Tony Lothian Prize 2013

The £2,000 Tony Lothian Prize (sponsored by her daughter, Elizabeth, Duchess of Buccleuch) supports uncommissioned first-time writers working on a biography.

Applicants should submit a proposal of no more than 20 pages (unbound), including a synopsis and 10-page sample chapter (double-spaced, numbered pages), CV and a note on the market for the book and competing literature, to the prize administrator: Ariane Bankes, email ariane.bankes@gmail.com or by post to 79 Arlington Avenue, London N1 7BA. Enquiries: 020 7359 7769.

The deadline for entries is 31 July 2013. Entry fee: £15 (cheques payable to the Biographers’ Club). For further details and mandatory entry form visit www.biographersclub.co.uk

This year’s judges are: Tracy Borman (author of Henrietta Howard: King’s Mistress, Queen’s Servant and Elizabeth’s Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen); Helen Fry (From Dachau to D-Day and Music & Men); and Andrew Lycett, biographer of Ian Fleming, Rudyard Kipling, Dylan Thomas and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The winner will be announced at our prize dinner in November. Only the shortlisted entrants will be contacted.

Sci-fi Conference 2012

On Saturday 3 November, Falmouth University held it's first ever Sci-fi Conference. The day was free to attend and provided a great opportunity for budding young creative writers interested in sci-fi and fantasy genres.

The event included special guest talks from authors Philip Reeve (Mortal Engines Quartet, winner of the Guardian Children's Literature Prize) and Mark Clapham (Doctor Who and Warhammer adaptations).

Reeve talked about how he developed and built his fantasy and sci-fi worlds and Clapham discussed his work on Doctor Who and Warhammer novels.

There were also three optional talks to attend in the afternoon. Visitors could choose from the following discussions:

• "Tin-men": robots in sci-fi films
• "To infinity and beyond!": writing space opera
• A top ten of sci-fi comic book moments

Costumes were encouraged and prizes for the best outfit were awarded to Princess Leia, Hester Shaw, Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect, each received a voucher generously donated by Falmouth Bookseller.

Harvey Ranson, a young person there with his family, said: "Today was really cool! I loved the talk about robots!"

Find out what Philip Reeve enjoyed most about the day on his blog The curious world of Philip Reeve. 

Guest lectures

2011/12

• Nicholas Blincoe - novelist, critic, columnist
• Jean McNeil - novelist, lecturer
• Nick Freeman - lecturer, writer
• Deborah Levy - playwright, novelist
• David Grubb - poet, novelist, editor
• Michael Bird - author, journalist and broadcaster
• Richard Hornsey - lecturer, writer
• Iain Sinclair -  novelist, poet, editor, filmmaker and creative non-fiction writer
• Emily Barr - journalist and novelist
• Matt Cox - former MA Professional Writing student
• Professor Robert Sheppard - teacher and poet
• Philip Marsden - writer
• Paul Kingsnorth - non-fiction author, poet and novelist
• Stephanie Thwaites - literary agent, Curtis Brown
• John Simmons - author of several business bestsellers

Recent speakers

• Penelope Shuttle - writer
• Professor Julian Wolfreys - academic
• Zoe Skoulding - poet and academic
• Caroline Carver and Alyson Hallett - poets
• Stephen Wakelam - radio playwright

2009/10

The Novel - from Pencil to Posterity: Patrick Gale - writer

Below is a list of speakers from the BA(Hons) English with Creative Writing guest lecture series:

• Dr Bryony Randall, University of Glasgow, a leading national expert on Virginia Woolf
• Dr Clarissa Smith - on her recent book
• Dr Shamira Meghani, University of Sussex - on Sexuality, Nationalism and Bollywood film
• Jean McNeil, novelist - on her experience as writer in residence for a scientific exploration of the Arctic
• Phil Terry, poet - on the Oulipo writing project
• Andy Brown, poet, novelist - on ecopoetics
• Tony Lopez - on WS Graham and St Ives artists
• Nicholas Royle, novelist - Craft of Writing 1
• Peter Blegvad, singersongwriter, lecturer - Writing Lyrics
• David Grubb, poet, novelist - Craft of Writing 1 and 2
• Martin Stannard, poet - Poetry & Form
• Phil Bowen, poet, comedian - Poetry & Form + open performance
• Luke Kennard, poet, playwright - Poetry & Form + open performance
• Tony Lopez, poet, critic, lecturer - Craft of Writing 2
• Penelope Shuttle, poet, novelist - Craft of Writing 2
• Allen Fisher, poet, critic, lecturer - Craft of Writing
• Sam Richards, ethnomusicologist, lecturer - Writing Lyrics

More about our guest lecturers

Caroline Carver
A prize-winning poet thoroughly engaged in poetry at a local and an international level. Author of the poetry collection Tikki Tikki Man.

Alyson Hallett
Award-winning poet Alyson Hallett's work includes the poem The Stone Library and written drama for Sky television. 

John Simmons
A former director of verbal identity at Interbrand, John Simmons has led many large branding programmes with companies as diverse as Waterstones, Royal Mail and the National Theatre. He takes a particular interest in creative collaboration between writers and designers and has served several times on juries at the D&AD awards.

Michael Bird
Michael Bird is a freelance author, journalist and broadcaster with a particular interest in the visual arts. His most recent book is The St Ives Artists: A Biography of Place and Time (2008), part of which he recently adapted for broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

Robert Sheppard
Professor Robert Sheppard teaches poetry, fiction and life writing to undergraduate and graduate students and is also the editor of the Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry. His poetic works include Complete Twentieth Century Blues (2000) and The Lores (2003).

Philip Marsden
Philip's work crosses the boundaries between travel writing, history and fiction. His account of a journey to the heart of Russia, The Spirit Wrestlers (1998), was Thomas Cook Travel Book of the Year and his most recent book, The Levelling Sea (2011), tells the story of Falmouth in the age of sail.

John Yorke
John oversees all of the drama shown on BBC channels, including long-running series such as EastEnders, Holby City, Casualty and Doctors. At the BBC, John has set up the Writer's Academy and the Director's Academy to help identify and train upcoming talent.

Professorial lecture series

Falmouth's Professorial lecture series aims to produce an engaging and challenging public programme that stimulates the intellectual curiosity of our staff, students and alumni, our research collaborators, our industry partners, our local communities and other supporters. Recent lectures relevant to students in the School of Media include Andrew Chitty and Emily Bell.

Andrew Chitty - Seven myths that drive the digital economy

Andrew has been a pioneer in the converging worlds of TV and digital media since the mid 90s when as Editor of BBC2's The Net he was responsible for the BBC's first website and virtual world. Since 1998 he's built Illumina Digital into the UK's leading cross platform production company winning a raft of awards including four BAFTAS, eight RTS Awards, The UN award for e-learning and even a Golden Ladle for the world's best cookery site. In 2008 Illumina joined All3Media, the UK's largest independent production group.

Andrew has been active in policy and industry groups, co-authoring OFCOM's paper New Options for Public Service in the Digital Age and has advised Lord Stephen Carter as a member of the ministerial steering board for the Digital Britain Report. He is a council member of PACT, trustee of TRC Media in Glasgow and a past board member of Skillset. Andrew is currently Chair of the National Skills Council for Digital Media.

A video of Andrew Chitty's lecture can be viewed online here

Download the transcript of Andrew Chitty's lecture (175.81 KB)

Emily Bell - Back To the News Future: Journalism 10 Years from Now

Director of Digital Content for Guardian News and Media, Emily set up www.mediaguardian.co.uk in 2001. www.guardian.co.uk has won multiple awards, including the prestigious Webby for Best Newspaper on the web in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Oxford graduate, Bell is one of the rising stars coming through from a younger, more web-focused generation of senior media figures.

A video of Emily Bell's lecture can be viewed online here

Course publications

WiTH magazine

At Falmouth, we believe all good writing is creative and that it underpins and informs all the subject areas on offer to our students, just as literary and media theory underpin and inform creative writing. So whether studying topics such as Creative Writing and Cultural Criticism, Science and Literature, The Gothic and Grotesque, Creative Non-Fiction, or genrebased units such as Writing Fiction, Writing for Radio or Poetry & Form, our students’ work is rooted in writing and reading, discussion and debate, close reading, contextualisation and creative response.

WiTH magazine came out of a growing excitement among our students body about what they had written, and a desire to share and showcase it with others in the University. WiTH6, was our formal launch issue and includes some highlights of previous issues along with much previously unpublished work.

WiTH6 (456.97 KB)

WiTH8

Books by BA(Hons) English with Creative Writing lecturers

Tower of Babel

Rupert Loydell

A set of 24 original postcards and an essay, both by Rupert Loydell, together with an anthology of Babel poems.

Featuring: Philip Terry, Sheila E Murphy, Andy Brown, Rob Mclennan, A.C. Evans, H.L. Hix, Angela Topping, Paul Sutton, Peter Dent, Camille Martin, Ian Seed, David H.W. Grubb, Seren Adams, Andrea Moorhead, Jane Routh, John Mingay, Luke Kennard, Steven Waling, Alan Halsey, Peter Gillies, Bill OíBrien, Mike Ferguson, David Hart, Martin Stannard, Rupert M. Loydell, Mark Goodwin, Natasha Loydell, Ira Lightman.

Wildlife

Rupert Loydell

www.shearsman.com

In these mercurial poems, real and imaginary events combine with overheard, quoted and misquoted voices to produce a slippery and unreliable series of opinionated poems. What appear at first to be heartfelt confessions reveal themselves to be exercises in ventriloquism, argumentative fictions that seek to subvert and surprise the reader. This poetry is a different kind of beast to what you might have expected.

"Wildlife reveals a tangible life lived: through friendships, family, in the company of other poets and artists. A life lived reading and writing poetry, always thinking, rethinking, questioning, and collaging experience into meaning. Sometimes a life of uncertainty and doubt, in which others 'drift through life / without touching the sides in contrast to my friction burns'. But always a life of warm and engaging humour: a man 'unqualified' to dream; another teaching himself Lithuanian 'translating his misunderstanding'; and the many surprising twists of image and language in the rhetorical variations of 'Animals Are Not Your Friends'. It urges its readers: Enjoy Your Wild Life."
Andy Brown

"Through plain and stark language, Loydell creates a poetics of inner chaos which speaks for modern humanity. With his scalpel he reveals the emptiness at the heart of outwardly successful lives, meditates on death's sneaky approach and calls everything we hold dear into question."
Angela Topping

A Music Box of Snakes

Peter Gillies & Rupert Loydell

In A Music Box of Snakes Peter Gillies and Rupert Loydell refuse to pay lip service to the art world. Instead, these two painter-poets question, critique and challenge what they see as they roam around art galleries and museums, cross-examining each artistic reputation they meet. Throwing a revealing light on illusive personalities of the art establishment, Gillies & Loydell fall out with and sometimes make-up with a number of painters, sculptors, photographers, film makers and performance artists whose work they encounter and consider. These are witty, sardonic and enthused poems which, underneath the exuberant wordplay, explore language and art, along with notions of creativity and self, in a remarkably informed, insightful and tongue-in-cheek way.

The Fantasy Kid

Rupert Loydell

Rupert Loydell's new book of poems for children and the young-at-heart has just been published by Salt.

The Fantasy Kid contains poems which have all been test-driven by the author at schools, festivals, libraries and readings around the country.

Whether pondering questions about the nature of chocolate, serenading slugs, saying goodbye to a starfish, or introducing us to Doctor Fizz and Alvin the Aardvaark, these poems are witty, irreverent, memorable and odd.

From Hepworth's Garden Out

Poems about painters and St. Ives
Rupert Loydell (Ed.)

From Rupert Loydell's first visit to this small Cornish harbour town, he, along with many others, has been fascinated by the combination of sea, light, people and painting that constitute St. Ives.

These themes, along with tourism & trade, myth and the nature of creativity itself, are the subject of this anthology. From Hepworth's Garden Out has at its heart the sculptor Barbara Hepworth's garden and studio, now run by the Tate as a small museum. It is a secluded and magical place, however full of visitors, and it is from this small green oasis and its stone and metal inhabitants that this book starts its winding journey. 

Troubles Swapped for Something Fresh

Manifestos and Unmanifestos
Rupert Loydell (Ed.)

Edited by Rupert Loydell, Troubles Swapped for Something Fresh is an eclectic and exciting gathering of poetry and prose-poems that try to understand what poetry is and who or what it might be for. It is also about what writers might want or demand from poetry, in either a general or personal way.

A decade of English at Falmouth

In 2008, graduates celebrated the tenth anniversary of BA(Hons) English courses at Falmouth. Over the last decade, the programme has grown from a small part-time course to one of the largest undergraduate departments at the institution, with over 200 full-time students.

The reunion event included a small showcase of work from 2008 graduates and the official launch of our student anthology: WiTH magazine. A jazz band then welcomed alumni into the beautiful Italian garden of Tremough House for drinks, a barbeque and party.

Photographs from the event can be viewed here

Answers and advice about the course

For further information about BA(Hons) English with Creative Writing at Falmouth University, please email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 255764.

Our student mentors are now on Facebook. To chat to a mentor about the course, living in Cornwall, or what to expect at Falmouth, check out the English courses group. You need to join the group before you can post. Our student mentors have already done the first year of the course... so ask them anything you like!

English courses Facebook group

If you're not Facebook you can still speak to a student mentor. Email your name and the course you're starting to: studentmentorenquiries@falmouth.ac.uk and we will be in touch with you.

Follow Writing at Falmouth on Twitter

Entry requirements

A typical offer is between 260 and 300 UCAS points, equivalent Level 3 qualifications or relevant experience. All applicants to the English courses will be invited to a two-part interview. No portfolio is required.

Please see our How to Apply page for more information. 

For further information about BA(Hons) English with Creative Writing at Falmouth University, please email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 255764.

Interview and selection process

We invite all applicants to interview.

The interviews will last for approximately three hours and will include a tour of the campus, a group session and a short individual interview. We invite up to ten applicants to each interview session.

You will not be required to bring samples of your writing to the interview, however, you will be asked about your personal statement and your interests and achievements so far.

We are looking for enthusiasm and passion for English and Creative Writing. We are also looking for commitment to studying English with Creative Writing at Falmouth.

Interviews will commence in February 2013. We will continue to schedule interviews as long as we have places available.

Location: Penryn Campus

Related courses

• Creative Writing BA(Hons)
• English BA(Hons)
• Journalism BA(Hons)
• Journalism BA(Hons) (online)