English and Creative Writing MA (Hons)

Develop the tools to take your ideas from the first concept to the final draft and learn from professional writers and publishers working today

School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

A woman making a cardboard model
Start date
September 2025
Duration
4 or 3 years
UCAS Code
QW38
Location
Dundee City Campus
1st in Scotland for Overall Satisfaction in English and Creative Writing

National Student Survey 2024

Study English and Creative Writing to learn various writing techniques. These include:

  • fiction
  • poetry
  • creative non-fiction
  • screenwriting
  • writing for performance

You can also explore various forms of media, including comics and video games. You will examine the writer's role and purpose in modern society and learn how to publish your writing professionally.

You will develop the tools to take your ideas from the first concept to the final draft. A grounding in literary study will give you critical thinking and research skills. Our English and Creative Writing degree will focus on writing in creative industries. With this degree, you may work as a writer or artist, in publishing, media or cultural institutions. You may also enter a teaching profession from primary to university level and beyond.

You will attend writing workshops, lecturers, seminars and masterclasses. You will work with dedicated and expert staff and prominent professionals from literary and publishing.

Our courses cover topics such as:

  • Reading and writing fiction
  • Writing poetry
  • Screenwriting
  • Writing the environment
  • Creative and cultural industries
  • English-language literature from the 16th century to today, including Victorian, Romantic, Modernist and Contemporary Literature
  • Global literatures
  • Science Fiction literature and film
  • Gothic literature
  • Film studies from classic Hollywood to modern Europe and the national cinemas of Japan, Australia and Iran
  • Comics and graphic novels
  • Theatre and performance studies
  • Gender studies

In recent years, students have been writers-in-residence at the Arbroath Abbey, have led workshops at the V&A Dundee, and made creative work in response to contemporary art at the University's Cooper Gallery.

There is also an annual published anthology of final-year student work, organised by a student-led committee. You will meet best-selling and prize-winning authors, editors at major publishing houses like Penguin Random House, and independent artists working across storytelling, poetry and contemporary performance.

You can take advantage of the strong teaching and research links with prominent institutions like the Dundee Rep Theatre, Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre, The McManus, and Hospitalfield.

The Dundee University Review of the Arts (DURA) gives you a platform to publish your own critical writing and the student-run magazine The Magdalen helps you learn about publishing from the ground up.

We are also an international leader in Comics Studies, with resources including a dedicated publishing imprint, UniVerse, that publishes comics based on research and work by students.

A woman sitting on an upholstered bench leaning her arms on a table in front. There are plants in pots in a window behind her.
“The best thing about the course was learning about a wide range of texts through the English Literature modules and developing skills in analytical and critical thinking, whilst simultaneously being taught how to write our own texts and gain practical experience as writers."”

Orla Davey, MA English and Creative Writing, 2023

Five inspiring spaces for Dundee English students

Student Grace shares five creative and inspiring spaces on campus and around the city of Dundee.
Watch her video
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