Intro

At Brighton, we encourage writing that helps readers and writers to understand, shape and connect with the world beyond the classroom. Working with professional writers, you will develop your skills to produce and share stories in a variety of genres.

Through creative workshops, you will partner with supportive lecturers and interdisciplinary postgraduate groups to develop advanced theories and practices that relate to the creative writing process. Both people with and without experience of creative writing should consider applying for this course, which aims to prepare you for a career as a freelancer or portfolio worker.

We have fantastic links with local publishers, writers and creative companies and offer a unique salon series where industry experts offer practical advice and insights. In semester two, you will apply your writing and creative practice in a workplace scenario, while being encouraged to work on your own interests and passions.

If you want to share your work, you have the opportunity to do so through our established student-led anthologies and open mic nights, which form part of Brighton's thriving creative scene.

Find out about postgraduate events

Key facts

Location Brighton: Moulsecoomb

Full-time 1 year
Part-time 2–6 years

Join us for an online event 

Learn more about the course and get your questions answered by the course leader at one of our drop-in online sessions:

There is no need to book just click on the links above to join. 

The sessions will be held on Microsoft Teams and you may need to download the app if you are joining on your smartphone. (Google Play / App Store)

Apply now for your place

Please review the entry requirements carefully and if you have any questions do get in touch with us.

Entry criteria

Entry requirements

Degree and experience
An upper second-class undergraduate degree or equivalent in a relevant arts and humanities discipline or professional experience in a relevant field. Applicants with non-standard entry requirements will be asked to provide written evidence of their creative and reflective skills.

English language requirements
IELTS 7.0 overall, 6.5 in writing.

International requirements and visas

International requirements by country
Country name
Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Bermuda
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burma (Myanmar)
Cameroon
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Guyana
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kosovo
Kuwait
Latvia
Lebanon
Liechtenstein
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malaysia
Malawi
Malta
Mexico
Moldova
Montenegro
Morocco
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palestinian National Authority
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Syria
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tanzania
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

View our English language courses

For pre-sessional English preparation courses.

Visit our International College

For degree preparation courses.

Visas and immigration advice

Applying for a student visa

Check out our step-by-step guidance.

Course content

Top reasons to choose this course

  • Develop as a portfolio writer and creative practitioner, somebody who can apply good writing to real-world scenarios and work to specific briefs.
  • A transformative experience that goes beyond looking to get your first novel published, so you can explore copywriting and publishing while nurturing your passion for storytelling.
  • Be taught by published writers who bring real-world experience, industry insights, and a passion for storytelling into the classroom.
  • Guest lectures from publishers and professional writers – Guest writers have included John Mccullough, Eleanor Knight, Errina Mettler, Emma Donoghue and Tanaka Mhishi.
  • Tailor your studies to reflect an interest in writing practice, literary theory, community engagement or any combination of these.
  • Strong local publishing connections – we organise a programme of visiting writers and publishing professionals. Take a look at some of our prizes and partnerships
  • Theatre visits, open mic nights and exciting events, including a short story slam at Brighton festival
  • Online journal and in-house creative anthology for you to share your work with other students and the wider community.
  • Become a writer in residence – specific modules are dedicated to engaging you with the Brighton community and local creative industries where you can link your individual creative practice with a professional scenario.

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Hear from University of Brighton staff and students as they talk about why art and design are vital to them, to society, and the skills you'll get from choosing one of these subjects.

Syllabus

Core modules

  • Visual Storytelling
  • Storytelling with Prose more embedded
  • Storying the Self (with rhetoric embedded)
  • Communities
  • Dissertation
    You will develop an original research project and detail how this has informed an extended writing project in a style or genre you are passionate about. Prose, poetry, life writing, script, graphic novel and other styles are all encouraged as you showcase the writer that you are and produce work that matters to you.

 

 

Option modules*

  • Poetry
  • Publishing
  • Queer and Now

Plus a suite of options from HSS PG Courses

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Lab facilities

Mithras House is home to all our School of Humanities and Social Science courses. It has a series of ‘labs’, which may be used for teaching on your course or in your independent research work.

Life lab
A comfortable space with lounge furniture intended for qualitative research with larger groups. Due to its relaxed layout and naturalistic environment, the space is suited to research using focus groups, research using observation-based methods and child research.

The space is also used for teaching on some social science courses, as well as for dissertation research for projects.
 
City lab
A space designed for collaborative student learning. It is used by students and staff involved in the university’s Global Challenges programme, our collective mission to contribute towards solutions to tackling the pressing issues facing our world.

Design lab
A space housing our extensive collection of historic dress and textiles, which are used in some teaching on our History of Art and Design courses. It has the space and equipment to work on textile projects. Displays created by students on these programmes are on view in the social spaces of the building.

Stats lab
A specialist workspace with computing equipment for statistical analysis and projects involving video and audio editing software. The lab is accessible as a study space to students on psychology courses.

It is also available to students studying courses involving video and audio recording and editing, such as politics degrees and our creative writing programmes. The stats lab contains eight soundproof booths for recording or transcribing interviews undertaken as part of dissertation research.

VR and eye tracking lab
This lab is used for psychological research, specifically eye-tracking research and virtual reality research. Equipment includes an electroencephalography (EEG) headset and Electrodermal Activity (EDA) equipment.

Meet the team

Jess Moriarty, course leader

Jess Moriarty researches in the field of pedagogy in writing practice, especially in auto-ethnographical academic writing and in creative writing with undergraduates.

She graduated from the University of Sussex with a Creative Writing MA in 2002 and joined the University of Brighton soon after. Jess won a Teaching Excellence award for her workshops with undergraduates, in which she aims to ignite inspiration and motivation with the writing process.

Jess is the co-founder of Work Write Live, which provides a range of writing short courses and volunteering opportunities for students across arts and humanities courses to develop the vocational and academic skills they are acquiring on their degree programme. She has been interviewed by the Times Higher Educational Supplement about her workshops and won an Innovation Award for her retreats, where participants are encouraged to develop confidence with writing and speaking. Under the banner of Work Write Live, students are able to run open mic evenings, produce creative writing anthologies and organise an end-of-year graduate show.

Jess's doctorate looked at how to make academic writing more personal and creative and included a play based on her autobiographical and researched experiences with academic life. Her work looks at cross-disciplinary practice, community engagement and linking creative processes with the employability agenda.

Meet the rest of the course team

Jess Moriarty

Listen to a podcast with course leader Dr Jess Moriarty where she discusses the role of fiction in self-expression and personal wellbeing, a previous 'Big Read' book and sharing a moment with her former student and honorary graduate Munroe Bergdorf.

Student views 

Leanne Shorley, 2023 graduate

"I have already gained so much from the Creative Writing MA and I attribute this – almost entirely - to the exceptional teaching staff. They consistently dedicate their time and energy into engaging each individual student based on their unique skills and interests. The quality of my writing, as well as the approach to my practice, has improved exponentially.

The Communities of Practice module has empowered me to utilise my writing skills to effect positive change within my community. The joyous guidance and encouragement I’ve received from Jess Moriarty throughout has been invaluable and is being used to great effect in and outside my studies. Her wealth of knowledge and infectious enthusiasm has really pushed me to reach my potential. I’m proud to use my writing to help a cause I’m passionate about, and I feel inspired and excited about what’s to come."

Dawn Hart

"I undertook my writers residency as part of my MA in creative writing. The challenge was to become embedded in a community to both stimulate writing and creativity in place as well as to be inspired to write something amazing myself.

"Community is a multi-faceted term and can become a rabbit hole of discussion about communities of place, communities of interest and communities of purpose. I stepped back and followed my own interest in liminal spaces – the spaces in between where there is a sense of unpredictability and increased possibility.

"This led me to negotiating and becoming a writer in residence at Oval tube station in south London. I embarked without fixed expectations – more a sense of curiosity. I spent many hours sitting in the tube station, observing the ebb and flow of people. It was at Oval where the famous Thought of the day board was initiated, and the station staff have a strong pride in their station. They were endlessly interested and welcoming of my presence.

"I devised a project called Return Journey as a means of encouraging members of the public to engage and reflect. I designed a large mock rail ticket and asked people to record their answers to the question, If you could return to any tube station, at any point in your past, where would you go, when and why? Through this I collected stories which collectively are micro tales of human love. Transport for London are currently designing these into large posters, which they will display at the station.

"I then wrote a collection of prose, reflections and poems entitled Fieldnotes at Oval Tube, in which I explored how people behave in this liminal space and how our minds can be expanded. This experience stimulated rather than satiated my fascination with liminal spaces. So when I saw the website for The Liminal Residency I was spurred on to apply for a place on one of their writers residencies. I was interviewed, accepted and consequently spent an intense weekend with five other writers at Heathrow Airport.

"Our collective writing in response is now published in an anthology and can be found on www.liminalresidency.co.uk."

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Careers

Our Creative Writing MA will develop your confidence with creative and critical writing and ensure that you are able to produce writing that is effective for multiple audiences.

The skills and experience you will learn on the course are highly valued in a range of professions including:

  • publishing
  • teaching
  • creative industry management
  • marketing
  • PR
  • journalism
  • health and wellbeing.

Our graduates are working as authors, performers, event mangers, teachers, publishers and in PR and have gone on to work with organisations such as:

  • Penguin
  • St Mary’s University
  • Arts Council
  • BBC
  • Harper Collins

Graduates have also been awarded funding for PhDs so they can develop work that they started on the MA.

Fees and costs

Course fees

UK (full-time) 9,250 GBP

International (full-time) 17,900 GBP

Scholarships, bursaries and loans

We offer a range of scholarships for postgraduate students. Bursaries and loans may also be available to you.

Find out more about postgraduate fees and funding.

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2025–26.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

What's included

Here you’ll find details of specific resources and services that are included in the tuition fee for our creative writing students. To help you to budget for your studies, there is also information on any additional costs that you may have to pay or can choose to pay in addition to your tuition fee.

Find out how tuition fees enable us to support all of our students with important services, facilities and resources across the university and check out our finance pages for info about fees, funding and scholarships along with advice on international and island fee-paying status.

You can chat with our enquiries team if you have a question or need more information.

What's included in your tuition fee

  • Course books, magazines and journals are available in the university libraries. You do not need to have your own copies. See the subject area in the library for an up-to-date list of key subject journals and databases.
  • You will have access to computers and necessary software on campus – and can borrow a laptop from us if yours is broken or you don’t have a computer at home. Specialist equipment is provided to cover essential learning.

Additional costs

  • Most coursework submissions are electronic but you may wish to print notes and should budget up to £100 for printing.
  • For some assessments you may be required to print large format posters for presentations at a cost of £5–£10 per poster.
  • Some courses include an optional placement module for which students will need to cover the costs of travel to and from the placement and DBS checks as required.
  • You may have the opportunity to attend field trips and off-site visits. These are optional and are not required to pass your course but if you choose to go on optional trips you can expect to pay either a contribution towards, or the full cost of, travel as well as for your food. Under normal circumstances we would expect a budget of approximately £150 per year will cover the costs of particular trips. The amount spent would be based on location and number of trips taken.
  • You’ll need to budget for printing and stationery for personal study, and books if you decide to buy your own. Many of the set texts are available as cheap editions and we estimate that students will not need to spend more than £200.
  • Many students choose to buy their own hardware, software and accessories. The amount spent will depend on your individual choices, but this expenditure is not essential to pass any of our courses.

Location and student life

Campus where this course is taught

Moulsecoomb campus

Two miles north of Brighton seafront, Moulsecoomb is our largest campus and student village. Moulsecoomb has been transformed by a recent development of our estate. On campus you'll find new Students' Union, events venue, and sports and fitness facilities, alongside the library and student centre.

Over 900 students live here in our halls, Moulsecoomb Place and the new Mithras halls – Brunswick, Goldstone, Hanover, Preston and Regency.

Moulsecoomb has easy access to buses and trains and to all the exciting things happening in our home city.

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Accommodation

We guarantee an offer of a place in halls of residence to all eligible students. So if you applied for halls by the deadline you are guaranteed a room in our halls of residence.

Brighton: Moulsecoomb

Halls of residence
We have self-catered halls on all our campuses, within minutes of your classes, and other options that are very nearby.

You can apply for any of our halls, but the options closest to your study location are:

  • Mithras Halls are stylish new high-rises in the heart of the student village at our revitalised Moulsecoomb campus with ensuite rooms for more than 800 students.
  • Varley Park is a popular dedicated halls site, offering a mix of rooms and bathroom options at different prices. It is around two miles from Moulsecoomb campus and four miles from the city centre, and is easy to get to by bus.

Want to live independently?
We can help – find out more about private renting.

Relaxing in halls

Modern accommodation at Moulsecoomb

Mithras halls room with a view

Relaxing in halls near the campus

Student Union social space

Student Union social space at Moulsecoomb

Local area

One of Time Out's 50 best cities in the world

“Brighton has… all the important parts of a sprawling cosmopolitan metropolis (connections to London in under an hour, an array of properly excellent restaurants, energetic late-night spots) … with the easy-breezy beachy attitude to life that makes you feel welcome in an instant.”
Time Out’s 50 Best Cities in the World, 2025

About Brighton

The city of Brighton & Hove is a forward-thinking place which leads the way in the arts, technology, sustainability and creativity. You'll find living here plays a key role in your learning experience.

Brighton is a leading centre for creative media technology, recently named the startup capital of the UK.

The city is home to a national 5G testbed and over 1,000 tech businesses. The digital sector is worth over £1bn a year to the local economy – as much as tourism.

All of our full-time undergraduate courses involve work-based learning - this could be through placements, live briefs and guest lectures. Many of these opportunities are provided by local businesses and organisations.

It's only 50 minutes by train from Brighton to central London and there are daily direct trains to Bristol, Bedford, Cambridge, Gatwick Airport, Portsmouth and Southampton.

Map showing distance to London from Brighton
Brighton Beach sunset

Maps

Moulsecoomb campus map

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Support and wellbeing

Your course team

Your personal academic tutor, course leader and other tutors are all there to help you with your personal and academic progress. You'll also have a student support and guidance tutor (SSGT) who can help with everything from homesickness, managing stress or accommodation issues.

Your academic skills

Our Brighton Student Skills Hub gives you extra support and resources to develop the skills you'll need for university study, whatever your level of experience so far.

Your mental health and wellbeing

As well as being supported to succeed, we want you to feel good too. You'll be part of a community that builds you up, with lots of ways to connect with one another, as well having access to dedicated experts if you need them. Find out more about how we support your wellbeing.

Sport at Brighton

Sport Brighton

Sport Brighton brings together our sport and recreation services. As a Brighton student you'll have use of sport and fitness facilities across all our campuses and there are opportunities to play for fun, fitness or take part in serious competition. 

Find out more about Sport Brighton.

Sports scholarships

Our sports scholarship scheme is designed to help students develop their full sporting potential to train and compete at the highest level. We offer scholarships for elite athletes, elite disabled athletes and talented sports performers.

Find out more about sport scholarships.

Students playing frisbee

Stay in touch

Find out about postgraduate events

Ask a question about this course

If you have a question about this course, our enquiries team will be happy to help.
01273 644644

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