English with Creative Writing

Would you love to see your name in print? Curious about the creative industries? Or maybe there’s a poem or novel in you that's just waiting to come out?

If you want to develop your writing skills whilst also broadening your knowledge of what ‘English’ is, this is the course for you.

Learn from expert staff who are published poets and authors themselves. Writing both fiction and poetry, you’ll explore different forms and genres along the way, including environmental and political poetics, creative non-fiction, flash fiction and short stories. The work in English studies will strengthen your creative writing, whilst also equipping you with a range of valuable transferable skills to prepare you for life after your degree.

You’ll spend two thirds of your time on English studies, and one third on creative writing. This includes learning about the process of writing and publishing from expert staff, who are published poets and authors themselves.

As well as traditional writing careers in publishing, journalism and performing arts, the skills acquired on this course will let you pursue many other careers including education, marketing and content production. The embedded skills of communication, creativity, critical thinking and textual analysis are useful in every career.

Engaged Arts

All students within the Faculty of Arts can select ‘Engaged Arts’ modules where you’ll approach real world challenges across contemporary themes such as sustainability or equity and justice. These modules have been newly designed to help you gain the skills and analytical abilities that employers are looking for.

Why choose this course?

• Top 20 for English in the UK (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 and Complete University Guide 2024)

• Top 10 for Creative Writing in the UK (Daily Mail University Guide 2025)

• Student satisfaction - 97% of students agree that ‘staff are good at explaining things’ (2024 National Student Survey results

• Put your skills into practice with Impact Magazine, University Radio Nottingham and more

• Unleash your creativity in a UNESCO City of Literature, with opportunities both on campus and in the city

• Give something back - volunteer and share your skills, from delivering Viking workshops at local primary schools, to reading to residents in care homes

• Have the freedom to explore - following an introductory programme in year one, deepen your knowledge of your favourite topics and explore new ones through a wide range of modules

• Work with our dedicated Faculty of Arts Placements Team to assist with your employability skills development via a range of placements, internships and volunteering opportunities

• Opportunity to apply for The Letters Page project to gain publishing industry skills

"Creative writing is one of my favourite and most fulfilling parts of my English degree. Seeing a poem or a short story that I spent hours pondering over the word choice of materialise into a finished piece of work is often more satisfying than turning in an essay. For me creative writing is not just an interesting essay I spent hours writing, rather it is a reflection of my views on the world, my observations on people, nature, or a representation of my internal world."

Georgia Krok, School of English student

You can also access this course through a Foundation Year. This may be suitable if you have faced educational barriers and do not expect to meet the entry requirements for direct entry to a degree course. Please see the UCAS page for the relevant Foundation Year course for further information.