Creative Writing

Stories are at the heart of how we communicate and understand the world. By studying Creative Writing at AUB you'll gain the skills to join the next generation of storytellers. Creative writing is becoming more and more important and is just as integral to arts and entertainment as it is to business and commerce. A career in Creative Writing could see you working in publishing, literary agencies, education, or freelance work. And that’s just the start. Whether you want to create poems, scripts, fiction, or non-fiction, we’ll help you turn writing into a career.

What you will learn You’ll learn to draw inspiration from existing literature, before developing your own voice and honing your craft. Through a range of exciting projects, you’ll explore the whole writing process — from research to editing. With visits from published writers and industry professionals, you’ll explore career opportunities and build contacts, too. Writers rarely work alone, so you’ll have the chance to collaborate with other courses. You might write scripts with Animation and Film Production, or explore narratives with Illustration. When you graduate, you’ll have a strong portfolio, and a professional network to kickstart your career.

The course will celebrate its exciting location within a specialist arts institution that promotes a strong maker/creator culture. It will actively engage with contemporary conversations surrounding Creative Writing as an academic and creative arts discipline through foregrounding research-led learning and teaching methodologies; dynamic curricula that embrace a diversity of thought, practices and backgrounds; and a collaborative, student-centred approach.

At the heart of this course is the aim to inspire, capture and celebrate your voice through all kinds of writing and to help you develop and hone your craft; to find your place in the historical, cultural and social contexts in which you are working.

By the end of the course you will be able to...

Apply the specialist technical knowledge and skills that you have developed to contemporary Creative Writing practice.  

Write coherently for different audiences across a broad range of genres and media.

Develop and refine arguments through a continuing engagement with current debates in the discipline, across cultural, social, environmental, theoretical, and historical contexts, amongst others. 

Critically read and evaluate a range of academic and creative texts, from both within and beyond the field of Creative Writing.

Articulate your identity as an independent, confident, and creative practitioner, prepared for professional environments or postgraduate study.  

Apply self-reflective strategies to develop works-in-progress recognising the uncertainty and limits of knowledge.

Network and communicate with other creatives and industry professionals.

Studios and resources Throughout the Creative Writing course, you’ll be exposed to professional industries to gain a solid understanding of all the opportunities available to writers. Interacting with a wide range of writing-related industries will equip you with the creative and critical tools for continuing your writing beyond the course into a professional context, whether in industry or further study and research. You will hear from and network with a variety of industry professionals including publishers, agents, arts organisations, and funding bodies to gain a solid understanding of possible ways to make an income as a writer.