Nature and Travel Writing

Do you enjoy writing about the environment, your travels, encounters with wildlife, people and places past and present? Would you like to become a working writer, or to enrich your writing for pleasure?

Today’s writing about nature and travel welcomes all of those themes and more, and in this unique and inspiring Nature and Travel writing degree course we will look at the potential of your writing and of these dynamic genres – including where they overlap with memoir, history, culture, science, wellbeing and other genres in today’s marketplace.

Over two years of mainly evening sessions, you'll be immersed in the world of great nature and travel writing, with talks from top authors and editors, seminars from our seasoned tutors, creative friendships with your peers and an exploration of both the classics and the cutting edge in our genres.

You'll write extended pieces of up to 4,000 words, essays on critical topics, and a final Portfolio of up to 18,000 words. You'll also learn about the commercial aspects of getting published, organising writing trips, establishing an online presence and building a writer’s career.

A highlight of the course is our practical approach to becoming a working writer. This includes making actual pitches to real newspapers and magazines, based on an independent field trip which you will make in order to experience writing on the road for real.

By the end of the course, you'll be prepared to operate as a professional-quality writer in our genres. By then, many of our students have already appeared in highly respected newspapers, magazines and websites.

Our graduates have been widely published, including by Penguin Books, Bloomsbury, Granta, Bradt, National Trust and others. Their prizes have included the Stanfords New Travel Writer of the Year, BBC Countryfile’s New Nature Writer of the Year, the Nature Writing Prize for Working Class Writers, the Footnote x Counterpoints Writing Prize, and short/longlists for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing and the Richard Jeffries Prize.

How you'll be taught This course is taught remotely, with students attending online from wherever they live in the UK or overseas. Most classes are held in the early evenings, to allow for students’ other commitments such as work and family.

At the start of Year 1 we bring everyone together for an intensive residential event, which gives you a chance to get to know your peers and tutors, and to experience some guided writing in the field. Please note that you'll have to contribute towards your costs for this event, which the University also contributes towards.

Teaching is mainly through seminars and lectures, including a wide range of guest speakers. There are also one-to-one sessions with your tutors.