Creative Writing (with placement year)

UCAS code: W801

Here's what Leeds Arts University says about its Creative Writing (with placement year) course.

Explore and define your creative skills as a member of our dedicated, diverse writing community within a vibrant arts environment. You will join a committed creative community, supported by our enthusiastic team of lecturers to develop your own voice and awareness of who you are as a writer.

The course is creatively stimulating, experimental and industry focussed, It delivers contemporary approaches, creative provocations and critical thinking across prose, poetry, script and beyond, allowing you to develop a striking portfolio of creative and critical writing. Situated within the North’s only dedicated arts university, our students explore the collaborative nature of writing, working with peers on cross-course collaborations. Projects have included creating narrative games with our game design students, producing pamphlets with graphic designers, and writing scripts for students on the Acting for Screen course.

Our students fully engage with the lively arts and literary scenes in Leeds and beyond, where we run open mic nights, present work at literary festivals and spoken word nights, and support each other to share their work. You will also have the opportunity to engage with creative institutions and organisations across Leeds, West Yorkshire and further afield.

You will consider career paths and how to professionalise your creative practice, working with and gaining feedback from industry professionals. You will submit work to awards and competitions, supported by your peers and tutors, and make connections across the creative industries and literary world.

Year one – You will explore the possibilities of creative writing, across form and genre. You will write abundantly, to better understand how and why you write. There will be opportunities to explore collaborative writing and what it means to be a writer working in an arts setting. Tutorials, lectures, seminars, and cross-disciplinary project work also feature in year one.

Year two – You will write in different contexts, as part of a collaborative team, responding to briefs set by external partners, and in response to the work of other creative practitioners. You will also examine your own creative process and find new ways to experiment with the written word through examination of texts that push the boundaries of what is possible in writing. You will be challenged to further explore who you are as a writer in different forms and media.

Year three – The final year gives you the opportunity to negotiate, develop and complete a major writing project. This creative work will be underpinned by articulation of your own creative practice and the factors that define you as a creative practitioner. This project will be supported by regular writing workshops where you will share draft work with your peers and support them in developing their creative outputs.

*This course includes a placement year (also known as a sandwich year, work placement, industrial placement, or year in industry), which provides a fantastic opportunity to enhance your employability and gain practical experience in your field of study. The placement year typically occurs after year two and before year three. Please see the Undergraduate Placement Year FAQs on our website for more information: www.leeds-art.ac.uk/undergraduate-placement-year-faqs