CREW103: Introduction to Creative Writing

• Terms Taught:
  • Full Year only
  • Michaelmas Term only
  • Lent / Summer Term only
  NOTE: If you are studying with us for a Full Academic Year and you select a course that has full year and part year variants, you will not be allowed to take only part of the course.
• US Credits:
  • Full Year course - 10 Semester Credits
  • Michaelmas Term only - 5 Semester Credits
  • Lent / Summer Terms only - 5 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits:
  • Full Year course - 20 ECTS Credits
  • Michaelmas Term only - 10 ECTS Credits
  • Lent / Summer Terms only - 10 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

You are taught through a series of lectures and workshops to develop key skills alongside detailed critical engagement with your own and other writers’ work. Workshops include short writing exercises and critical reflection on student-produced and published work. Assessment is by portfolio of creative and critical work (10,000 words). To determine level of entry, applicants should send a small selection of their writing eg ten poems, or 3,000 words of prose, showing their current range of skills and interests.

Educational Aims

This course seeks to enable your development as a writer through the discussion of core issues in Creative Writing combined with detailed critical engagement with your own and others' work. Throughout the course, a series of lectures will offer insight into issues such as plot construction, character development, and the use of poetic form. These lectures are combined with workshops in which new work is developed and refined through a number of different strategies. Workshops are two hours long; they accommodate a number of subject-specific exercises alongside the development of students' independent creative work. Although the content of workshops is outlined here, this should be seen as a guide: whilst ensuring coverage of the syllabus, tutors will tailor their workshops to the nature and interests of the group. In Lent term, one or more workshops will be given over to individual tutorials in which students will receive feedback on their vacation assignments. Between them, the strands of the course will equip the successful student with a range of skills and knowledge which are essential to a writer's development, necessary for the study of Creative Writing at Part II, and transferable to other academic study and to the professional world beyond.

Outline Syllabus

The course will aim to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence of apprentice writers and their command and enjoyment of the craft. It will approach literature as something made by an individual out of their experience, imagination and knowledge, rather than as a finished artefact encountered as a commodity. Students will be encouraged to experiment with different forms and approaches, towards the discovery of their individual strengths as writers, whether of poetry, prose or drama.

Lectures are structured to provide insight into a syllabus of key skills, techniques and approaches to writing poetry, prose fiction and drama. Workshop exercises are tailored to reflect on the content of the weekly lectures and put these skills, techniques and approaches into practice. In the workshop, writers discuss in detail each others' works-in-progress, developing critical and editorial skills and insight into the writing process. These skills and insight are then applied to their own, as well as peers' work.

The 'Reading for Technique' element of the course focuses student reading on key aspects of writing. It develops the necessary skills to read as a writer, rather than as a critic or general reader.

The course concentrates on fiction, poetry and drama. Students wishing to write non-fiction should pursue this interest through Independent Studies.

Quota and method of allocation of places in the event of over-subscription:

Priority is given to students from within the department of English Literature and Creative Writing, and the Department of English Language. Students from elsewhere within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences follow, and students from elsewhere within the university are allocated remaining places, if necessary by ballot. Occasionally, applicants may be asked to provide a portfolio of their work.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 100%

CREW203: Intermediate Creative Writing Workshop

• Terms Taught:
  • Full Year Course - Please note, this module is full for 2024/25.
  • Michaelmas Term only - Please note, this module is full for 2024/25.
  • Lent / Summer Term only
  NOTE: If you are studying with us for a Full Academic Year and you select a course that has full year and part year variants, you will not be allowed to take only part of the course. 
• US Credits:
  • Full Year course - 8 Semester Credits
  • Michaelmas Term only - 4 Semester Credits
  • Lent / Summer Terms only - 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits:
  • Full Year course - 15 ECTS Credits
  • Michaelmas Term only - 7.5 ECTS Credits
  • Lent / Summer Terms only - 7.5 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: We expect students who wish to take this module to have done some form of creative writing previously.

Course Description

CREW 203 is taught through lectures and by means of weekly workshops. CREW 203 is the entry point into Part II of your undergraduate degree and forms the core offering in Creative Writing. For Joint Honours students, specialist half-units are also available with their selective focus on specific literary forms. CREW 203 allows you to write in any adult literary genre, drawing on the accompanying half-units or exploring new areas of creative work. You will be a member of a workshop group of approximately 12 students. For students taking the course as a minor component in their degree, or as part of a joint honours degree, CREW 203 offers continuity from Part I study in the compilation of a portfolio of original writing. The course is supported by a virtual learning environment (Moodle) that enables the exchange of creative work and critiques, whilst also providing virtual meeting spaces and offering a range of dedicated bibliographic resources to support your creative and critical development.

Educational Aims

On CREW 203 each tutor will take an individual approach to their teaching, working within the framework of the course. Students will develop core skills introduced in CREW 103, extending their knowledge and practice of literary forms, developing editing skills, thinking about the role of the reader when interacting with written texts, learning about conventions of presentation, exploring, time, tense and point of view and developing a critical and creative vocabulary. The course is designed to develop critical and imaginative skills within a greater awareness of the technical demands of each literary form. This works on the principle of linking the production of new creative work to that of closely focused critical analysis of other students' work and your wider reading. Students will continue to give and receive feedback in a group setting, expressing themselves critically and sensitively in response to a careful reading of others' work. All students in a workshop are expected to critique all work submitted; this is done through annotating the text and through the verbal critiques. The workshops are supported by a lecture strand in order to develop and advance concepts and practice from CREW 103. The lectures aim to equip students with the knowledge and skills to understand the relationship between literary forms and techniques and how they engage their readership. In general, Part II study involves fostering greater autonomy and independence on the part of the student, who will be asked to think about human values, engagement, intention and the realisation of their ideas through creative writing. The course is designed to internalise and reinforce the values inherent in our assessment criteria.

On successful completion of the course you will have built on the achievements of CREW 103, further enhancing awareness of and developing:

• The effects of language, tone and register
• Strategies for initiating new work
• Reflective capacity in relation to your creative practice
• Terminology appropriate to forms and methods in creative writing
• Professional and scholarly standards of presentation and reference
• Awareness of genre and form
• The roles of reader/viewer/listener in realising creative work
• The structural elements and effects of creative and critical writing
• The importance of reading in the development of writing practice
• The human values inherent in emergent literary work
• The work of established writers and theorists on the subject of Creative Writing

Skills will include the enhanced ability to:

• Engage in the creative process of writing and redrafting
• Work independently and engage in group work
• Locate appropriate bibliographic resources through the course Moodle
• Read critically and respond to work in progress
• Develop a sense of physical, cultural and temporal location
• Use and understand poetic, narrative and scripted forms
• Understand and deploy characterisation and points of view
• Work with dialogue and voice
• Work to deadlines
• Sustain ongoing critical engagement with complex written material
• Write critically, deploying citations appropriately in support of arguments
• Present work in both oral and written forms
• Understand the role of virtual technology in textual production and revision
• Engage in self-directed study
• Deepen the process of informed, independent writing practices and self-reflection

FURTHER READING

It is essential that students studying on Part II understand the role of reading in both critical and creative fields in order to broaden and enhance their own critical and creative practice. Specific reading is recommended in end-of-term reports, in workshops and lectures and through the Bibliographic Resources feature on the CREW 203 course Moodle that is directly linked to the university's library resources.

DEVELOPING A PROJECT

CREW 203 is assessed on the submission of a substantial body of creative work and a reflective essay (see below). Your project should be developed through consultation with your tutor and the Project Proposal submitted in Week 7. We are looking for substantial progression from CREW 103 work in the form of a new project or new genres of writing.

FEEDBACK

Weeks 1-5 in term one will take the form of an induction session followed by a series of exploratory workshops. The exact form of these workshops will be discussed and agreed with your tutor. You should make a record of these in your personal Writing Journal. In Week 7 students will submit a project proposal and their first piece of creative work. Tutors will respond to this submission in writing as well as through workshop discussion. This is followed by an extended period of self-directed writing and submissions which are closely critiqued by your peers and by your tutor. In Week 17 an updated project proposal will be submitted and this, together with work-in-progress, will receive an indicative grade, and further feedback during a one-to-one discussion with your tutor.

Outline Syllabus

It is essential that students studying at this level understand the role of reading in both critical and creative fields in order to broaden and enhance their own critical and creative practice. Specific reading is recommended in end-of-term reports, in workshops and lectures and through the Bibliographic Resources feature on the CREW 203 course Moodle that is directly linked to the university's library resources.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 100%

The final creative portfolio is submitted in Week 22. The work derived from the course is marked against our Assessment Criteria, which can be located on the Course Moodle. The portfolio should consist of 8,000-word (max) portfolio of continuous prose or short fiction or 20 pages of poetry or 50 pages of formatted script. Creative work is accompanied by a reflective self-critique of 1,000 words maximum (including references, not including bibliography). The majority of the work submitted must have been previously discussed in workshops. The maximum word counts must not be exceeded. Assessments should be handed in to the Part II essay box in the mixing bay in the Department of English. An electronic copy must also be submitted in the coursework folder in Moodle. All essays should follow the English Literature Style Sheet and should include a bibliography. Footnotes should be used to include full publication details for texts that are referenced. You are advised to read carefully the section on plagiarism on the main university web pages http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/current-students/undergraduate-core-information/ and the Part I Handbook. You are reminded that material copied from the internet without acknowledgement is plagiarism.

CREW204: Short Fiction: Genre and Practice

• Terms Taught:
  • Michaelmas Term Only - Please note, this module is currently full for the 24/25 academic year.
  • Lent / Summer Term Only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites:   We expect students who wish to take this module to have done some form of creative writing previously.  

Course Description

This module will explore the writing of short stories in a workshop environment through the development of the student's own work, combined with the directed reading of selected texts. Over the course of ten weeks, you are expected to read and discuss each key text, respond to writing and generative prompts in relation to the workshop themes, and submit your own work for workshopping in two workshops. Students are also expected to explore some of the books and essays listed as 'supplementary' reading: the books are selected to offer different perspectives on the key issues raised. The course should be considered as having a cumulative effect, in that books discussed early on may be drawn upon in later weeks to illustrate different aspects of writing. During the course, you are also expected to keep a journal, in which you reflect upon your writing and reading. The journal will form the basis of the reflective element of your final portfolio.

The aims of this course are to provide an opportunity for second year students to develop a knowledge of the short story form, and to develop their experience of writing the form., as well as a knowledge of how the form has developed in the past 100 years. They will gain experience in reading, writing, workshopping and reflecting on short fiction, and will develop a knowledge of the history and development of the form, current theoretical approaches to reading and practice in this form, and an awareness of their own literary context. The course will offer students the opportunity to develop their oral and written communication skills, enhance awareness of their approach to the creative process, and enhance their skills in the critical analysis of texts. This course is then developed by the third year specialization in short fiction.

Educational Aims

By the end of this course you should have:

• a working knowledge of the different forms that short stories can take and have practiced some of these forms
• a working knowledge of the narrative strategies adopted by individual writers in their short stories
• a practice-based awareness of the process of drafting and revising your own short stories
• a reflexive journal of that personal writing process
• a developing awareness of what constitutes a 'writerly reading' of texts
• a developing awareness of contemporary writing from a variety of cultures
• a well-developed technique for critiquing the work and ideas of their peers and a knowledge of the critical criteria which underlie successful evaluations
• an increased awareness of the role of the reader in realizing the author's text
• a critical awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses as a writer
• developed your skills in written and oral communication
• understand and critique your own creative processes
• an awareness if the importance of all of the above in your development as a writer

Set Texts will be available on MOODLE

Outline Syllabus

Workshops will explore:

• The short story and the opening
• Writerly reading
• The Lyric Short Story and imagery
• The epiphany and endings
• Character in short stories and "the outsider"
• Establishing a unique voice
• 'The Alpha and Omega': Structure and Time

Contact: 1 x 120 minute workshop per week

Supplementary Reading

• The New Granta Book of the American Short Story, ed. by Richard Ford, Granta, 2012
• The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories, ed by Malcolm Bradbury, Penguin, 1998.
• The Granta Book of the African Short Story, Granta, 2011.
• Sudden Fiction Latino, Short Short stories from The United States and Latin America, ed. by Robert Shepard, Norton, 2010.
• McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, ed by Michael Chabon, Penguin, 2002
• The BBC National Short Story Prize Anthology 2014, Comma Press, 2014.
• The Best of British Short Stories 2013, Salt, 2013.
• Short Circuit, ed. Vanessa Gebbie, Salt Publishing
• The Creative Writing Course Book, ed. Julia Bell & Paul Magrs, Macmillan
• Creative Writing, a workbook with readings, ed. Linda Anderson, Routledge
• Creative Writing Guidebook, ed. Graeme Harper, Continuum
• Modern Criticism and Theory, a reader, ed. David Lodge, Longman
• The Rhetoric of Fiction, Wayne Booth, Penguin
• How Fiction Works, James Wood, Vintage
• Writing Short Stories, Ailsa Cox, Routledge
• The New Short Story Theories, ed. Charles E. May, Ohio University Press
• The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story, Frank O'Connor, Melville House Publishing
• Reading Like A Writer: A guide for People Who Love Books and Those Who Want to Write Them, Francine Prose, Union Books

Students should read any and all short stories they can obtain – there are anthologies in the library. The short story is a universal literary form and it's good to come into contact with as many different viewpoints, cultural settings, and styles as possible.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework 100%

At the end of term, you are expected to submit a short piece of reflective writing based on your journal, in which you consider your progress throughout the course and detail plans for your final portfolio submission. This will be discussed in an end-of-term personal tutorial with your tutor.

1 x portfolio comprising of at least two short stories, totalling no more than 4,000 words (if you wish to deviate from this, please consult your tutor) and one reflective essay based upon your writer's journal (1,000 words).

CREW205: Poetry: Genre and Practice

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Term only - Please note, this module is full for 2024/25.
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites:   We expect students who wish to take this module to have done some form of creative writing previously.  

Course Description

Course Aims and Objectives

The emphasis in this module is on reading as well as writing poetry; it will also explore how our lived experience translates into poetry and how poetry becomes an experience generated by language, memory, imagination and form. Students will be encouraged to seek out new reading as a result of seminar discussion. We will look at different poetic techniques – from the atoms of imagery to the more complex formal constraints of long poems like the sestina, from sonnet structure to typographical play – to familiarise ourselves with the tools at our disposal. Technique is vital to composition and it is strongly recommended that students buy or borrow a copy of Rhyme's Reason by John Hollander and The Poet's Manual and Rhyming Dictionary by Frances Stillman. Further texts will be supplied to the students throughout the course on the course Moodle.

Educational Aims

By the end of this course you should have:

• A good working knowledge of how structure in poetry can be adapted to create a variety of effects
• A well-developed technique for providing critique of peer work and a knowledge of the critical criteria which underlie successful evaluations
• A sense of the circulatory nature of reading, writing and critical reflection, where poetry is concerned
• An increased awareness of readers and the variations in reader responses
• Experience in presenting your work orally to others in the group / in a semi-public forum on campus.
• Developed your skills of written and oral communication

Outline Syllabus

Key Texts for Reference:

• John Hollander, Rhyme's Reason (Yale University Press, 2001)
• Shira Wolosky, The Art of Poetry (Oxford University Press, 2001)
• Michael Donaghy, The Shape of the Dance (Picador, 2009)
• Peter Sansom, Writing Poems, (Bloodaxe, 1994)
• Frances Stillman, The Poet's Manual and Rhyming Dictionary (Thames and Hudson, 1972)
• Glyn Maxwell On Poetry (Oberon Press, 2013)

Recommended Reading:

• Roddy Lumsden (ed.), Identity Parade: New British & Irish Poets
• Jo Shapcott and Matthew Sweeney (eds.), Emergency Kit
• Neil Astley (ed.), Staying Alive
• Neil Astley (ed.), Being Alive
• Don Paterson and Charles Simic (eds.), New British Poetry
• Deryn Rees-Jones (ed.), Making for Planet Alice
• Ruth Padel, 52 Ways of Looking at a Poem (Chatto and Windus, 2002)
• Eavan Boland and Mark Strand, The Making of a Poem (Norton, 2001)

Students should reference the Part II handbook for lectures relating to poetry.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework 100%

Assessment: 1 x portfolio consisting of poems (3,000 words equivalent) and a reflective essay based on your writer's journal (1,000 words). We are looking for work that engages with and reflects a fairly intense 10-week seminar series. This could be anything from a group of individual poems to a linked sequence, to a long poem. As a general guide, 10 poems, each between a sonnet and sestina in length, would be acceptable. You will be offered guidance on this during the course.

CREW206: Creative Non-Fiction: Memoir and Life Writing

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term Only - Please note, this module is currently full for the 24/25 academic year.
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites:   We expect students who wish to take this module to have done some form of creative writing previously.  

Course Description

This ten-week module will give you the opportunity to explore topics, techniques and methods involved in memoir and life writing. We will also pay particular attention to the risks and opportunities – technical, ethical and personal – inherent in this form. Through a series of seminars and workshops tutor presentations we will explore set texts, do generative writing prompts, and give and receive feedback on works in progress. There you will work towards the creation of some memoir pieces of your own – either a short stand-alone work or works, or a chapter / section from a proposed longer work. You will also be supported in developing some independent research to set your own work in its context in your reflective essay. At the end of term, each student will have a one-to-one personal tutorial to discuss the reflective essay and decide on the best approach to the portfolio submission.

Educational Aims

By the end of this course you should have:

• A working knowledge of the different forms that Creative Non-Fiction can take, the different purposes it can serve, and have practiced some of those forms.
• A working knowledge of the strategies adopted by individual writers in the writing of Creative Non-Fiction
• A developing awareness of what constitutes a writerly reading of texts.
• A developing awareness of contemporary Creative Non-Fiction writing
• A well-developed technique for providing critique of peer work and a knowledge of the critical criteria which underlie successful evaluations
• An increased reader-awareness
• A critical awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses as a writer
• Developed your skills in written and oral communication
• An awareness of the issues to be considered in the planning of a piece of Creative Non-Fiction
• Improved editorial skills
• An awareness of the importance of all of the above in your development as a writer

Outline Syllabus

The weekly seminar schedule and topics addressed will include:

• Finding a voice: the writing 'I' and the experiencing 'I'
• Finding a shape, a structure and a story.
• Authenticity, truth-telling and plausibility.
• The ethics of retelling: whose story is it anyway?
• The self and the world (1): memoir and identity
• The self and the world (2): memoir and place

Contact: 2 hour workshop weekly.

Primary Texts:

• Jenny Diski, In Gratitude (Bloomsbury, 2017)
• Amy Liptrot, The Outrun (Granta, 2015)
• Nikesh Shukla, Brown Baby: A Memoir of Race, Family and Home (Pan Macmillan, 2020)
• Michele Tea, Against Memoir (And Other Stories, 2018)

Secondary Texts:

• Mary Karr, The Art of Memoir (Harper Collins, 2015)
• Vivan Gornick, The Situation and The Story (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2001)

Useful Additional Reading:

• Sally Cline & Carole Angier, The Arvon Book of Life Writing (Methuen, 2010)
• Ben Yagoda, The Voice on the Page (Harper Perennial, 2005)
• Phillip Lopate (ed.), To Show and To Tell: The Art of Literary Non Fiction (Free Press, 2013)

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework 100%

Assessment: 1 x portfolio of one or more pieces (4,000 words) and a reflective essay (1,000 words).

CREW208: Writing place and landscape

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms Only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: We expect students who wish to take this module to have done some form of creative writing previously.

Course Description

What is 'place writing', and what makes good writing about place? This module is designed for those students interested in writing imaginatively about places and/or landscapes, providing a grounding for writers of poetry, prose fiction and non-fiction in the broad field of nature, environmental/ecological and place writing (which has been undergoing something of a renaissance in recent years). Students will discuss key texts that engage with different kinds of place and landscape – from fields and forests to rivers and urban edgelands – and explore their own emergent interests in place writing. Students will be encouraged to consider their own work as part of a larger, ongoing literary conversation about place, and to explore those places and landscapes that interest and excite them. The course also contains an element of fieldwork, linking the act of physically walking through a landscape to the practice of reading and writing about it.

Educational Aims

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

• Understand the contexts and range of place writing, and how landscape is a mutable and constructed term with a deep history.
• Situate their own creative work within its wider literary context, developing their skills as a reflective reader and writer of literature.
• Develop their own interests in landscape and place, both as critical readers and active practitioners.
• Critically analyse a range of texts (prose and poetry) and situate them in the larger intertextual frameworks of literature, travel writing, place writing and genre-defying hybrid texts
• Create their own work that explore the boundaries and limits of place writing

Outline Syllabus

Key Texts: Overview

• Granta 102: The New Nature Writing, view online here
• 'Walking in the City' in The Practice of Everyday Life, Michel de Certeau
• Species of Space, Georges Perec

Key Texts: Specific Landscapes

• Forests, Robert Pogue Harrison
• Four Fields, Tim Dee
• Edgelands, Paul Farley, Michael Symmons Roberts
• The Unofficial Countryside, Richard Mabey
• Museum Without Walls, Jonathan Meades
• Strands, Jean Sprackland
• Mountains of the Mind, Robert Macfarlane
• The Prelude Book VI, William Wordsworth
• Waterlog Roger Deakin
• To the River, Olivia Laing
• Dart, Alice Oswald
• River, Ted Hughes
• Caught by the River, ed. Barrett, Turner, Walsh

Secondary Texts:

• The Rings of Saturn, W. G. Sebald
• Ground Work: writings on people and places, ed. Tim Dee
• Field Notes from a Hidden City, Esther Woolfson
• Going it Alone, Rahawa Haile, view online here
• Another Fine Mess, Tim Moore
• Deep Country, Neil Ansell
• The Living Mountain, Nan Shepherd
• The Wild Places, Robert Macfarlane
• Findings, Kathleen Jamie
• 9 Rules for the Black Birdwatcher, J. Drew Lanham, view online here
• Wildwood, Roger Deakin
• The End of the End of the Earth: essays, Jonathan Franzen

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework 100%

Assessment: 1 x portfolio consisting of 3,000 words (or poetry equivalent*) and a reflective essay based on your writer's journal (1,000 words).

*We are looking for work that engages with and reflects a fairly intense 10-week seminar series. This could conceivably be anything from a long haiku sequence to a short epic, but 12 A4 pages of poems, each between a sonnet and sestina in length, is a reasonable benchmark.

CREW210: Writing for the stage

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only - Please note, this module is currently full for the 24/25 academic year.
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: We expect students who wish to take this module to have done some form of creative writing previously.

Course Description

Course Outline: The module aims to enable students to write for the theatre and develop their awareness of the processes by which a written script makes its way to performance. Students will be taught through weekly seminars/creative writing workshops in which they will explore the effects that different staging approaches and performance strategies have on their scripts. There will be a performance showcase in which students will be actively involved; the showcase will allow students to reflect upon their work in the light of audience feedback. Over the course of the module, they will develop their own writing styles and gain an awareness of the professional requirements of playwriting.

Topics covered will include:

• The role of the playwright
• Creating characters
• Dialogue strategies
• Approaching political issues
• Theatre landscapes
• Structure

Educational Aims

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

• Show understanding of dramatic structure, language and staging approaches, and apply this knowledge to their own playwriting

Outline Syllabus

Recommended texts

• Ayckbourn, A., 2002. The Crafty Art of Playmaking. London: Faber and Faber.
• Brook, P., 1968. The Empty Stage. London: Penguin.
• Esslin, M., 1987. The Field of Drama. London: Methuen.
• Grace, F. and Bayley, C., 2016. Playwriting: A Writers' and Artists' Companion. London: Bloomsbury
• Johnstone, K., 1979. Impro: Improvisation and the theatre. London: Faber and Faber.
• Sierz, A., 2011. Rewriting the Nation: British Theatre Today. London: Methuen Drama.
• Wiltshire, K., 2016. Writing for Theatre: Creative and Critical Approaches. London: Palgrave Macmillan
• Yorke, J., 2013. Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them. London: Penguin.

Recommended plays

• Ahmed, N., 2012. Mustafa. London: Nick Hern Books.
• Agbaje, B., 2007. Gone Too Far! London: Methuen Drama.
• Beckett, S., 1956. Waiting for Godot. London: Faber and Faber.
• Churchill, C., 2006. Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? London: Methuen Drama.
• Dimitrijevic, S., 2017. Dr Frankenstein. London: Oberon Books.
• Gupta, T., 2017. Lions and Tigers. London: Oberon Books.
• Kane, S., 2011. Blasted. London: Methuen Drama.
• Kene, A., 2017. Good Dog. London: Nick Hern Books.
• Khan-Din, A., 1997. East is East. London: Nick Hern Books.
• Keatley, C., 1988. My mother said I never should. London: Methuen Drama
• Kushner, T., 2013. Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. New York: Theatre Communications Group.
• Nwandu, A., 2019. Pass Over. London: Faber & Faber.
• Prebble, L., 2016. The Effect. London: Methuen.
• Washburn, A., 2014. Mr Burns, a post-electric play. London: Oberon Books.
• Weatherill, B., 2018. Jellyfish. London: Methuen Drama.
• Wertenbaker, T., 1990. Our Country's Good. London: Methuen Drama.

For further information see Tajinder Singh Hayer (Country Main B96)

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework 100%

Assessment: Students will write a play script (approximately 22-25 pages) and a 1500 word essay reflecting on the writing, rehearsal and performance process.

CREW303: Advanced Creative Writing Workshop

• Terms Taught:
  • Full Year Course
  • Michaelmas Term Only
  NOTE: If you are studying with us for a Full Academic Year and you select a course that has full year and part year variants, you will not be allowed to take only part of the course. 
• US Credits:
  • Full Year course - 8 Semester Credits
  • Michaelmas Term only - 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits:
  • Full Year course - 15 ECTS Credits
  • Michaelmas Term only - 7.5 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: We expect students who wish to take this module to have done some form of creative writing previously.

Course Description

CREW 303 is the continuation of Part II of your undergraduate degree and forms the core offering in Creative Writing. For Joint Honours students, specialist half-units are also available with their selective focus on specific literary forms. CREW 303 allows you to write in any adult literary genre, drawing on the accompanying half-units or exploring new areas of creative work. You will be a member of a workshop group of approximately 12 students. For students taking the course as a minor component in their degree, or as part of a joint honours degree, CREW 303 offers continuity from CREW 203 in the compilation of a portfolio of original writing. The course is supported by a virtual learning environment (Moodle) that enables the exchange of creative work and critiques, whilst also providing virtual meeting spaces and offering a range of dedicated bibliographic resources to support your creative and critical development.

Educational Aims

On CREW 303 each tutor will take an individual approach to their teaching, working within the framework of the course and following the interests stimulated by CREW 103 and CREW 203. The course works on the principle of linking the production of new creative work to that of closely focused critical analysis of other students’ work and of wider reading. All students in a workshop are expected to critique all work submitted; this is done through annotating the text and through the critiques offered in workshops.

Students will develop the key skills introduced at Part I and in the first year of Part II with an emphasis on writing as process, exploring authorial voice, refining point of view, understanding the dimensions of time, identifying authorial guises, understanding how texts imply readers, deploying literary forms, and considering the creative and interactive nature of reading. This course also aims to train students to engage with the practical realities and opportunities of working as a practicing writer. The workshops are supported by a lecture strand in order to develop and advance concepts and practice from CREW 203. The lectures aim to equip students with the knowledge and skills to navigate the wider literary world and its creative industries.

Students will give and receive feedback in a group setting, following the practice of CREW 203, maintaining a critical sensibility and responding sensitively through the careful reading of others' work. The course is designed to develop critical and imaginative skills within a greater awareness of the technical demands of each literary form. In general, Part II study involves fostering greater autonomy and independence on the part of the student, who will be asked to think about human values, engagement, intention and the realisation of their ideas through creative writing. Whilst carrying forward the methods and values of CREW 203, CREW 303 places greater emphasis on the professional environment and career opportunities after graduation. The course is designed to internalise and reinforce the values inherent in our assessment criteria.

FURTHER READING

It is essential that students studying on Part II understand the role of reading in both critical and creative fields in order to broaden and enhance their own critical and creative practice. Specific reading is recommended in end-of-term reports, in workshops and lectures and through the Bibliographic Resources feature on the CREW 303 course Moodle that is directly linked to the university's library resources.

Outline Syllabus

Relevant authors and literary texts will be recommended by your tutor throughout the year. You will also be expected to read widely and discuss current reading in the workshops. There are no set texts for this course but the following will be suggested in terms of practical guides:

• Linda Anderson, Creative Writing Coursebook, A Handbook With Readings
• Paul Mills, The Routledge Creative Writing Coursebook.
• J. Bell, The Creative Writing Course Book: Forty Authors Share Advice and Exercises for Fiction and Poetry- an excellent, many-voiced source of inspiration for aspiring writers
• J. Newman, E. Cusick and A. La Tourette, The Writers Workbook, a sound practical guide.
• Damon Knight, Creating Short Fiction: The Classic Guide to Writing Short Fiction
• Clare Brown and Don Paterson, Dont Ask me What I Mean, Poets in their own Words
• Barry Turner, The Writers Handbook
• James M Frey, How to Write a Damn Good Novel.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 100%

Assessment: 1 x 8,000-word portfolio of your own creative work or equivalent (16-20 poems of between sonnet and sestina length) plus a reflective self-critique of no more than 2,000 words. The majority of the work submitted must have been previously discussed at workshops

CREW304: Longer Fiction: Skills and Techniques for Approaching a Novel

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term Only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: Applicants should submit a short portfolio of their writing, preferably in the appropriate genre.

Course Description

Course Convenor – Mr Okey Nzelu

Course Outline:

During this module you will examine, through set reading and writing prompts and tasks, the unique features of long fiction. Through tutor presentations and discussion of set texts, the workshopping of creative writing in progress and the writing of synopses and other planning documents, you will develop competence in approaching a long fiction project. This includes: strategies for planning and structuring, choosing point of view and tense, developing plot, working with setting and landscape, addressing theme and characterisation, experimenting with form and considering an ending. Tutor presentations may be provided as online lectures. You will be expected to give written feedback to your peers each week.

Note: this is a course for the development of long fiction projects for adults – work meant for children or young adults is not suitable for this course. You may work in any genre you wish, but we will focus on historical, science fiction, literary, speculative and crime genres during this course.

Outline Syllabus

Set Texts (in order of appearance):

• Andrea Levy, Small Island
• Sandra Newman, The Heavens
• Jessica Andrews, Saltwater
• Megan Hunter, The End We Start From
• Oyinkan Braithwaite, My Sister the Serial Killer
• Jon McGregor, Even the Dogs

Secondary Reading:

Essential:

• The Art of the Novel by Nicholas Royle

Supplementary:

• John Mullan, How Novels Work
• Sol Stein, Solutions for Novelists
• David Lodge, The Art of Fiction

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework 100%

Assessment: 1 x portfolio, consisting of a 4,000-word extract or extracts from a proposed long fiction and a reflective essay (1,000 words). You will also submit synopsis (one page) of the whole proposed work as an appendix to the reflective essay.

CREW306: Writing/Reading Poetry

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms Only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: You should have some knowledge of creative writing

Course Description

"No art without the resistance of the medium", Raymond Chandler once said. This module will build on CREW 205 (Writing Poetry), deepening student engagement with both the writing and the reading process. Poetic form will be explored through a wide-ranging selection of poems (all of which can be found in the set text for the course: The Making of a Poem (ed. Boland and Strand) and Poetry By Heart's online anthology. We will consider form as historical poetic model and a tradition that has been questioned, adapted, subverted, upcycled, reaffirmed – rather than the binaries of free/formal verse, open/closed form etc. and there will be particular emphasis on those forms regularly employed or reimagined in a twentieth century and a more recent contemporary context. A portion of each seminar will be spent discussing the set poems. Students will submit their own poems on a fortnightly basis. The dual assessment (a portfolio of students' own poems plus a close reading of two of the syllabus poems) reflects the course emphasis on the inter-relationship between reading and writing.

Educational Aims

The aim of this module is to provide a crucial opportunity for final year students to develop and extend their poetic technique through guided writing and reading. The module will build on earlier encounters with poetry, developing student engagement with both the writing and the reading process. Students will be required to take tools such as lineation, diction, rhythm and rhyme, and employ them in the building of both closed and open forms. They will be introduced to and required to write a ballad, a piece of pastoral verse, a piece of blank verse, in addition to poems which reflect a grasp of the module's teaching on the stanza itself. Thus this new module will expose students to a variety of forms hitherto untaught on the Creative Writing syllabus. Particular emphasis will be placed on those forms regularly employed in a twentieth century and a contemporary context. Through the study of poets who adhere strictly to the requirements of a certain form and those who adapt the rules, students will be encouraged to engage in similar negotiations. Towards the latter end of the course, open forms will also be discussed, the earlier work on closed forms hopefully providing a new lens through which to view so-called free verse. Students will encounter a rich selection of set poems from which to draw inspiration, the close links between reading and writing being continually emphasized throughout the module.

Outline Syllabus

Set Texts

• The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms, ed. Mark Strand & Eavan Boland (Norton, 2000)
• Poetry by Heart anthology
• Poetry by Heart's online anthology

Course Structure Individual poems may vary from year to year

• Week 1 - The Ballad ('Sir Patrick Spens' anonymous, 'Death in Leamington' John Betjeman, 'Bagpipe Music' Louis MacNeice, 'We Real Cool' Gwendolyn Brooks, 'Langley Lane' Jacob Polley)
• Week 2 - The Sonnet ('Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, 1802' William Wordsworth, 'What lips my lips have kissed...', Edna St. Vincent Millay, 'Epic' Patrick Kavanagh, 'Timer' Tony Harrison, 'Waking with Russell' Don Paterson)
• Week 3 - The Stanza ('They Flee from Me' Thomas Wyatt, 'Easter Wings' George Herbert, 'The Convergence of the Twain' Thomas Hardy, 'Not waving but drowning' Stevie Smith, 'Those Winter Sundays' Robert Hayden, 'Yes' Muriel Rukeyser, 'Look We Have Coming To Dover' Daljit Nagra)
• Week 4 - Blank Verse ('from Beachy Head' Charlotte Smith, 'Ulysses' Alfred Tennyson, 'Rain' Edward Thomas, 'Directive' Robert Frost)
• Week 5 - The Pastoral ('Ode on a Grecian Urn' John Keats, 'The Explosion' Philip Larkin, 'Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota' James Wright, 'Let Evening Come' Jane Kenyon, 'The Broad Bean Sermon' Les Murray, 'Tornadoes' Thylias Moss)
• Week 6 - Independent study week
• Week 7 - The Elegy ('Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' Thomas Gray, 'Dover Beach' Matthew Arnold, 'In Memory of W. B. Yeats' W. H. Auden, 'A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford' Derek Mahon)
• Week 8 - Open Forms 1 ('The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' T. S. Eliot, 'The Idea of Order at Key West' Wallace Stevens, 'Ave Maria' Frank O'Hara, 'Diving into the Wreck' Adrienne Rich)
• Week 9 - Open Forms 2 ('The Language of the Brag' Sharon Olds, 'The Colonel' Carolyn Forche, 'Reading Plato' Jorie Graham, 'move' Lucille Clifton)
• Week 10 - Conclusions

For further information, see Paul Farley County Main B206

Assessment Proportions

• 1 x portfolio of 9 poems (80%)
• 1 x 1,500-word close reading of 2 syllabus poems (20%)

CREW308: Advanced Short Story: Form and Practice

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms Only - Please note, this module is full for 2024/25.
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: We expect students who wish to take this module to have done some form of creative writing previously.

Course Description

This unit will provide an opportunity for students to develop their knowledge and skills of the short story form, history and practice with a more advanced course, which develops from the second year course, Crew 204. Each week you will have the opportunity to discuss, in detail, one or two specimen short stories and workshop your own creative work. Students are also expected to explore some of the books and essays listed as 'supplementary' reading: the books are selected to offer different perspectives on the key issues raised. The course should be considered as having a cumulative effect, in that books discussed early on may be drawn upon in later weeks to illustrate different aspects of writing. During the course, you are also expected to keep a journal, in which you reflect upon your writing and reading. The journal will form the basis of the reflective element of your final portfolio. Topics covered will include:

• Plot, misdirection, and the reveal or twist in the short story
• Flash fiction and in between forms (prose poem, vignettes)
• Genre (the ghost story)
• Rewriting fairytales
• Developing your critical awareness in your reflective essay
• Submitting to journals and competitions

Contact: 1 x 120 minute workshop per week

Educational Aims

Course Aims:

• The aims of this course are to provide an opportunity for third year students to develop their knowledge of the history of the short story form, and their experience of writing in this form.
• They will also gain higher level experience in reading as a writer, editing, workshopping and evaluating their work as reflective practitioners.
• Students will examine short stories from a variety of nations, eras and cultures with the aim of expanding their knowledge of the form and increasing their ability to produce informed and original creative work.
• Students will increase their knowledge of current theoretical approaches to reading and practice in this form, and an increased awareness of their own literary context: the modern short story.
• The course will offer students the opportunity to develop their oral and written communication skills, enhance awareness of their approach to the creative process, and enhance their skills in the critical analysis of texts.
• They will also develop skills in evaluating the creative and reflective work of themselves and others.

On successful completion of the course the student will have:

• a working knowledge of the different forms that short stories can take and have practiced some of these forms
• an increased awareness of the role of the reader in realizing the author's text
• a working knowledge of the narrative strategies adopted by individual writers in their short stories
• a practice-based awareness of the process of drafting and revising your own short stories
• a reflexive journal of that personal writing process
• a developing awareness of what constitutes a 'writerly reading' of texts
• a developing awareness of contemporary writing from a variety of cultures
• an awareness if the importance of all of the above in your development as a writer
• a well-developed technique for providing critique of peer work and a knowledge of the critical criteria which underlie successful evaluations
• a critical awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses as a writer
• developed their skills in written and oral communication
• understand and critique their own creative processes and output

Outline Syllabus

Set Texts:

Specimen short stories will be provided to you via Moodle prior to the start of the course. The following anthologies will be helpful:

• The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Short Stories ed. Wimmal Dissanayake
• The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story ed. Anne Enright
• The Granta Book of the American Short Story ed. Richard Ford
• The Granta Book of the African Short Story ed. Helen Habila
• Best British Short Stories 2013 ed. Nicholas Royle

Secondary reading:

• Creative Writing, a workbook with readings, ed. Linda Anderson, Routledge
• The Rhetoric of Fiction, Wayne Booth, Penguin
• The Creative Writing Coursebook, ed. Julia Bell & Paul Magrs, Macmillan
• Writing Short Stories, Ailsa Cox, Routledge
• Short Circuit, ed. Vanessa Gebbie, Salt Publishing
• Creative Writing Guidebook, ed. Graeme Harper, Continuum
• Modern Criticism and Theory, a reader, ed. David Lodge, Longman
• The New Short Story Theories, ed. Charles E. May, Ohio University Press
• The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story, Frank O'Connor, Melville House Publishing
• Reading Like A Writer: A guide for People Who Love Books and Those Who Want to Write Them, Francine Prose, Union Books
• How Fiction Works, James Wood, Vintage
• Short Story Resources and Writers on Writing
• Short Story Website
• Contemporary African Stories
• African Radio Stories
• The Short Review
• The New Yorker Fiction Podcast
• Stories from The New Yorker Archive
• McSweeney's
• The Booktrust: http://www.booktrust.org.uk

The hyperlinks above are designed to introduce students to a wide spectrum of short stories, practice-based theory and critical reading. Students should read any and all short stories they can obtain – there are anthologies in the library. The short story is a universal literary form and it's good to come into contact with as many different viewpoints, cultural settings, and styles as possible.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework 100%

Assessment: At the end of the Lent term, you are expected to submit a short piece of reflective writing based on your journal, in which you consider your progress throughout the course and detail plans for your final portfolio submission. This will be discussed in an end-of-term personal tutorial with your tutor.

• A portfolio of short stories of 4000 words and a reflective essay based on your writer's journal of 1000 words.

CREW309: Poetry and Experiment

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term Only - Please note, this module is full for 2024/25.
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: We expect students who wish to take this module to have done some form of creative writing previously.

Course Description

Course Outline:

This course aims to challenge the received structures of language in the students' own poetry through a close reading of poets who opened up new frontiers of 20th/21st century literature through their approaches to language. Every seminar will be split in two halves; the first hour will be devoted to a close reading of work by a published poet, looking at how they stretch or break the lyric formula; the second hour will be a workshop based on critiquing the students' own poetic experiments. The students' own experiments are encouraged as either continuations of the radical departures first implemented by the poets in question, or the students' own attempts to break from comfortable notions of confessional or lyric poetry.

Educational Aims

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

• understand the contexts and techniques through which poets of the 20th and 21st centuries have tried to challenge the received literary and linguistic frameworks of their genre.
• situate their own creative work within its wider literary context, developing their skills as a reflective reader and writer of literature.
• develop their own poetry towards the experimental thresholds of the genre as a tool of research into the limits of what might be said.
• create their own texts that question the received frameworks of text-production.

Outline Syllabus

Key Reading for Workshops:

• Hera Lindsay Bird, Hera Lindsay Bird. London: Penguin, 2017.
• Ciaran Carson, The Ballad of HMS Belfast. London: Picador, 1999.
• Tom Chivers (ed) Adventures in Form: A Compendium of Poetic Forms, Rules & Constraints. London: Penned in the Margins, 2012.
• E E Cummings, Selected Poems. London: Faber & Faber, 1977.
• Miroslav Holub, Poems Before and After. Tarset: Bloodaxe, 2006.
• Medbh McGuckian, Selected Poems. Dublin: The Gallery Press, 1997.
• Les Murray, Translations from the Natural World. Manchester: Carcanet, 2012.
• Alice Oswald. Dart. London: Faber & Faber, 2002.
• Ezra Pound, Selected Poems and Translations of Ezra Pound 1908-1969. London: Faber & Faber, 2011.

Secondary Reading:

A selection of essays and supplementary poems will be posted to Moodle.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 100%

Assessment: 10 pages of poetry; 1,000 word critical / reflective / contextualising essay.

CREW310: Writing Adaptations: stage, radio and podcasts

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms Only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: Applicants should submit a short portfolio of their writing, preferably in the appropriate genre.

Course Description

Course Outline:

The module will be taught through a combination of seminars and workshops. Earlier weeks will be focussed on introducing students to the key elements of adapting for radio and theatre; there will be specific tasks relating to the weekly subject. As the term progresses, students will develop their own longer pieces for assessment. Specific adaptations will be analysed in script form, in broadcast form and (where possible) through viewing live recording archives. Topics covered will include:

• 'Faithful' versus 'unfaithful' adaptations
• Finding soundscapes and stage images in the source materials
• Beginnings and endings
• Locating characters and character voices
• Working within and changing existing story structures
• Script format (and software resources)
• Juggling forms: novels, short fiction, poems and non-fiction in to script; moving between film, theatre and radio.

Educational Aims

The module aims to enable students to write script adaptations for the stage and radio. Students will explore the effects of choice when it comes to source text (prose fiction, poetry or non-fiction) and the medium for adaptation (radio or theatre). They will experience the editorial demands of the adaptation process, and will engage with both the overlapping and different strategies for realising work in theatre and radio.

Outline Syllabus

Recommended Texts

Works consulted may include:

• Alfreds, M., 2013. Then What Happens? Storytelling and Adapting for the Theatre. London: Nick Hern Books
• Ayckbourn, A., 2002. The Crafty Art of Playmaking. London: Faber and Faber.
• Grace, F. and Bayley, C., 2016. Playwriting: A Writers' and Artists' Companion. London: Bloomsbury
• Grove, C. and Wyatt, S., 2013. So You Want to Write Radio Drama? London: Nick Hern Books.
• McKee, R., 1998. Story. London: Methuen.
• Rodger, I., 1982. Radio Drama. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
• Richards, K., 1991. Writing Radio Drama. Sydney, Aus: Currency Press.
• Sanders, J., 2005. Adaptation and Appropriation. Abingdon: Routledge
• Seger, L., 1992. The Art of Adaptation: Turning Fact and Fiction into Film. New York: Henry Holt
• Stam, R., 2000. Beyond Fidelity: The Dialogics of Adaptation. In: Naremore, J., ed., 2000. Film Adaptation. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. pp.54-56
• Stam, R., 2005. 'Introduction: The Theory and Practice of Adaptation'. In: Stam, R. and Raengo, A. eds., 2005. Literature and Film: a guide to the Theory and Practice of film adaptation. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. pp.1-52.
• Teddern, S. and Warburton, N., 2016. Writing for TV and Radio: A Writers' and Artists' Companion. London: Bloomsbury.

Radio adaptations

• ARMITAGE, S. [radio]. Missing Presumed Dead: The Odyssey. BBC Radio 4. 30 April 2016. 21:00.
• BACZKIEWICZ, S. [radio]. Arthur: The Sword of the King. BBC Radio 4 Extra. 25 September 2017. 21:15.
• BANDELE, B. [radio] Things Fall Apart. BBC Radio 4. 21 September 2020. 19:45.
• BRAND, N. [radio] The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. BBC Radio 4. 19 November 2016. 14:30.
• BROOKS, R. [radio]. Mort. BBD Radio 4 Extra. 21 April 2015. 00:00.
• CATHERINE, L. [radio]. Frankenstein. BBC Radio 4. 20 December 2015. 00:00.
• CANNY, S. & NICHOLSON, J. [radio]. The Hound of the Baskervilles. BBC Radio 4. 1 July 2013. 21:00.
• COULES, B. [radio]. The 39 Steps. BBC Radio 4. 22 December 2001. 21:00.
• COULES, B. [radio]. The Hound of the Baskervilles. BBC Radio 7/4 extra. 29 December 2009.
• FORREST, R. [radio]. The Voyage of the Demeter. BBC Radio 7/4 extra. 31 October 2010. 20:00.
• HARRALD, C. [radio]. King Solomon's Mines. BBC Radio 4. 8 April 2017. 21:00.
• JAMES, C. [radio]. Cuttin' it. BBC Radio 4. BBC Radio 4. 25 February 2016. 14:15.
• KILGARRIFF, M. [radio]. The Hobbit. BBC Radio 4. 29 September 1968.
• LENKIEWICZ, R. [radio]. Dracula. BBC Radio 4 Extra. 27 May 2018. 00:00.
• MAGGS, D. [radio]. Neverwhere. BBC Radio 4. 26 December 2013. 23:00.
• MENON, A. [radio]. Midnight's Children. BBC Radio 4. 20 August 2017. 15:00.
• MURRAY, L. [radio]. Northern Lights. BBC Radio 4. 4 January 2003. 14:30.
• MURRAY, M. [radio]. The War of the Worlds. BBC Radio 4. 4 March 2017. 14: 30.
• MURRAY, M. [radio]. The Last of the Volsungs. BBC Radio 3. 18 February 2018. 21:00.
• NICHOLSON, J. & KATZ, R. [radio]. A Trespasser's Guide to the Classics: The Neck. BBC Radio 4. 10 March 2017. 1130.
• O'SHEA, M. [radio]. Journey to the Centre of the Earth. BBC Radio 4. 19 March 2017. 15:00.
• PENNEY, S. [radio] Moby Dick. BBC Radio 4. 23 October 2010. 21:00.
• PREBBLE, L. [radio]. The Effect. BBC Radio 3. 28 January 2018. 21:00.
• SIMPSON, J. [radio] The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. 2 January 2019. BBC Radio 4.
• WILKINSON, J. [radio]. And Then There Were None. 13 November 2010. 15:00.
• WILKINSON, J. [radio] The Life and Loves of a She Devil. 27 February 2016. 21:00.
• WINTERSON, J. [radio] Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. BBC Radio 4. 16 April 2016. 21:00
• WOODS, S. [radio] Das Kapital. BBC Radio 4. 5 May 2018. 14:30.

Stage adaptations

• Armitage, S. 2015. The Odyssey: Missing Presumed Dead. London: Faber & Faber.
• Barlow, P., 2010. The 39 Steps. London: Samuel French.
• Buchar, S. & Landon-Smith, K., 2007. A Fine Balance. London: Methuen Drama.
• Bush Theatre, 2011. Sixty-Six Books: 21st-century writers speak to the King James Bible. London: Oberon.
• Canny, S. & Nicholson, J., 2012. The Hound of the Baskervilles. London: Nick Hern Books
• Cooke, D., Noughts & Crosses. London: Nick Hern Books.
• Dear, N., 2011. Frankenstein. London: Faber & Faber.
• Dimitrijevic, S., 2017. Dr Frankenstein. London: Oberon Books.
• Din, A.K. 2007. Rafta, Rafta... London: Nick Hern Books.
• Duffy, C.A., 2003. Collected Grimm Tales. London: Faber & Faber.
• Dyer, K., 2016. The Hobbit.
• Gupta, T., 2015. Anita and Me. London: Oberon Books.
• Hare, D., 2014. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: A Play. London: Faber & Faber.
• Kureishi, H., 2009. The Black Album. London: Faber & Faber.
• Bhuchar, S., Landon-Smith, K. & Mistry, R., 2007. A Fine Balance. London: Methuen Drama.
• Laurens, J., 2004. Poor Beck. London: Oberon Books.
• Marshall-Griffiths, L., 2016. Villette. London: Oberon Books
• Morris, T. and Rice, E., 2007. A Matter of Life and Death. London: Oberon Books.
• Munro, R., 2019. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. London: Nick Hern Books.
• Stephens, S., 2012. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. London: Methuen.
• Teevan, C., 2001. Monkey! A tale from China. London: Oberon Books.
• Thorne, J. 2013. Let The Right One In. London: Nick Hern Books.
• Verma, D. and Cross, F. 2009. Wuthering Heights. London: Methuen.
• Wade, L., 2010. Alice. London: Oberon Books.
• Washburn, A., 2014. Mr Burns, a post-electric play. London: Oberon Books.
• Wright, N., 2004. His Dark Materials – The Play. London: Nick Hern Books.

Vacation Reading

• Ayckbourn, A., 2002. The Crafty Art of Playmaking. London: Faber and Faber.
• Grace, F. and Bayley, C., 2016. Playwriting: A Writers' and Artists' Companion. London: Bloomsbury
• Grove, C. and Wyatt, S., 2013. So You Want to Write Radio Drama? London: Nick Hern Books.
• Teddern, S. and Warburton, N., 2016. Writing for TV and Radio: A Writers' and Artists' Companion. London: Bloomsbury.

Radio recordings should be available through Box of Broadcasts service or will be embedded on Moodle. For further information see Tajinder Singh Hayer, County Main B96

Assessment Proportions

• 100% Coursework

Assessment: A 22-25 page play or radio script (80%) and a 1500 word essay reflecting on the adaptation process (20%).

CREW311: Writing Fiction for Young People

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term Only - Please note, this module is currently full for the 24/25 academic year.
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: Applicants should submit a short portfolio of their writing, preferably in the appropriate genre.

Course Description

The module will introduce students to the constraints and opportunities of writing for children and young adults (YA). This is a specialist field which accounts for roughly 25% of turnover in the UK publishing industry, and is where many adult readers discovered their love of literature. By reading, analysing and responding creatively to the set texts, students will become more familiar with: contemporary practitioners of writing for young people; the expectations of the audience, and the opportunities for innovation. The module develops chronologically, beginning with picture books and concluding with young adult novels. From the constraints of paper engineering to the opportunities of a multi-modal narrative in picture books; from the constraints of coming-of-age tropes to the opportunities for fresh, inventive language in YA fiction, students will come to appreciate the complexities of writing fiction for young people. As each week passes, students will engage in a close reading of the set texts and will respond creatively to them. Students will be encouraged to revise their responses for their portfolio. This format will allow students to improve as writers themselves, while also gaining a better critical understanding of the field. They will also form part of a creative community with their peers, encouraging and supporting each other's learning. Students will have the opportunity to discuss contemporary children's reading experiences and expectations. As these readers will grow to become the adult readers of tomorrow, students will consider how childhood reading contributes to the wider ecosystems of literature.

Educational Aims

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this modules, students should have:

• Developed their skills in written and oral communication
• Developed their ability to evaluate and edit their own creative work, as well as the creative work of others
• Contributed to a community of writers, helping others to articulate and hone their creative vision
• Articulated the characteristics of the different forms available to writers of fiction for young people
• Demonstrated an awareness of audience by being able to tailor their writing to a particular readership
• Identified key features of texts which make them particularly suitable for young readers
• Presented a portfolio of work which showcases their understanding of the field
• Demonstrated their knowledge of contemporary writing for young people and their potential place within it

Outline Syllabus

Workshops will typically explore:

• Week 1 – From picture books to Young Adult novels, what are the boundaries of the field? How might new artists extend those boundaries?
• Week 2 – Picture Books: Three-acts in 32 pages.
• Week 3 – Early Readers: Stepping out alone, the emerging independent reader
• Week 4 – Middle Grade Realism: Family, peers, and negotiating the world
• Week 5 – Middle Grade Fantasy: Wardrobes, witches and adventure
• Week 6 – Reading Week
• Week 7 – Young Adult Novels 1: Creating characters and developing voice
• Week 8 – Young Adult Novels 2: Selecting themes and building structure
• Week 9 – Editing and the reflective process
• Week 10 – Individual tutorials

Set Texts:

• Milner, Kate (2019), It's a No Money Day, London: Barrington Stoke
• Gray, Kes & Field, Jim, (2015), Oi, Frog, London: Hodder Childrens Books
• Tsang, Katie & Tsang, Kevin, (2018), Sam Wu is Not Afraid of Ghosts, London: Egmont (tbc, confirm with Elen before reading)
• Bailey, Susanna (2019), Snow Foal, London: Egmont (tbc, confirm with Elen before reading)
• Stroud, Jonathan, (2014), Lockwood & Co, The Screaming Staircase, London: Corgi
• Wheatle, Alex (2020), Cane Warriors, London: Andersen Press

Supplementary Reading:

• Butler, Catherine & Reynolds, Kimberley (eds.), (2014), Modern Children's Literature: An Introduction, London: Macmillan International Higher Education
• Gamble, Nikki, (2019), Explore Children's Literature, 4th edition, London: SAGE
• Pennac, Daniel, (2006), The Rights of the Readers, Trans. Sarah Ardizzone, Illus. Quentin Blake, London: Walker Books
• Pullman, Philip, (2018), Daemon Voices, Oxford: David Fickling Books
• Rundell, Katherine, (2019), Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise, London: Bloomsbury

Assessment Proportions

• 1 x Portfolio – 80% - (4000 words of creative work produced in response to the weekly topics. Can be a single piece, or a collection of smaller pieces. Any picture books submitted should include illustrator’s notes)
• 1 x Reflective essay – 20% - (1000 words)