Creative Writing Now Course Descriptor

Course Overview

What makes literature contemporary to its moment? In this course, students will develop their own creative writing while investigating some of the most significant novels, short fiction, poetry, plays and other creative works produced in the last 20 years. They will consider how such works interact with their present moment, capture a cultural zeitgeist, or represent or interrogate topical political issues. Creative texts will be read alongside sociological accounts of contemporary culture to help students understand and evaluate how literature shapes our collective experience of modern life.
This course also considers ‘the contemporary’ as an aesthetic category, a judgement about a work’s artistic value: what are the institutional and public forces which influence a work’s status as contemporary, from media old and new, to university curricula, prestigious publishers and prize cultures? This learning will enable students to situate their own creative work within contemporary culture and increase its appeal to modern audiences. Students will be supported throughout by reading and writing activities, class discussions, participation in creative writing workshops, and regular tutor feedback.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of learning resources to orientate and engage students in their studies. All scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are delivered online via the VLE. These may include:

• Lectures
• Readings
• Learning Activities
• Discussion Forums
• Creative Writing Workshops
• Webinars

Faculty also hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback individually.
Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.
Indicative total learning hours for this course: 300 – typically including induction, course activities, consolidation or revision and assessment activity hours.

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessment are used as part of this course, with formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching activities delivered via the VLE.

Summative Assessments

Indicative assessment elements:

• Set Exercises typically comprise assessment of students’ editorial contributions during a set period (e.g. in Creative Writing Workshops).
• Portfolio submissions typically comprise at least one original creative work and an accompanying critical or professional practice component.

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments or via the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students. The indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Archer, Jodie and Matthew L. Jockers, The Bestseller Code (Penguin Books, 2017)
• Cowan, Andrew, Against Creative Writing (Routledge, 2023)
• English, James F., The Economy of Prestige (Harvard University Press, 2005)
• Evaristo, Bernardine, Girl, Woman, Other (Penguin Books, 2020)
• Roupenian, Kristen, Cat Person and Other Stories (Vintage, 2020)
• Stoppard, Tom, Leopoldstadt (Faber and Faber Limited, 2020)

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students. The indicative topics provided below are used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Major forms and genres of contemporary writing
• Representations of gender, sexuality and race in contemporary writing
• The sociology of the literary marketplace
• Literature in institutional contexts
• Reading as a writer and researcher
• Composition, drafting and editing practices