Creative Writing and Illustration BA (Hons)

Our courses are informed by research and current developments in the discipline and feedback from students, external examiners and employers. Modules do therefore change periodically in the interests of keeping the course relevant and reflecting best practice. The most up-to-date information will be available to you once you have accepted a place and registered for the course. If there are insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this might not be offered, but we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative. 

For more information about teaching, learning and assessment on this course, please see the single honours course pages for Creative Writing BA (Hons) and Illustration BA (Hons).

Both these subject areas are ‘practice-based’, and you learn primarily through ‘doing’. Their interests and preoccupations are highly complementary and studying them as Joint Honours is therefore full of possibility. In your final year, there is the opportunity to produce a piece of work that showcases your development in both subject areas: for example, you might both write the text and produce the illustrations for a proposed book. In today’s world of multimedia communication and publishing, illustrators and writers work together in a multitude of contexts and, in addition, the transferable skills that they need also open up possibilities for careers in other, very diverse employment sectors.   

Creative Writing aims to nurture your confidence as a writer and to support your development as a critical and skilful analyst of your own and others’ writing. Throughout, you will be immersed in intellectual issues informing the discipline and practices of writing and learn to place your own writing within contexts of published work. You will develop expertise in commercial practice (writing for magazines, reviewing, scriptwriting, editing) and understanding of publishing and marketing processes alongside working towards your own creative development.

You will work with published writers, professional publishers and editors with a variety of specialisms including poetry, travel writing, writing for the screen, writing fiction, writing for performance, writing for children, feature writing, blogging and copy writing. Your development and achievements will be assessed by means of a wide variety of writing ‘tasks.’ In your third year, you will undertake a major writing project of your choice, mentored by members of the course team, alongside participating in a range of activity designed to support you to prepare for progression once you have graduated.

Illustration aims to cover the complete range of illustration genres and forms, including children’s books, editorial and magazine illustration, the graphic novel, reportage, authorial illustration and advertising. With its comprehensive foundation in drawing during students’ first year, it will support development of your work across a wide range of applications encompassing traditional techniques and digital realisation. Cross media projects are encouraged and, in your final year, there is increasing emphasis on growing your knowledge of, and interaction with, professional contexts of illustration. You are taught by lecturers who, themselves, are also professional, published illustrators.

Both subject areas are committed to supporting your understanding of the range of possibilities that could be available to you on graduation, and there are opportunities to explore postgraduate study as well as to investigate, with those who are already following them, career paths in:

• teaching
• the creative and cultural industries
• the media
• marketing
• PR
• other employment sectors in which arts graduates find work

You'll be given the opportunity to publish your work from the very first week and throughout your undergraduate programme. You'll be able to write for a range of digital, print, audio, visual and performance platforms, including getting involved in the student writing magazine: The Fuse.

The Illustration teaching is led by a team of permanent staff including Tobias Hickey, whose professional achievements are acknowledged in international illustration contexts.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest Creative Writing programme specification and Illustration programme specification documents.

Meet the team

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course

Creative Writing and Illustration graduates go on to work in sectors such as publishing, the media, marketing and communications. Graduates will find career opportunities not only in illustration but also television motion graphics, graphic design, story writing, studio management and advertising.

The Creative Writing section of this course will provide a foundation for students who are interested in developing writing as a profession, for example in the creative industries and/or commercial markets and an understanding of how writers make a living.

The course also provides an excellent basis for further study or for self-employment as a freelance writer. Graduates from this course will be very successful candidates for careers in teaching because of the emphasis on writing in the new English curricula. 

Illustrators are in increasing demand as the media industries expand. Options for the professional illustrator include newspapers and magazines, books, advertising, exhibiting independent work, television and the internet. All these fields are potential showcases for graduates’ work.