MA in Creative Writing and Publishing
Kingston upon Thames, United Kingdom
MA
DURATION
2 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2026
TUITION FEES
GBP 17,600 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* there is no application deadline for postgraduate courses
** for international full-time | international part-time: 9,680 GBP/year | home full-time: 10,300 GBP/year | home part-time: 5,665 GBP/year
Key Summary
Our Publishing and Creative Writing teaching teams have relationships with all the leading fiction publishers and literary agents in the UK.
This course examines not only the craft of writing but also how the publishing industry works. Throughout the course, you will develop a creative writing portfolio alongside studying trends in the industry.
Our Penrhyn Road campus is a hive of activity, housing our fantastic new Town House, with four floors of study space and our extensive library, the main student restaurant, and a host of teaching rooms and lecture theatres. At the heart of the campus is the John Galsworthy building, a six-storey complex that brings together lecture theatres, flexible teaching space and information technology suites around a landscaped courtyard.
Throughout this course, you will become part of Kingston's thriving community, with events such as:
- a series of masterclasses with publishing specialists and professionals
- weekly guest lectures from leading journalists. These include
- Samira Ahmed – an award-winning journalist with 20 years' experience in print and broadcast
- David Jenkins – editor of Little White Lies
- Richard Moynihan – Head of Digital Journalism, The Telegraph
- Alex Stedman – Fashion Blogger at The Frugality and former Style Editor at Red magazine
- Regular readings through Writers' Centre Kingston, which offers an annual programme of events from talks to workshops and festivals. These are hosted and curated in partnership with local institutions, such as The Rose Theatre, the Rich Mix Cultural Foundation, the Museum of Futures and Kingston First
- Regular philosophy lunchtime lectures, which focus on a major figure in the history of Western philosophy. These introduce students to that thinker's work, usually through the discussion of one of her or his emblematic works
You will also have the opportunity to contribute to Kingston University's publication, Ripple, which includes fiction, poetry, reviews and creative non-fiction and is edited by students on the course. Or you can be part of our literary magazine, Persist, edited by MA students. This provides:
- a platform for the publication of creative work
- a chance to get hands-on experience of the publishing process
Why choose this course?
The creative writing element of this course is workshop-led and provides the opportunity to specialise in the genre of your choice. The publishing element focuses on marketing-led commercial and trade publishing, industry structure and core skills.
When the time comes to complete your final assessment, you may choose to pursue a creative writing dissertation, a publishing dissertation or undertake a practical publishing project.
The Art School Experience
As part of Kingston School of Art, students on this course benefit from joining a creative community where we encourage collaborative working and critical practice.
Our workshops and studios are open to all disciplines, enabling students and staff to work together, share ideas and explore multi-disciplinary making.
For students interested in studying Creative Writing and Publishing MA at Kingston, there are several opportunities to seek funding support:
- Inspire the Future Scholarship
- International scholarships
- Progression Scholarship
- Discounts for Kingston University alumni
Course content
The creative writing element of this course is workshop-led. In the second semester, you will be given the opportunity to specialise in the genre of your choice, be it poetry, drama or children's fiction.
The publishing element focuses on marketing-led commercial and trade publishing. The modules you study will help you to understand the structure of the industry and the core skills required to enter.
You'll take two 30-credit modules from Publishing (one must be 'Create' but you can choose the other, and two 30-credit modules from Creative Writing. You can then choose whether to pursue a dissertation or a practical project within either Publishing or Creative Writing, worth 60 credits.
Modules
In addition to taking two core modules, you can choose to write an academic dissertation to demonstrate your analytical skills and competence, or undertake a major practical publishing project as your final assessment. If you choose to take your dissertation in creative writing, you will write an extensive piece of creative writing accompanied by a critical essay; you will be supervised by a professional writer.
Please note
Optional modules only run if there is enough demand. If we have an insufficient number of students interested in an optional module, that module will not be offered for this course.
Core module
- Create: The Business of Publishing
Optional modules
- Share: Strategic Marketing and Sales
- Make: Content Development and Production
- Writers' Workshop
- Ten Critical Challenges for Creative Writers
- Writing the Contemporary
- Special Study: Workshop in Popular Genre Writing
- Publishing Dissertation
- Practical Publishing Project
- Creative Writing Dissertation
Optional placement year
Many postgraduate courses at Kingston University allow students to do a 12-month work placement as part of their course. The responsibility for finding the work placement is with the student; we cannot guarantee the work placement, just the opportunity to undertake it. As the work placement is an assessed part of the course, it is covered by a student's Student Route visa.
Graduates from this course will develop a range of skills desirable to employers, such as:
- communication skills
- self-management
- meticulousness in editing and presentation
- the ability to reflect and respond to constructive criticism
- the ability to write for particular purposes
- the ability to work constructively with others
These skills could help you pursue a career as a writer or in publishing. As well as in journalism, advertising and marketing, film, television, radio, arts management, new media, business, teaching and therapeutic fields.