PhD Creative Writing

About the project

• Research

PhD Creative Writing

• Overview
• Degree details
• Our students
• Research
• Entry and fees
• Careers
• Facilities
• Supervisors
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Overview

A PhD Creative Writing gives you the opportunity to develop an original piece of writing – for example, a novel, play, screenplay or radio drama – alongside an accompanying thesis, in which you connect this creative work to relevant theoretical, critical and historical thinking.

Working collaboratively, we aim to help you craft your work to the highest possible standard, as well as facilitate your engagement with the professional world. All writers are encouraged to develop their skills in the broadest way possible. This means participating in writing exercises across a spectrum, including reviews and blogs.

Our academics are often consulted by publishers about book proposals and manuscripts. See a list of potential PhD Creative Writing supervisors and read about their expertise in the " supervisors " section lower down the page.

This PhD is available for you to study:

As part of your application, please state whether you are applying for an online PhD.

Select your desired study option, then pick a start date to see relevant course information:

Start date:

If your desired start date is not available, try selecting a different study option.

• full-time or part-time
• on-campus or online
• starting in September or February.

About your degree

During your PhD Creative Writing, you will be supervised by active researchers/writers with considerable experience in publication, editing, and working with other writers. Our academics are widely published on topics as varied as Jane Austen, Rambo and literary adaptations.

Your PhD supervisory team may be composed of colleagues from across more than one research area, depending on your project.

Our online PhD allows you to undertake a postgraduate research degree from a location that fits with your lifestyle and commitments. As part of your application, please state that you are applying for an online PhD. As an online PhD student, you will not be required to visit the campus: all supervision, training, reviews and the viva voce examination are provided online.

An online PhD may not be suitable for all projects, and consideration will be given to the suitability of the research project and whether it can be completed successfully without regular access to campus facilities.

This course is available for you to study full-time or part-time, online or campus-based.

All PhD students will have access to the University’s student support services , the Library’s e-resources collection and IT support services . You are also welcome to attend the annual doctoral students’ conference on campus.

A PhD is founded on independent research. You will undertake a systematic and in-depth exploration of your chosen topic to produce a substantial body of knowledge and make an original and important contribution to the subject area.

The support provided by your supervisory team will be vital to your student experience and scholarly advancement. You and your supervisors will have regular one-to-one meetings, which will provide you with opportunities to develop your research topic and discuss your progress.

Based in the heart of Ealing, west London, you can make use of the excellent transport links to travel to the capital or further afield – ideal for attending research meetings and networking events.

If you would like guidance or more information about studying for a PhD Creative Writing, please contact Professor Jeremy Strong .

To enable you to enhance your professional profile, we support you throughout your research degree by:

We provide structured research training, expert supervision and an environment where you can discuss your research with other PhD students and researchers.

We run seminars in research methods from the Graduate Centre, as well as an ongoing series of events and activities organised by Schools and Colleges. Specialist help with academic English for students for whom English is not their first language is available.

We contribute to national and international initiatives and promote collaboration and networking opportunities. We also encourage and support you to publish and disseminate your research in academic journals and via presenting papers at conferences.

We run an annual conference for doctoral students, where you are encouraged to present a paper about your research. As well as being an opportunity to discuss your work with other students, the conference is a chance to gain valuable experience in presenting your research and participating in open discussions with academic peers.

You will also find other opportunities such as postgraduate student seminars and forums within your specific subject area.

Once you start a PhD course at UWL, you become part of our research community. You will have access to a postgraduate common room, located at our Ealing campus on St Mary’s Road, where you will meet fellow researchers from other subject disciplines offering scope for collaborations or simply to discuss ideas, allowing you to be part of a vibrant research environment.

• Support
• Networking
• providing research seminars
• organising doctoral events and activities
• facilitating networking and collaboration opportunities
• encouraging and supporting publication and dissemination of your research
• offering opportunities to gain teaching expertise and experience.

What our students say

Completing a PhD in Creative Writing from UWL is one of the best things I have ever done. My outstanding supervisors, Professor Jeremy Strong and Dr Jonathon Crewe, were instrumental to my success with both the academic thesis and the literary artefact. The University offered excellent resources and also provided a genuinely supportive environment for PhD students."

Dr Isabel del Rio

Completing a PhD in Creative Writing from UWL is one of the best things I have ever done. My outstanding supervisors, Professor Jeremy Strong and Dr Jonathon Crewe, were instrumental to my success with both the academic thesis and the literary artefact. The University offered excellent resources and also provided a genuinely supportive environment for PhD students."

Dr Isabel del Rio

Mariem Asif

Mariem holds an MA with Distinction in Creative and Professional Writing from Brunel, an MA in English Language and Literature, and a BA in Journalism. Her professional background spans creative writing, feature journalism and copywriting across documentaries, marketing and print media. This underpins her current doctoral research, which investigates affect theory’s application to nonverbal autistic consciousness in contemporary literary fiction, addressing significant gaps in the representation of non-normative voices within the English literary canon.

Her novel, We are Stars Wrapped in Skin , explores the intersectional representation of British Pakistani autistic siblings, developing a creative framework that tests experimental narrative techniques for accessing nonverbal interiority. Integrating affective phenomenology and creative autoethnographic research, it contributes original knowledge to creative writing practice and autism representation, extending affect theory as a creative writing methodology for the exposition of non-normative consciousnesses in literary fiction.

David Davies

Actor and writer David Davies came to this project fresh from an MA in Creative Writing from Teesside University, which he started towards the end of lockdown. This sparked a renewed interest in study after “treading the boards” for more than twenty years.

Doing his PhD by distance-learning, David can visit landmarks such as battlefields, castles and fortresses as he researches, writes (sometimes onsite) and edits, whilst keeping contact with his supervisors through video-call tutorials, exchanges of drafts and feedback. His novel charts the journey of a British officer from The Battle of Waterloo to the newly formed Prussian Rhine Province as he witnesses changing borders and the construction of the Prussian Fortress System from Koblenz to Cologne. This project combines research into the Historical Novel, Adaptation Studies and the Literature of Place.

Dan Graham

Publisher and writer Dan Graham holds an MA in United States Area Studies from the School of Advanced Study, University of London, and a BA in English and American Studies. He has worked in editorial and senior roles in children’s publishing for over 25 years. Over the past 15 years, Dan has written more than 80 children’s books, including a focused body of picture books written under the pseudonym Seb Davey.

His thesis, The Participatory Page: A Framework for Embodied, Print-Native Interactivity in Children’s Picture Books , explores how the printed picture book – when deliberately designed as an interactive, sensory and participatory artefact – can uniquely foster children’s engagement, literacy and wellbeing, distinguishing it from both digital formats and more traditional picture books.

Hanna Heimann

A recipient of a Vice-Chancellor’s scholarship, Hanna holds a first-class degree in History from Ludwig-Maximilian University and later studied screenwriting at the University of Television and Film: Munich, graduating with top marks in both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Her dissertation examined the antisemitic dimensions of the British film Jew Süss (1934). This research laid the foundation for her Creative Writing PhD.

Titled Unmaking a ‘Jewish Vampire’: An Attempt to Reframe Joseph Süss Oppenheimer , Hanna's project explores how the antisemitic deployment of vampire metaphors has shaped portrayals of the "court Jew" since his execution in 1738. It combines a thesis with screenwriting practice to challenge this tradition of distortion. Tracing vampire imagery in earlier depictions through the framework of adaptation studies, the thesis highlights the adaptive nature of stereotypes. The creative writing part reimagines Süss as a visionary entrepreneur scapegoated for his patron’s ambitions, examining how screen storytelling grounded in historical research can counter bias.

Danielle Maisano

Danielle holds a BA in Journalism from Wayne State University, Detroit, and an MA in International Relations from SOAS. Her debut novel, The Ardent Witness , was a finalist for the 2019 International Book Awards Fiction category. From 2019 - 2024, she worked as an editor for the online magazine Exiled Ink . She is a member of the Coordinating Collective for the Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25) and the founding editor of the forthcoming magazine Metanarratives .

Danielle's project, Of the Questions of These Recurring , is a novel exploring how the commodification of culture under neoliberalism has shaped the representation of leftist movements in contemporary Anglophone fiction. Moving between Chile and London, it follows the experience of a young woman studying the election of Salvador Allende in 1970. The project draws on feminist and postmodern theoretical frameworks, particularly the work of Fredric Jameson and David Harvey, to consider how the novel might explore tension between collective ideals and individualised experience under neoliberalism.

Bianca Mina

Bianca Mina is a screenwriter, director and producer for film and television. Since 2018 she has written and created prime-time TV series in her native Romania. Previously, she lived in Paris, Los Angeles and Buenos Aires, where she studied and worked on various film projects. A graduate of the American University of Paris, her main interests in writing revolve around bridging cultures through entertainment and adapting real stories into fiction.

Her thesis, “Capturing the Essence of Truth: The Emergent Playbook of Adapting Real-Life Stories for TV limited series”, explores contemporary series based on true stories within the theoretical framework of Adaptation Studies. It analyses their dramatic structure and storytelling tropes and investigates common features. The creative artefact is an eight-part limited series based on a true story, tackling themes of morality and family loyalty.

Laetitia Rutherford

A recipient of UWL’s Vice-Chancellor’s PhD Scholarship, Laetitia has worked in publishing for 25 years, first in-house at HarperCollins as Marketing Executive for Fiction, and for the last 15 years as a literary agent, representing a diverse list of writers in fiction and popular non-fiction. She holds a BA in English from Balliol College, Oxford, and 2 MA degrees with Distinction. Her memoir, Our Hearts Hang from the Lemon Trees , was published by Short Books (2013). Her reviews and short fiction can be read in magazines including Popshot , Lunate , Lucy Writers Platform and The Phare .

Starting with the 1986 print strikes, moving through the internet’s boom-bust cycle and towards the advent of AI, Laetitia's research combines a novel and thesis. The Ballad of Paper and Song explores the troubled love story of two characters wrestling with this time of rupture and transition. Her thesis uses Adaptation Studies, Hip-Hop Studies and new historicist, postcolonial and feminist perspectives to analyse the novel and illumine the digital transition.

Research Repository - Creative Writing

The Repository is a digital archive of research output by our academics and research students.

Research

Find out more about our research, the impact it has and how to join us as a research student.

Research impact

Learn how our research has helped communities locally, nationally and internationally.

Entry requirements

The minimum entry requirements for a research degree are:

We look for individuals with:

Applicants should also submit a well-considered and persuasive research proposal, clearly outlining their aims, context and potential contribution to the field.

The minimum entry requirements for a research degree are:

We look for individuals with:

Applicants should also submit a well-considered and persuasive research proposal, clearly outlining their aims, context and potential contribution to the field.

• Requirements: UK
• Requirements: International
• a good first degree (First Class or Upper Second Class), or equivalent qualification in a relevant field
• a Masters degree (MA, MSc, MBA or MRes) with Merit, or equivalent postgraduate or research experience.
• dedication to undertaking rigorous and meaningful research
• enthusiasm for contributing to academic and creative practice
• a genuine passion for their chosen subject area.
• a good first degree (First Class or Upper Second Class), or equivalent qualification in a relevant field
• a Masters Degree (MA, MSc, MBA or MRes) with Merit, or equivalent postgraduate or research experience.
• Competence in written and spoken English is a pre-requisite for entrance to this programme.
• An IELTS (International English Language Testing System) score of 6.5 (with no element under 6.0).
• dedication to undertaking rigorous and meaningful research
• enthusiasm for contributing to academic and creative practice
• a genuine passion for their chosen subject area.

Fees & funding

Please note that the following writing-up fees apply for the final year of full-time PhD study , a reduced amount from the standard fee per year:

Writing-up fees do not apply for the final year of part-time PhD study. The standard fee applies.

• Funding: UK
• Funding: International
• On campus PhD (Year 4): UK £1,900. International: £6,000
• Online PhD (Year 4): UK £1,000. International: £3,000.
• Fees for the 2027/28 academic year and onwards may be subject to change.
• Tuition fees are charged for each year of your course and you will need to pay the fee for each academic year at the start of that year, except if otherwise stated.
• If no fee is shown above then the fees for this course are not available yet. Please check again later for updates.

Funding your studies

Funding for postgraduate students usually comes from one or more of a range of key sources:

Find out more about funding opportunities .

Examples of most of these types of funding are included on the postgraduate studentships website (except for funding you may be able to obtain from your employer and self-funding).

The PhD Bursary is available to home and international students enrolling on a full-time PhD course in 2026/27. The Bursary consists of a £500 fee reduction in your first year of study and for each subsequent year of study, subject to successful progression, up to a maximum of 4 years.

We offer other generous bursaries and scholarships to make sure your aspirations are your only limit. See our PhD scholarships and bursaries .

Please note that the following writing-up fees apply for the final year of full-time PhD study , a reduced amount from the standard fee per year:

Writing-up fees do not apply for the final year of part-time PhD study. The standard fee applies.

• research councils
• charities and trust funds, including those funded by the UK government
• higher education institutions
• overseas governments (international students only)
• employers
• professional and career development loans
• self-funding (including family funds).
• On campus PhD (Year 4): UK £1,900. International: £6,000
• Online PhD (Year 4): UK £1,000. International: £3,000.
• Fees for the 2027/28 academic year and onwards may be subject to change.
• Tuition fees are charged for each year of your course and you will need to pay the fee for each academic year at the start of that year, except if otherwise stated.
• If no fee is shown above then the fees for this course are not available yet. Please check again later for updates.

Funding your studies

For any overseas students, your first port of call should be grant-awarding bodies in your own country (e.g. The Ministry/Department of Education) and your local (or nearest) office of the British Council.

The British Council manage a small number of international studentship grants in some countries and should be able to tell you what other awards may be available to you - they also produce the sources of funding for international students guide.

The PhD Bursary is available to home and international students enrolling on a full-time PhD course in 2026/27. The Bursary consists of a £500 fee reduction in your first year of study and for each subsequent year of study, subject to successful progression, up to a maximum of 4 years.

Your future career

Studying for a PhD Creative Writing enables you to develop an area of specialism that will give you an edge whether you are planning to work in industry or to develop expertise to teach in academia.

As a graduate of our PhD in Creative Writing, you will be highly accomplished writers, fluent and capable in what is – perhaps – the ultimate transferable skill.

Your PhD will help position you for a career in the many branches of the thriving media and cultural industries – nationally and internationally – as well as for academic careers in teaching and research.

Job roles

• scriptwriter
• journalist
• author
• copywriter
• copy editor
• literary agent.

Graduate employers

• publishers
• film and television
• radio
• advertising sector
• journalism sector
• public relations companies
• literary agencies
• new media.

Our West London Campus

Explore our fantastic facilities at the University of West London's West London Campus.

The Paul Hamlyn Library

The Paul Hamlyn Library provides an extensive range of books, journals and digital resources, PC and Mac workstations and a variety of study spaces.

Rami Ranger House (Postgraduate Student Centre)

Rami Ranger House is a focal point for the University’s postgraduate and international students, providing dedicated space for social and learning interaction.

This building, which is three storeys high, offers spaces for collaborative working, socialising, supervision and mentoring on the ground floor. The first floor has work spaces for the postgraduate support teams to use, while the second floor provides guest accommodation for visiting scholars.

Media facilities

Our facilities include a fully equipped TV Studio containing a lighting grid with DMX lighting control, green and white screens, Ross Crossover Vision Mixer for live editing and audio and video recorder / playback devices. Plus a fully staffed Media Resource Centre, holding cameras, lights, sound equipment and recording devices.

The Graduate School

If you are interested in studying for a PhD or Professional Doctorate, the Graduate School is here to support your research.

English

Our English courses at the University of West London enable you to specialise in media and communications, film or creative writing. With a contemporary emphasis, your studies will help you respond to the demands of a content-hungry media industry and build a successful career.

Find out more

Discover seven reasons to study with us and how studying at UWL will support your future career.

Find out about student accommodation and the support for students.

Explore our campus and sites and book onto a campus tour or open day .

Important notes for applicants

Disclaimer

Rankings

• † Fees - the published fee is an annual fee, payable each year, for the duration of the course. Fees are subject to change. Home tuition fees may be subject to annual increases but will not increase by more than the fee caps as prescribed by the Office for Students or such other replacing body. Full-time taught international fees are subject to an annual increase.
• Teaching - your course will primarily be delivered in-person, however it may include delivery of some activities online, either in real-time or recorded.
• Testimonials - quotes are provided by current or former UWL students. These are mostly from the course but quotes from a UWL student on another course may be used if, for example, the course is new.
• Optional modules - where optional modules are offered they will run subject to staff availability and viable student numbers opting to take the module.
• Videos - all videos on our course pages were accurate at the time of filming, however staff and course content may have since changed.
• Availability of placements - if you choose a course with placement/internship route and a placement/internship opportunity does not arise when you are expected to undertake the placement then the University will automatically transfer you to the non-internship route, to ensure you are still successful in being awarded a degree.
• The National Student Survey 2026 result is based on the average of all answers by the taught student populations.
• Modern universities - defined as higher education institutions that were granted university status in, and after, 1992.
• PRES - rank out of 53 institutions.

Research areas