The Centre for Creative Writing
The Centre for Creative Writing at City University London is a special place.
We believe in enabling writers to be published, produced and performed. That is why our three MAs demand the completion of either a full-length play, novel, screenplay or non-fiction book - for the simple reason that there is no other way to learn how to write. You complete the work and you make it ready to go out there and be sold.
Add to that our location in the heart of London - within walking distance of key agents, publishers, theatres, production companies. This gives us unparalleled links with industry professionals. But it also means we can attract the very best writers - working writers - as tutors and mentors and lecturers.
Our students have gone on to....
Guest Writers visit every term
Every term, writers visit the Centre to give us insights into their work and working methods:
This term, our guest author is Sarah Waters. She is the author of five novels: Tipping the Velvet (1998), which won the Betty Trask Award; Affinity (1999), which won the Somerset Maugham Award and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award; Fingersmith (2002) which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize as was The Night Watch (2006). Her latest novel is The Little Stranger (2009), also shortlisted for the Man Booker.
Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem has been described as 'theatre for the mind, heart and soul'. The writer visited City University London in November 2011 and talked to MA students about how he was inspired to write the play as well as some of his process.
Screenwriter and playwright Mike Leigh has visited the course three times, most recently to speak about his film Another Year. He spoke to students about the film's shifting protagonist, his work with actors and the themes and development of the film.
Last term, our guest author was Liz Jensen. Her latest novel, The Uninvited, was published last year by Bloomsbury and The Guardian said "In the course of eight inventive, provocative novels, Jensen has carved out a fictional space dense with elements of fantasy and thriller, satire and SF, science and cod-science, but entirely her own". And The Independent called it "a masterclass in creepiness - as unsettling as Margaret Atwood or Kazuo Ishiguro."
Jeremy Harding is a contributing editor at the London Review of Books. His books include The Uninvited: Refugees at the Rich Man's Gate, Small Wars, Small Mercies, and Mother Country. Jeremy spoke to our creative writing non-fiction students recently about his memoir, a true story about adoption, secrets and the need to belong.
