School of Humanities and Performing Arts

PhD Creative Writing

Plymouth’s PhD in Creative Writing is one of the longest running in the UK, going back to the late 1990s. Our MA, and PhD students have had books published in all forms and received much kudos over the years, including being shortlisted for The Forward First Book Prize for Poetry, receiving a two-novel deal with Headline, winning the £10,000 Ballymaloe Poetry Prize, and winning the Manchester Metropolitan Novella Prize (Jamie Edgecombe, see his student profile below).

We offer a rich and warm post-graduate culture in English and Creative Writing at Plymouth, based in fellowship and scholarly interaction with the other departments in the Faculty (including Fine Art, Computer Music, and Theatre and Performance). Our award-winning writers include Miriam Darlington (author of Owl Sense) and Anthony Caleshu (author of The Victor Poems and founding editor of Periplum press).

Course details

  • Overview

  • This full time or part time doctoral programme is suitable for people who have a particular research question or topic in mind, and wish to explore this through independent study in order to produce an original contribution to the subject. If you aspire to a research career this is the most appropriate research degree to undertake.

    You will be guided by a small supervisory team of academic experts under the direction of a Director of Studies. Even if you already have a masters degree, you will normally be registered as a ‘MPhil/PhD’ candidate and may apply to transfer to ‘PhD’ status around 10–22 months after registration, based on your progress to date.

    You will be expected to fully engage with skills development and training and to present your research in a range of scholarly contexts.

    Your PhD will be assessed via submission of either a written thesis (approximately 80,000 words), or one that combines critical writing with artistic, creative and/or professional practice, and a viva voce (an oral examination).

    For full details of what doing a PhD entails at the University of Plymouth, please visit our Postgraduate Research Degrees pages.

    Core modules

    • GSRCWRI1 Research Creative Writing

  • Year 2
  • Core modules

    • GSRCWRI2 Research Creative Writing

  • Year 3
  • Core modules

    • GSRCWRI3 Research Creative Writing

  • Year 4
  • Core modules

    • GSRCWRI4 Research Creative Writing

  • Year 5
  • Core modules

    • GSRCWRI5 Research Creative Writing

  • Final year
  • Core modules

    • GSRCWRI6 Research Creative Writing

The modules shown for this course or programme are those being studied by current students, or expected new modules. Modules are subject to change depending on year of entry.

Entry requirements

Masters degree or equivalent from a UK higher education institution in a relevant subject.

Applicants normally have to supply a research proposal, personal statement, and occasionally evidence that they are prepared to undertake the proposed project. This may include a portfolio, or a sample of critical writing, depending on their area of study.

Other UK or overseas qualifications may also be accepted – with academic reference

For more general guidelines and application requirements, please visit the research degrees applicants page.

Fees, costs and funding

Please visit tuition fees for postgraduate research for information about fees. This course is in Band 1 for fees purposes.

If you are a full time student, you will pay full time fees for three years. If you have not submitted your thesis by the end of this period, then you may pay for an optional one year writing up period.

If you are a part time student, you will pay part time fees for four years. If you have not submitted your thesis by the end of this period, then you may pay for an optional 'writing up' period of up to two years.

You are responsible for meeting all of the costs related to your own research project, beyond the resources available in the department.

Please visit our postgraduate research money matters page to find out more about issues related to fees, funding, loans and paying for your programme of study.

How to apply

In addition to completing the online application form (which includes space for a personal statement), you must also upload a research project proposal of no more than 1000 words in total. Your research proposal should outline your general topic, your key aims and the research question/problem you are addressing, your proposed methodology, key definitions/thinkers/discourses/practitioners you are drawing upon and an explanation of why this topic is significant or important.

Your personal statement should briefly explain why you have chosen to apply to our programme and what you feel you can offer our research community.

You will also need to submit a sample of your critical writing (3000 words maximum) and, if relevant, evidence of your ability to undertake the practice-led research you are proposing (e.g. a DVD, portfolio, links to website, reviews, catalogue, etc.). It should take no longer than 30 minutes to view all the visual material that you provide.

For more general guidelines and application requirements, please visit the research degrees applicants page.

Doctoral Creative Writing projects include collections of poetry influenced by field work in Nepal, creative non-fiction exploring the plight of refugee women in immigration detention centres in the UK, short story sequences about domestic dysfunction, and novels exploring historical periods to the postmodern condition. Some success stories include graduate Lucy Durneen, whose story collection, Wild Gestures, was a winner of the Saboteur Awards 2017.

Current student, Jamie Edgecombe is working on a novel set in post-War and contemporary Japan, with an accompanying dissertation on ekphrastic fiction (writing which is concerned with ‘narrating’ the visual arts). He won the Manchester Metropolitan University Novella Prize for The Art of Kozu (the first part of which was based on his MA Creative Writing dissertation). He works as an English teacher at Tavistock College and is concurrently Writer in Residence at University of Plymouth and leader of the module MA Fiction: Stories and Novels.

Jamie Edgcombe, MA Creative Writing graduate and current PhD student.

English and creative writing research

Our staff have published extensively and internationally across a diverse range of fields in literary criticism and creative writing.

We are part of a thriving community of researchers covering arts and humanities disciplines, supported by the University's Arts Institute.

Academic staff