Creative Writing MA (Distance Learning)

The Creative Writing MA (Distance Learning) offers you the chance to study with a range of well-established and award-winning writers in a dynamic writing environment, but without having to relocate or give up current commitments. Taught in our virtual forums and classrooms, modules can be accessed at a time of the week to suit your schedule.

You will learn in workshops, one-to-one or in small groups, with support from practising and published writers and fellow students. Our award-winning former creative writing students include Booker-shortlisted Oyinkan Braithwaite, Joe Pierson, who won the Bridport Prize, Stefan Mohammed, awarded the Dylan Thomas Prize, Bafta-winner, Sarah Woolner, the acclaimed poet Dom Bury and celebrated novelist Faiqa Mansab.

The non-compulsory campus days give you a chance to visit the campus and attend a relevant lecture, as well as to meet fellow workshop students. Those travelling longer distances who wish to stay longer and explore the cultural opportunities that London offers, or simply to write, are also welcome to attend events taking place on campus for the rest of the week, featuring staff, writers in residences, students and guests.

After you graduate

Some of our departmental graduates have achieved notable successes, having published short stories and novels which were started as part of their degree, and attracted good literary agents, for example:

• Oyinkan Braithwaite's novel, My Sister the Serial Killer, reviewed by The New Yorker and BBC Radio 4's Open Book and Front Row, has won the Crime and Thriller book of the year at the British Book Awards; Oyinkan is the first black woman to do so.  
• Grainne Murphy has recently signed a two-book deal with Legend Press. Her debut novel, Where the Edge Is, was published in September 2020, with The Ghostlights to be published in 2021. 
• Ben Halls' debut The Quarry was book of the day in The Guardian in March 2020. 
• Amy Clarke has signed a two-book deal. Like Clockwork is a psychological suspense novel about a true-crime podcast host who's obsessively trying to solve the decades-old cold case of a notorious Minnesotan serial killer whose victims were each one year younger than the last. It is due to be published in March/April 2021 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, with a second book to follow. 
• A story Seraphina Madsen wrote for the MA Critical Challenges module was published in the UK's pre-eminent literary journal, The White Review, and secured her an agent and a book deal. 
• Stevan Alcock is another MA student whose debut novel – workshopped on our MA – was published by 4th Estate.  
• Hannah Vincent is a former MFA student with novels out with Myriad Editions and Salt. 
• Myriad Editions also run a writing competition each year aimed at finding new writers, with MFA student Karly Stilling winning in 2015. This year the award was won by another current Kingston student, Sylvia Carr. Former MA (now PhD student) Joseph Pierson was a recent runner-up. 
• Julia Lewis is a former MFA student and experimental poet who has gone on to publish a wide range of work. She also rewrote MA tutor James Miller's novel Lost Boys as a collection of experimental poetry. 
• Stefan Mohamed won the Dylan Thomas Prize and has gone to have a successful career as a writer of YA fiction. 
• MA student Vicky Newham signed a two book deal for her crime series. Vicky is on the Daggers longlist for the best crime novel by a first-time author. 
• Faiqa Mansab published her debut novel This House of Clay and Water in Pakistan and India to great acclaim and it  has been optioned by the talented Sheherzade Sheikh for screen adaptation. 
• Other successes include Susie Lynes and Lauren Forry. 
• Other former students have gone on to work in editorial posts in the publishing industry.