imperial college london creative writing masters

20 Best universities for Creative Writing in London, ENG

Updated: February 29, 2024

• Art & Design
• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Environmental Science
• Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
• Mathematics

Below is a list of best universities in London ranked based on their research performance in Creative Writing. A graph of 120K citations received by 9.53K academic papers made by 20 universities in London was used to calculate publications' ratings, which then were adjusted for release dates and added to final scores.

We don't distinguish between undergraduate and graduate programs nor do we adjust for current majors offered. You can find information about granted degrees on a university page but always double-check with the university website.

Please note that our approach to subject rankings is based on scientific outputs and heavily biased on art-related topics towards institutions with computer science research profiles.

1. University College London

For Creative Writing

2. King's College London

3. University of London

4. London School of Economics and Political Science

5. Queen Mary University of London

6. Goldsmiths, University of London

7. Birkbeck, University of London

8. SOAS, University of London

9. University of East London

10. City, University of London

11. University of Roehampton

12. Middlesex University

13. Imperial College London

14. University of Westminster

15. London Metropolitan University

16. London South Bank University

17. University of Greenwich

18. University of the Arts London

19. St George's, University of London

20. Royal College of Art

Universities for Creative Writing near London

Art & design subfields in london.

Great Writing

The international creative writing conference (uk).

The UK's Great Writing international Creative Writing conference is a place to share creative and critical work, to explore Creative Writing, and to discuss those explorations with Creative Writing colleagues from around the world. Launched nearly 27 years ago, each year the conference welcomes creative writers from all over the world -- many of whom work in universities and colleges, or are undertaking graduate degrees in Creative Writing.

Each year the conference is the home to some truly magnificent presentations - some by creative writers who have given many presentations, some by creative writers who are giving their very first presentations! Great Writing is always a friendly, open conference where the focus is entirely Creative Writing and the many ways we can undertake it and understand it. If you think you might enjoy exploring and discussing Creative Writing with others, over a lively two days in the British summer, then why not come along? The cost of attending is always very reasonable, the people you'll meet could well be fabulous (the folks at Great Writing often are!), and the creative and critical work you'll encounter is likely to stimulate your own ideas, your own Creative Writing.

Great Writing has also built distinctively on the growing worldwide interest in Creative Writing research, with conference presenters exchanging new findings and new ideas about the undertaking and understanding of Creative Writing - particularly in the area of practice-led Creative Writing research. Some of the results of this research (both creative results and critical results) you will find published in New Writing: the International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing (Routledge/Taylor and Francis), an independent Creative Writing journal. The Great Writing conference hosts the annual New Writing International Creative Writing Lecture, a celebration of Creative Writing and our keen human interest in it. I very much look forward to seeing you at the Great Writing conference - where you will be warmly welcomed!

Professor Graeme Harper Founder/Director, Great Writing: the International Creative Writing Conference (UK)

Call for Proposals

Presenter cfp now closed for this year - if places open up a further call will be sent out.

Audience/participation places are available - contact [email protected]

all best wishes

Great Writing International Creative Writing Conference Saturday July 13 – Sunday July 14, 2024 University College London This is the 27th Annual Great Writing International Creative Writing Conference . Great Writing includes research, teaching and creative writing practice topics. And more! The conference takes place right in the heart of Bloomsbury , close to the British Library, in London’s fabulous ‘Knowledge Quarter’ – https://www.knowledgequarter.london/   - with a great many wonderful accommodation and restaurant options. The conference will be held in person . (there will be an additional [free and virtual] “2024 International Creative Writing Forum: The Future For Creative Writing” hosted by the conference attendees/presenters via Zoom on Sunday afternoon.)

Proposal format: 1. Single presentations: 15 minutes, 5 minutes questions. 2. 3 person (themed) presentation/panels: 60 minutes (inclusive). ( Proposals : send a title and a 150 word abstract [as will be published in the conference programme] and a 100 word biographical note [for quotes use single inverted commas, italicize book titles]).  Many thanks!) Send proposals to: [email protected] Closing Date for Submissions: Sunday January 14, 2024* Proposals are peer-reviewed. * Earlier submission is encouraged , because presenter places are limited. For queries contact: [email protected] We look forward to welcoming you to Great Writing 2024!

For more details and updates on the conference can be found here up until conference date.

Great Writing began in the late 1990s with a small number of keynote presentations, and a single panel made up of those keynote presenters. The participants at that first conference were involved in discussions with the presenters, and amongst themselves, they expressed ideas, talked about things that might be further explored - but the event was otherwise somewhat singular in direction! That is: a few people talked, most people listened.

By the second year of the conference things had changed: now there would be multiple panels, made up of three individual presenters per panel - each person would have 30 minutes in total to offer something, with the suggested format being 20 minutes for a presentation, 10 minutes for questions. (Writers could propose a single 20/10 presentation, or three presenters could get together to offer a full 90 minute panel proposal). This was later changed to 20 minutes in total (15/5) to allow for even more productive discussion over the conference weekend.

This format proved extremely popular. As did the change of date - where as the January date of the inaugural conference meant cold (and not to put too fine a point on it) wet weather, the summer dates of the second conference promised not only a lively gathering but a warm one as well!

That proved to be the case: and the conference is now always in June or July of each year. The audience too began to widen, from its second year - more international presenters traveled to the UK to be at the second conference. This has become a Great Writing tradition. It seems the idea of meeting each year, in summer, in the UK, to explore Creative Writing - and to consider how it is being taught and researched - was always going to be popular. But there was still one more development to make the Great Writing conference programme really work!

Up until the fifth year of the conference, Great Writing only had critical presentations - that is, up until its fifth year the conference was home to presentations concerned primarily with critical approaches to written works, with the pedagogies of Creative Writing teaching, and with ideas about Creative Writing and other Humanities subjects. The only creative presentations up until then were those that happened as keynote readings or in an impromptu fashion in the evenings of the conference. In the fifth year, that all changed:

From year five, Great Writing became an international platform for both critical and creative presentations!

The logic of doing this hadn't gone unnoticed - after all, Creative Writing is about creative work, and study (and research) in Creative Writing always has creative work at its core. It made no sense not to be offering the opportunity for creative writers to present their creative works - sometimes presentations at Great Writing now incorporate both creative and critical work!

Today Great Writing: the International Creative Writing Conference (UK) offers the opportunity to present either critical or creative work, to socialise with fellow creative writers from around the world, to discuss, debate and explore topics and findings in Creative Writing research (whether faculty or student research), to establish new collaborations and renew established ones, to discuss the teaching and learning of Creative Writing in universities and colleges (or, indeed, in the wider community), and to celebrate the considerable human interest in Creative Writing as an art form, a form of communication, an exchange between people, and as a site of human endeavour.

The Timetable for the Year:

• A Call for Papers traditionally went out in August, following the preceding conference. (in 2020 for 2021 this occurred in October, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in 2022 we will trial a new shorter call for proposals period, and a new combined conferenceformat [primarily 'in person" with some opportunities for virtual participation])
• Calls for Papers remain open until there are no spaces left at the conference. We have "rolling calls", but once all presenter spaces are full these stop. (non-presenter/audience spaces remain open, however)
• Accepted presenters are asked to register on their acceptance, to secure their presenter place, and to assist with logistics [technology resources, coffee ordering, and volunteer hours devoted to running each year's conference].
• The Final Programme is constructed around early June, in the year of conference (ie. between 3-4 weeks before the conference).
• Great Writing occurs in the UK each year in either June or July.
• The New Writing: International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing welcomes submissions developed into publishable pieces from presentations given at the Great Writing conference - papers accepted are usually published within 12 months.

Great Writing International Creative Writing Conference - July 2024: Graeme – as Great Writing Conference Director, you can indeed contact me (as below) on any and all of the various aspects of the conference, prior or during conference, or via [email protected] That said, there is usually someone other than me who knows more about specific elements (eg. catering, directions, the final schedule) . A full list of contacts is published here, well in advance of the conference dates.

2024 - Great Writing 27 - The Conference Team :

Graeme - [email protected]

Others : Louise, Millicent and Neb . The conference general email is: [email protected] and this always provides a secure contact point.

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Creative Writing

Application options include:

Course Overview

The MA Creative Writing at Birkbeck is taught by one of the most diverse and vibrant departments in London. For nearly 20 years we have been enabling dynamic groups of students to improve their creative work and develop as writers. We have a growing list of published and prizewinning authors whose work started life in our seminars.

If you have been writing creatively for a while and feel the need for professional support and feedback and the guidance of published authors and a cohort of like-minded people, then this course is for you.

The course is taught through small seminars and one-to-one tuition. We offer modules in fiction writing - both short story and novel - and work with writers across many prose genres - both fiction and non-fiction. We also offer options in playwriting, poetry, screenwriting and creative non-fiction, and practical opportunities to learn about publishing, producing and editing creative work. 

Entry to the course is based on the submission of a portfolio of creative work, and candidates whose work shows promise will be invited for interview.

Read our blog to keep up to date with our research activities.

Discover the career opportunities available by taking Creative Writing (MA).

Key information and modules

Creative writing ma: 1 year full-time, on campus, starting october 2024.

Central London

Creative Writing MA: 2 years part-time, on campus, starting October 2024

Creative writing: january start ma: 2 years part-time, on campus, starting january 2025, pathways for creative writing (ma).

This course has additional Pathways to offer you the chance to specialise depending on your interests and career goals.

• Creative Writing and Contemporary Studies (MA)

Find another course:

• Birkbeck was ranked 2nd in the UK for its English Language and Literature research in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.
• In particular, this environment is fostered by close links between the MA and the Centre for Conte mporary Literature at Birkbeck, which runs a wide variety of talks and conferences in this field. In addition to working with the established and award-winning writers who teach the degree, you will have contact with industry professionals, such as publishers and literary agents, who offer a series of platform discussions in the summer term.
• The Mechanics' Institute Review, MIROnline , is a forum for the most exciting new writing in short fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction selected from students on this course and beyond.
• Birkbeck is located in the heart of literary London, in Bloomsbury, WC1. You could be studying in a building that was once home to Virginia Woolf and frequented by members of the Bloomsbury Group. The building houses our own creative hub which includes the Peltz Gallery , the Gordon Square Cinema and a theatre and performance space .
• We have a range of scholarships available to enable talented students on low incomes to study with us, such as the Sophie Warne Fellowship . Once you have secured a place on the course you will be invited to apply for these awards. We offer a number of bursaries for postgraduate students .

Birkbeck makes all reasonable efforts to deliver educational services, modules and programmes of study as described on our website. In the event that there are material changes to our offering (for example, due to matters beyond our control), we will update applicant and student facing information as quickly as possible and offer alternatives to applicants, offer-holders and current students.

Entry Requirements

A second-class honours degree (2:2 or above, though this requirement may be waived if you can demonstrate exceptional talent), a personal statement (to be submitted with your application form) and a portfolio of prose writing of no more than 3000 words.

Your portfolio should be a section of a novel with a synopsis, a couple of short stories or a combination of the two. Please note that poetry, children’s fiction, journalism, screen- or playwriting are not appropriate submissions for this MA. Students are selected on the basis of their portfolio and statement, an interview (selected candidates only) and their degree.

Portfolio guidelines:

• Submit application.
• Wait up to 48 hours.
• Submit writing portfolio (Word or PDF) by logging into your MyBirkbeck profile, then going to the ‘Manage my application’ link and attaching the document.

Applications are reviewed on their individual merits, and your professional qualifications and/or relevant work experience will be taken into consideration positively. We actively support and encourage applications from mature learners.

On your application form, please list all your relevant qualifications and experience, including those you expect to achieve.

Apply now  to secure your place. The earlier you apply, the sooner your application can be considered and you can enrol. You do not need to have completed your current qualification to start your application.

English language requirements

If English is not your first language or you have not previously studied in English, the requirement for this programme is the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Test) score of 6.5, with not less than 6.0 in each of the sub-tests.

If you don't meet the minimum IELTS requirement,  we offer pre-sessional English courses and foundation programmes  to help you improve your English language skills and get your place at Birkbeck.

Visit the International section of our website to find out more about our  English language entry requirements and relevant requirements by country .

Visa and funding requirements

If you are not from the UK and you do not already have residency here, you may need to apply for a visa.

The visa you apply for varies according to the length of your course:

• Courses of more than six months' duration: Student visa
• Courses of less than six months' duration: Standard Visitor visa

International students who require a Student visa should apply for our full-time courses as these qualify for Student visa sponsorship. If you are living in the UK on a Student visa, you will not be eligible to enrol as a student on Birkbeck's part-time courses (with the exception of some modules).

For full information, read our visa information for international students page .

Please also visit the international section of our website to find out more about relevant visa and funding requirements by country .

Please note students receiving US Federal Aid are only able to apply for in-person, on-campus programmes which will have no elements of online study.

Credits and accredited prior learning (APL)

If you have studied at university, you may have accumulated credits through the modules you studied. It may be possible to transfer these credits from your previous study to Birkbeck or another institution.

Creative Writing MA: 1 year full-time or 2 years part-time, on campus, starting in academic year 2024-25

Academic year 2024–25, starting october 2024.

Part-time home students: £5,400 per year Full-time home students: £10,800 per year Part-time international students : £9,915 per year Full-time international students: £19,830 per year

Creative Writing: January start MA: 2 years part-time, on campus, starting in academic year 2024-25

Academic year 2024–25, starting january 2025.

Part-time home students: £5,400 per year Part-time international students : £9,915 per year

Students are charged a tuition fee in each year of their course. Tuition fees for students continuing on their course in following years may be subject to annual inflationary increases. For more information, please see the College Fees Policy .

If you’ve studied at Birkbeck before and successfully completed an award with us, take advantage of our Lifelong Learning Guarantee to gain a discount on the tuition fee of this course.

Discover the financial support available to you to help with your studies at Birkbeck.

International scholarships

We provide a range of scholarships for eligible international students, including our Global Future Scholarship. Discover if you are eligible for a scholarship .

At Birkbeck, most of our courses are taught in the evening and all of our teaching is designed to support students who are juggling evening study with work and other commitments. We actively encourage innovative and engaging ways of teaching, to ensure our students have the best learning experience.

Teaching may include formal lectures, seminars, and practical classes and tutorials. Formal lectures are used in most degree programmes to give an overview of a particular field of study. They aim to provide the stimulus and the starting point for deeper exploration of the subject during your own personal reading. Seminars give you the chance to explore a specific aspect of your subject in depth and to discuss and exchange ideas with fellow students. They typically require preparatory study.

In addition, you will have access to pastoral support via a named Personal Tutor.

Methods of teaching on this course

Teaching is seminar-based. Each session is generally two hours, and there are further regular one-to-one tutorials throughout the year.

Key teaching staff on this course

Staff who may teach on this MA include successful, published authors and practitioners such as:

• David Eldridge
• Richard Hamblyn
• Jonathan Kemp
• Luke Williams

Teaching hours

Our evening hours are normally between 6pm and 9pm (6-7.30pm and 7.30-9pm). Some programmes also offer teaching during the day and this will be clearly signposted to you where it is available.

On our taught courses, you will have scheduled teaching and study sessions each year. Scheduled teaching sessions may include lectures, seminars, workshops or laboratory work. Depending on the modules you take, you may also have additional scheduled academic activities, such as tutorials, dissertation supervision, practical classes, visits and field trips. On our taught courses, the actual amount of time you spend in the classroom and in contact with your lecturers will depend on your course, the option modules you select and when you undertake your final-year project (if applicable).

Alongside your contact hours, you will also undertake assessment activities and independent learning outside of class. The amount of time you need to allocate to study both for taught sessions (this might include online sessions and/or in-person sessions) and personal study will depend on how much you are studying during the year and whether you are studying full time or part time.

Birkbeck’s courses are made up of modules and allocated ‘credit’. One credit is equivalent to ten hours of learning time. Modules are usually in 15, 30 or 60 credit units. A 15-credit module will mean around 150 hours of learning, including taught sessions and independent study or group work. This is spread out over the whole period of that module and includes the time you spend on any assessments, including in examinations, preparing and writing assessments or engaged in practical work as well as any study support sessions to help you in your learning.

On our distance-learning and blended-learning courses, discussion, collaboration and interaction with your lecturers and fellow students is encouraged and enabled through various learning technologies.

Timetables are usually available from September onwards and you can access your personalised timetable via your My Birkbeck Profile online (if you have been invited to enrol).

Indicative class size

Class sizes vary, depending on your course, the module you are undertaking, and the method of teaching. For example, lectures are presented to larger groups, whereas seminars usually consist of small, interactive groups led by a tutor.

Independent learning

On our taught courses, much of your time outside of class will be spent on self-directed, independent learning, including preparing for classes and following up afterwards. This will usually include, but is not limited to, reading books and journal articles, undertaking research, working on coursework and assignments, and preparing for presentations and assessments.

Independent learning is absolutely vital to your success as a student. Everyone is different, and the study time required varies topic by topic, but, as a guide, expect to schedule up to five hours of self-study for each hour of teaching.

Study skills and additional support

Birkbeck offers study and learning support to undergraduate and postgraduate students to help them succeed. Our Learning Development Service can help you in the following areas:

• academic skills (including planning your workload, research, writing, exam preparation and writing a dissertation)
• written English (including structure, punctuation and grammar)
• numerical skills (basic mathematics and statistics).

Our Disability and Dyslexia Service can support you if you have additional learning needs resulting from a disability or from dyslexia.

Our Counselling Service can support you if you are struggling with emotional or psychological difficulties during your studies.

Our Mental Health Advisory Service can support you if you are experiencing short- or long-term mental health difficulties during your studies.

Assessment is an integral part of your university studies and usually consists of a combination of coursework and examinations, although this will vary from course to course - on some of our courses, assessment is entirely by coursework. The methods of assessment on this course are specified below under 'Methods of assessment on this course'. You will need to allow time to complete coursework and prepare for exams.

Where a course has unseen written examinations, these may be held termly, but, on the majority of our courses, exams are usually taken in the Summer term, during May to June. Exams may be held at other times of the year as well. In most cases, exams are held during the day on a weekday - if you have daytime commitments, you will need to make arrangements for daytime attendance - but some exams are held in the evening. Exam timetables are published online.

Find out more about assessment at Birkbeck, including guidance on assessment, feedback and our assessment offences policy.

Methods of assessment on this course

Four short creative pieces with critical essays (67%). A dissertation (15,000 words) in one of the following genres: a novella, novel or collection of short stories, with a preface of 3000 words (33%).

Careers and employability

Graduates can pursue career paths in editing, teaching and writing professionally. Possible professions include:

• creative writer
• magazine or newspaper journalist
• editorial assistant
• academic librarian
• English as a second language (ESOL) teacher
• information officer.

Birkbeck Creative Writing graduates include:

• Niki Aguirre
• Sarah Alexander
• Laura Allsop
• Iphgenia Baal
• Phoebe Blatton
• Mary Lynn Bracht
• Nicole Burstein
• Tray Butler
• Melissa De Villiers
• Liz Fremantle
• AJ Grainger
• Jules Grant
• Emma Henderson
• Sally Hinchcliffe
• Heidi James
• Keith Jarrett
• Olya Knezevic
• Matthew Loukes
• Fiona Melrose
• Suzanne O'Sullivan
• Victoria Richards
• Nadim Safdar
• Karin Salvalaggio
• David Savill
• Stefanie Seddon
• Luke Tredget.

We offer a comprehensive careers service - Careers and Enterprise - your career partner during your time at Birkbeck and beyond. At every stage of your career journey, we empower you to take ownership of your future, helping you to make the connection between your experience, education and future ambitions.

You apply directly to Birkbeck for this course, using the online application link.

You will need to prove your identity when you apply - read more about suitable forms of identification .

When to apply

You are strongly advised to apply now, to ensure there are still places on your chosen course and to give you enough time to complete the admissions process, to arrange funding and to enrol.

You don't need to complete your current programme of study before you apply - Birkbeck can offer you a place that is conditional on your results.

You will also receive information about subject-specific induction sessions over the summer.

Help and advice with your application

Get all the information you need about the application, admission and enrolment process at Birkbeck.

Our online personal statement tool will guide you through every step of writing the personal statement part of your application.

Apply for your course

Apply for your course using the apply now button in the key information section .

Course structure

Course structure listing, course structure and modules for creative writing ma: 1 year full-time or 2 years part-time, on campus, starting october 2024.

You must complete modules worth a total of 180 credits, consisting of:

• two compulsory modules (30 credits each)
• two option modules (30 credits each)
• a 15,000-word dissertation (60 credits).

Compulsory modules

• Creative Non-Fiction
• Writing and Reading Seminar

Option modules

• Contemporary Writing 2: Genre
• Introduction to Playwriting
• Introduction to Screenwriting
• Poetry Workshop
• Writing The Self
• Writing Workshop

MA Creative Writing Dissertation

• Dissertation MA Creative Writing

Course structure and modules for Creative Writing: January start MA: 2 years part-time, on campus, starting January 2025

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Creative Writing at King’s

As part of the BA English , students can take introductory courses in poetry, prose fiction, and creative non-fiction in the second year, and progress to advanced modules in fiction or poetry in the third year.  

At doctoral level, we run an innovative, practice-led PhD in Creative Writing Research  programme, designed for talented and committed writers in poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction who wish to complete a book-length project for publication and prepare for a long-term career in the literary world. 

Wild Court is an international online poetry journal based in the Department, named after a nineteenth century Irish slum or ‘rookery’ opposite what is now the Virginia Woolf Building. Wild Court draws on an international community of professional poets, writers and critics, but also includes a section of work from King’s creative writing students. It also supports Poetry And, a series of free public readings at King’s, which highlights poetry’s power to connect with other thought-worlds, disciplines, and areas of life.

Creative Writing Staff

The English department is home to award-winning novelists, poets, essayists, biographers, non-fiction authors, and literary critics, who teach undergraduate modules in a range of disciplines. They also supervise creative projects at doctoral level within their specialisms.

Works by our staff have won or been shortlisted for a number of literary accolades, including: the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize, the Man Booker Prize, the Sunday Times / PFD Young Writer of the Year, the Costa First Novel Award, the Costa Poetry Award, the Somerset Maugham Award, the Commonwealth Book Prize, the Biographers’ Club / Slightly Foxed First Biography Prize, the U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award, the CWA Gold Dagger Award, the European Union Prize for Literature, the RSL Encore Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Letters, le Prix du Roman Fnac, le Prix du Roman Etranger, and the Kiriyama Prize. Many of the creative writing staff are Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature. 

Their most recent publications are:

• Beethoven Variations: Poems on a Life (Chatto & Windus, 2020) Ruth Padel – Professor of Poetry
• A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better (Scribner, 2018) Benjamin Wood – Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing
• The Invention of Angela Carter (Chatto & Windus, 2016) Edmund Gordon – Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing
• Loop of Jade (Chatto & Windus, 2015) Sarah Howe – Lecturer in Poetry
• Homing: On Pigeons, Dwellings, and Why We Return (John Murray Press, 2019) Jon Day – Lecturer in English 
• The Group (John Murray Press, 2020) Lara Feigel – Professor of Modern Literature and Culture
• Mayflies (Faber, 2020) Andrew O’Hagan – Visiting Professor in Creative Writing

The list of King’s College London alumni not only features many acclaimed contemporary authors—Michael Morpurgo, Alain de Botton, Hanif Kureishi, Marina Lewycka, Susan Hill, Lawrence Norfolk, Ross Raisin, Alexander Masters, Maureen Duffy, Anita Brookner, and Helen Cresswell—it also includes major figures in literature, such as Thomas Hardy, Arthur C Clarke, Christopher Isherwood, BS Johnson, John Keats, W. Somerset Maugham, and Virginia Woolf.

King's English is ranked eighth in the UK for the quality and quantity of our research

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School for the Creative and Cultural Industries

Creative Journeys with… Josh Weeks

28 May 2024

We sit down with Josh Weeks, writer, critic and SCCI postdoctoral research fellow. Josh shares his creative journey so far - juggling an academic career with part-time jobs and writing for major publications - as well as advice and hopes for the future.

What is your role and what does it involve?

I’m a postdoctoral research fellow with the School for the Creative and Cultural Industries, working under the mentorship of the School’s director, Haidy Geismar. My project, part of the AHRC-funded StoryArcs programme, is about narrativising the work of the National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange ( NCACE ), an organisation that supports and showcases knowledge exchange between higher education and the arts and culture sectors. I spend most of my time writing and researching, attending NCACE events, and interviewing academics and creative practitioners who have worked with the organisation.

I’m also working as an assistant on a project called ‘UCL in 2076’, which aims to imagine and reimagine the future of the arts and humanities and how we might better support a positive landscape for the creative industries. We recently held an event, bringing together thought leaders from across the academic and cultural sectors to help us envisage these futures and come up with potential scenarios and solutions.  

Tell us about the journey that led you to where you are now?

After completing my BA in English at King’s College London, I stayed on to do an MA in Contemporary Literature, Culture and Theory. The MA was a big turning point for me – it made me realise how exciting and inventive literary criticism can be! 

After that, I spent a year living back in South Wales and working at Waterstones in Cardiff, which is where I discovered the novel 2666 by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño. After using my employee discount to buy everything else he’d written, I moved to Spain to work as an English language assistant, before beginning a PhD on Bolaño at the University of Amsterdam.

Bolaño’s labyrinthine brand of storytelling has had a massive influence on the way I conceptualise and write about knowledge exchange.

What career achievement are you most proud of?

I did my PhD remotely from Spain without funding (up until my final year, when I was awarded a Finishing Fellowship). I’m proud of the four years I spent juggling my language assistant job with writing and research, which took a lot of self-motivation.

I’m also proud that I’ve written for some big publications over the last couple of years, including The Observer , Financial Times , Times Literary Supplement, Los Angeles Review of Books and Wellcome Collection Stories .

What are you most looking forward to in the next few months?

My work with NCACE is really starting to shape up, so I’m looking forward to incorporating my findings into an experimental narrative. I’ll also be sending off my Bolaño monograph for peer review in July, which I’m really excited about!

What are you reading, watching and listening to?

Reading :  I was lucky enough to be sent an advanced proof for a brilliant novel called Bonding by Mariel Franklin. It comes out next month, and I think it’s going to be a hit!

Watching :  Bodkin on Netflix.

Listening : I’ve recently fallen back in love with The War on Drugs – particularly their 2017 album, A Deeper Understanding .

What is your favourite museum, gallery or exhibition at the moment? 

I absolutely loved the Undocumented? exhibition at the UCL East Urban Room earlier this year, which was co-curated by Nishat Awan and Kara Blackmore. I’m also looking forward to seeing Jason Wilsher-Mills’s ‘Jason and the Adventure of 254’ at Wellcome Collection.

If you had one piece of advice for people who want to pursue a similar career path, what would it be?

Don’t let one disappointment convince you that you’ve failed. Academia is full of ups and down – keep reminding yourself of why you’re doing what you’re doing.  

Find out more

• The  StoryArcs programme  is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and led by the Story Society at Bath Spa University. Meet the  Story Associates .
• The ‘UCL in 2076’ project is led by Tim Beasley-Murray, UCL Associate Professor of European Thought and Culture, and Dr Peter Zusi, Associate Professor at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies. ‘UCL in 2076’ was developed in collaboration with Matt Finch of the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School and is supported by Kristina Glushkova and Rebecca Robinson from the UCL Innovation in Enterprise team.