Department of English and Creative Writing

We provide the perfect setting for you to explore these overlapping academic fields of study in all their richness and diversity and for you to grow as a reader, critic and writer.

Our programmes are characterised by creative and critical engagement with processes of writing, language and textual production in relation to a variety of contexts, including social, cultural, political and environmental. The Department has a strong international dimension and sponsors exchanges with Japan, America and European countries. ​

We combine cutting-edge research with passionate teaching, fantastic careers support, and a varied calendar of extra-curricular and social events. To ensure that you are exposed to fresh ideas and new authors throughout your degree, you are taught by different lecturers with diverse approaches. We keep our class sizes small so that you receive as much individual attention as possible and are able to engage in debate and seminars.

The Culture-Media-Text Research Centre co-ordinates interdisciplinary work on literature, film, media and other forms of culture. The centre hosts visiting lectures and performances, including an annual symposium exploring a topic of current critical interest from interdisciplinary perspectives. Researchers in the centre were  instrumental in the establishment of Winchester University Press. We also play a leading role in the interdisciplinary Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Research.

Public Engagement

We are an outward-looking department and our academics regularly participate in public engagement events, such as the Winchester Heritage Open Days. We also work closely with organisations such as the English Project and the Hampshire Cultural Trust. We have lent our expertise to businesses such as games developers Ubisoft, for podcasts (find out more) and for the immersive visitor attraction 878AD, which brings Anglo-Saxon Winchester to life.

Latest news and events

In October 2024, Dr Matthew Leggatt, Senior Lecturer in English and American Literature, launched a new podcast series on Utopian and Dystopian Fiction, which looks at the differing depictions of Utopias and Dystopias in fiction and film. Matthew presents the podcasts with Liam Knight from the University of Birmingham, and for one of the episodes, the pair chatted with Dr Daniel Varndell, Senior Lecturer in English Literature. Listen to the podcasts.

From 26 to 28 April 2024, authors and academics Dr Mark Rutter and Judy Waite (photo) could be found at the Bournemouth Writing Festival, with The Stanza Room: a Querty Type of Magic, a celebration of the trusty typewriter. Find out more on our website and the festival website.

March 2024 saw the launch of Breaking Barriers, a book that shares 100 personal accounts of mental ill health, recovery and connection, edited by Dr Glenn Fosbraey and Creative Writing graduate Katie Pether, who now works for the Department for Education as a Mental Health First Aid Instructor.

Image top of page: the first page of the epic poem Beowulf, written in an Anglo-Saxon dialect. Image from Wikimedia Commons.