Welcome

Drama and Creative Writing is a dynamic research group dedicated to the production and study of performance and creative practice.

The group covers a wide range of research and creative activity. These creative and critical interests feed directly into our doctoral, postgraduate and undergraduate teaching and supervision.

The research group combines two distinct, yet interlinked, discipline areas: Drama and Performance, and Creative Writing.

Research and practice are closely linked in the Drama and Creative Writing team.

Drama and Performance

Drama and Performance covers a rich span of performance types and historical periods. We also have a strong track record of collaboration with regional creative and cultural industry partners. Our particular expertise includes the following:

Shakespeare and early modern drama with a focus on historical and contemporary performance histories
Nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first century British and Irish theatre, including modernism and the avant-garde
Audience and reception studies
Theatrical place and space
Theatre history and historiography
Playwriting and digital performance
Collaborative research with creative economy partners.

Creative Writing

Creative Writing at Nottingham covers a wide range of skills and techniques, including scriptwriting, poetry and fiction (including short stories, novels and digital texts). We are all published writers and practitioners.

There is an emphasis on the practicalities of getting published in our teaching activities, from the initial writing, through to editing and publication or performance.

Guest and honorary lecturers provide additional context and work-based experience. Our writer-in-residence is the award-winning novelist and short-story writer Professor Jon McGregor. Students have the opportunity to work alongside Jon McGregor on The Letters Page, the School of English’s literary journal.

News

Our students longlisted for the Aurora Prize for Writing!

Description: Congratulations to Cathy Symes, Lauren Colley and Lucile Deslignères, all current School of English students who have been longlisted for the Aurora Prize for Writing! The Aurora Prize is a national writing competition run by Writing East Midlands, in partnership with the Society of Authors, that has run since 2016 and seeks outstanding new writing in short fiction and poetry. The judges for this year are best-selling crime novelist Vaseem Khan for the Short Fiction category and esteemed poet and author Andrew McMillan for the Poetry category, the winners will be announced at the award ceremony on the 30th October 2024.