Writing for Young People

The MA in Writing for Young People is well known throughout children’s and young adult publishing for developing emerging writers' work to publishable quality. Our alumni include Sally Nicholls, Elen Caldecott, CJ Skuse, Emma Carroll, Jasbinder Bilan, Damaris Young, Sophie Kirtley, Kate Mallinder, Yasmin Rahman and David Hofmeyr.

Writing workshops lie at the heart of the course, helping you to gain wide-ranging insights into your writing strengths and weaknesses and to experiment through your writing in a supportive but disciplined environment. A critical aspect of the course is the chance to meet other aspiring writers, to learn from them and to develop the creative networks that will support you in the next stage of your writing career.

Workshop modules lead onto the production of a full manuscript – or substantial proportion of one – with a clear understanding of how to complete the book. While most students focus on Middle Grade or Young Adult prose fiction, others choose picture books, chapter books, collections, verse novels or even narrative non-fiction for their manuscript project.

Your writing will be underpinned by increased understanding of children and young people as readers, of the current publishing industry, and of good practice in submitting to agents and publishers. You'll acquire the core skills and knowledge working authors need in order to give their work the best chance of success in the marketplace.

In addition to a teaching team who are all published authors, with wide-ranging experience of various areas of publishing and the Arts, the course hosts a programme of guest speakers and activities throughout the academic year.

Trimester one

The first Context module explores the main categories of books published for children and young people, with a focus on reading as a writer and on understanding your audience at the different stages of childhood and adolescence. We consider a wide range of texts from picture books and chapter books to middle grade and young adult novels; verse novels and some narrative non-fiction are also included.

The first Writing Workshop module is an opportunity to explore various aspects of the craft of writing for children and young people. This module focuses on experimentation, trying new things and developing your range, working with your tutor and your peers to test and try out your own ideas.

Trimester two

The second Writing Workshop module enables you to continue to experiment and to develop your skills as a writer, and to start to focus more on your final manuscript project.

The second Context module considers the realities of the children’s publishing industry, publishing as a business and the practicalities involved in turning a manuscript into a book. In addition to looking at the work of agents, editors, sales teams, rights professionals, marketing teams and publicists, you'll develop the professional skills all working authors need to position and promote their own work. 

Trimester three

The Manuscript module involves working on a one to one basis with a tutor to develop, draft, edit and revise your major project – part of a full-length novel, or a collection of pieces.

This course includes or offers the following modules. Please check the programme document for more information on which modules are core, required or optional.

• Writing Workshop: Autumn
• Context Module One: Writing for Young People: Forms, Ages and Stages
• Writing Workshop: Spring
• Writing for Young People: Contemporary Children’s Publishing
• The Manuscript (double module)

You'll be assessed through a range of tasks, including creative portfolios, samples of work-in-progress, reflective commentaries, a selection of publishing-focused pieces, and your manuscript submissions – this might be a portion of a novel, or a selection of picture/chapter books or other short works.

Writing Workshop and Context Modules

You'll be taught through a mix of on-campus workshops/lectures, online lectures/workshops, and one-to-one tutorials. We aim to keep the writing workshops small so that there's sufficient time, support, and attention for each person’s work.

Part-time students will have one module per taught trimester; while full-time students will have two.

The Manuscript Module

All students will focus on the Manuscript Module from June to September whether studying for one year full-time or two years part-time. The manuscript is taught via one-to-one tutorials, working with a tutor who is a published author with particular knowledge of your field of work, or who can bring complementary expertise to bear on it.

What’s the time commitment in a usual week?

Our teaching weeks run October-January and February-May, with June-September comprised of one-to-one tutorials on a schedule negotiated by the tutor and student.

With some exceptions, during teaching weeks, full-time students will usually have two workshops on a single day or over two days: each workshop is three hours. Part-time students will have one three-hour workshop per week. We let students know during the summer what their provisional timetable is. 

We suggest that part-time students treat the course as a part-time (0.5 equivalent) job, setting aside roughly 17.5-20 hours per week for workshops, homework, assessment preparation, reading, participation in optional projects, guest lectures, and independent study. We suggest full-time students treat the course as a full-time job (35-40 hours per week equivalent). 

This course has an excellent reputation across children’s and young adult publishing, with name recognition among agents, editors and booksellers. We're regularly approached by publishing professionals who want to work with us.

We have extensive links across the industry, with individuals, companies and cultural organisations such as the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature. The University works closely with partners in the creative and cultural industries, the third sector, and education. Our current international partnership network includes Vermont College of Fine Arts, the Norwegian Institute for Children’s Books, and Ashoka University (India) via a collaborative project with the Green Lit Fest (India).

In 2022-2023, students had various opportunities to participate in exciting optional projects, including:

• ‘Wild Muse’ (which paired MAWYP students with Bachelor’s students as a foundation for building skills in delivering creative writing events)
• Literature Across Borders with Green Lit Fest and Ashoka University (including an opportunity for publication with LEAF journal in 2024)
• A Read Aloud event at Bath Children’s Literature Festival (building on a masterclass workshop to develop skills delivering live readings and an internal event to test these skills).

Over 70 of our alumni have now been traditionally published. Our graduates also go into editing (freelance and at a publishing house), agenting, rights, marketing, publicity, sales, events management and teaching. They have careers in journalism, writing for magazines, teaching, various aspects of publishing, and television.

Our published graduates have secured contracts with, among others:

• The Andersen Press
• Bloomsbury
• Chicken House
• Egmont
• Faber & Faber
• Gullane
• Hot Key Books
• Nosy Crow
• Orion
• Oxford University Press
• Penguin
• Quercus
• Scholastic
• Simon and Schuster
• Templar
• Walker Books.

Opportunities for new writing appear all the time, and we'll encourage you to participate in these at the stage that is right for you.

We offer a programme of online evening lectures from a variety of guest authors and industry professionals. You'll be able to attend events run by other departments where these are relevant to your work – or of personal interest. The richness of the University experience lies in where it moves beyond the specific course, and opens up new possibilities and new perspectives.

Resources such as handouts, links and videos are provided through our virtual learning environment. 

You'll be taught at our Newton Park campus.