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Creative Writing PGCert (Online)

Turn your passion for writing into a career

100% online

8 months (part-time)

60 credits

4 starts per year

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Develop your craft for today’s creative industries

The online Postgraduate Certificate in Creative Writing is designed for graduates and professionals who want to develop their creative practice in a shorter timeframe than a full masters programme. Through workshop-based learning across fiction, poetry, life writing, and the novel, you’ll draft original work, receive expert feedback, and refine your writing through critical discussion and guided editing. As you build confidence in your creative voice, you’ll develop the analytical and reflective skills to strengthen your practice and lay the pathway for future writing, publication, or postgraduate study.

Programme benefits

  • Established Goldsmiths reputation
  • Practical writing advice combined with critical thinking
  • Genre breadth with opportunities to specialise
  • Literary community and practitioner expertise
  • Future-focused professional development
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Our PGCert Creative Writing programme prepares you for the next step

4 courses

60 credits

The programme is designed around a flexible carousel model rather than a rigid sequence. While most students complete core, workshop‑focused modules first, the individual genre workshops can be taken in different orders depending on your entry point. This offers flexibility while ensuring you gain the foundational skills and context you need within each module.

View programme specification

Core Creative Writing PGCert modules

Exploring the study and practice of short fiction, this module develops students’ skills in close reading, creative writing, and critical reflection. Students will examine the forms, techniques, and themes of short fiction while learning to analyse texts using appropriate critical terminology. Through workshop activities, they will gain experience in giving and receiving constructive feedback, and will produce original short-fiction writing informed by close reading techniques. The module also supports the development of reflective practice through a critical commentary that chronicles the creative and editorial journey of their work.
Examining the novel as an extended literary form and creative practice, this module develops students’ skills in close reading, creative writing, and critical reflection. Students will investigate the devices, structures, and themes that shape novel writing while learning to analyse texts using appropriate critical terminology. Through workshop activities, they will gain experience in giving and receiving constructive feedback, and will produce original novel extracts informed by close reading techniques. The module also supports the development of reflective practice through a critical commentary that chronicles the creative and editorial journey of their work.
Focusing on the representation of lived experience through creative and literary forms, this module develops students’ skills in close reading, creative writing, and critical reflection. Students will explore the techniques, structures, and themes of life writing while learning to analyse texts using appropriate critical terminology. Through workshop activities, they will gain experience in giving and receiving constructive feedback, and will produce original life writing informed by close reading techniques. The module also supports the development of reflective practice through a critical commentary that chronicles the creative and editorial journey of their work.
Exploring poetry as a literary form and creative practice, this module develops students’ skills in close reading, creative writing, and critical reflection. Students will examine the forms, techniques, and themes that shape poetic expression while learning to analyse texts using appropriate critical terminology. Through workshop activities, they will gain experience in giving and receiving constructive feedback, and will produce original poetry informed by close reading techniques. The module also supports the development of reflective practice through a critical commentary that chronicles the creative and editorial journey of their work.

Career outlook

Develop foundational knowledge in writing and editing, along with critical skills you can apply across publishing, media, education, and other creative fields. Graduates may pursue paths such as content writing, where content writers in the UK earn around £32,217 per year1, or use their improved communication skills to advance in their existing careers, or build a strong foundation for further creative writing study and practice.

Explore potential career paths

Content Writer £31,938 per year1

Copywriter £46,538 per year2

Value of a Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert)

A Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert) offers a flexible way to develop specialist knowledge without committing to a full master’s degree. Complete targeted Level 7 study in a shorter timeframe while balancing work and personal commitments.

  • Study focused, industry-relevant modules
  • Complete in less time
  • Lower overall tuition cost
  • Apply learning in the workplace
  • Progress to a PGDip or master’s later

PGCert Creative Writing programme outcomes

By the end of the Postgraduate Certificate in Creative Writing, you will be able to:

  • Develop the confidence to experiment across fiction, poetry, and life writing, and discover the forms that best suit your style
  • Build the habit of drafting and practise turning early ideas into more polished creative pieces
  • Strengthen your close‑reading skills to recognise and apply effective craft techniques
  • Deepen your ability to analyse your own creative decisions and identify strengths and areas for growth
  • Refine your critical commentary skills by critiquing your own and others’ work

“I now write and perform for a living, as well as teach creative writing. I especially like teaching memoir/life writing to community groups as there is a transformative spark when people get to tell their stories. There is a natural release of infinite beauty in the ‘true’ story.”

–Karen McLeod, MA Creative and Life Writing (Campus)

Entry criteria

Application Deadline 02/11/27

Start Date 03/01/27

This programme is for curious creatives from a broad range of related disciplines who share a passion for creative writing.

Online applicationApply Now
DegreeTypically, applicants hold a 2:1 bachelor’s degree in literature, humanities, creative arts, or social sciences. Applicants with substantial professional experience may also be considered.
Language criteriaIf English is not your first language, you’ll usually need an IELTS overall score of 6.5 (with no band below 6.0). In some cases, this may be waived based on prior study, supporting access for a global cohort.
Admissions

Tuition and funding

£5,200 Total cost

60 Total credits

The estimated total cost of this programme is £5,200 GBP for the full PGCert. You can pay in full or in instalments of £1,300 for each module. All costs are listed to help you make an informed decision.

Programme fees are reviewed annually and are subject to change each academic year. The fees listed above are for the academic year 2026-27.

Fees and funding

We are excited to be offering discounts. Review our tuition and funding pages for more information.

Funding options

Meet your faculty

Our expert faculty offer extensive knowledge and diverse perspectives, bringing industry insights and real-world expertise directly into the classroom to enhance your learning experience.

  • Academics with advanced qualifications and specialised expertise
  • Real-world experience integrated into coursework and discussion
  • A learning environment that blends academic rigour with structured support
  • Smaller study groups that enable individual attention and feedback
  • Ongoing mentorship and support at each stage of your studies at Goldsmiths

Dr Jocelyn Page, Programme Convenor, Creative Writing

Dr Jocelyn Page

Jocelyn Page has published in various journals including The Spectator, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Salzburg, South Carolina Review and Poetry Review. Her debut pamphlet, smithereens, was published in 2010 by tall lighthouse press and her 2016 You’ve Got to Wait Till the Man You Trust Says Go was the winner of the Goldsmiths’ Writer Centre’s Poetry Pamphlet award. She is a Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College and the University of London Worldwide. She has held residencies at London’s The Reach Climbing Centre and the 999 Club homeless centre and currently serves as a Creative Consultant for Greenpeace International. Jocelyn is the co-chair of the National Association of Writers in Education and a Fellow of Higher Education Association.

Amy Sackville

Amy Sackville, Senior Lecturer, Creative Writing

Amy Sackville

Amy Sackville is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing. She writes novels, short stories and occasional personal essays and reviews, with interests in historical fiction, experimental form, ekphrasis, and the intersections of life writing, biography and (auto)fiction. Her most recent book, Painter to the King (Granta, 2018), is about the painter Diego Velázquez and his life and work in the court of Philip IV of Spain. She has written for The Guardian, The Independent, Literary Hub, Fictionable, and others. In 2018, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She completed the MA in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths in 2008.

Dr Livia Franchini

Dr Livia Franchini, Lecturer in Creative Writing

Dr Livia Franchini

Livia Franchini is a writer and translator from Tuscany, Italy. She is the author of two novels, Shelf Life and High Tide, and the co-editor of Too Little, Too Hard, a collection of essays on writing, work and value. Her most recent English-language translation is Lorenza Mazzetti’s The Sky Is Falling. Livia is Lecturer in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, where she also coordinates the Goldsmiths Prize. She lives in south east London with her family.

Related programmes

Creative Writing PGDip

Enhance your creative writing with postgraduate workshops and peer critique in a shorter timeframe than a full masters.

View programme

Creative Writing MA

Build your own creative practice across the novel, poetry, life writing, and short fiction through workshops, critical study, and professional development. 

View programme

Sources

  1. ERI Economic Research Institute (2026). Content Writer in the United Kingdom (2026). [online] SalaryExpert. Available at: https://www.salaryexpert.com/salary/job/content-writer/united-kingdom [Accessed 30 July 2026].
  2. ERI Economic Research Institute (2026). Copywriter in the United Kingdom (2026). [online] SalaryExpert. Available at: https://www.salaryexpert.com/salary/job/copywriter/united-kingdom [Accessed 19 June 2026].