The Rise of Creative Writing

The last twenty years has seen a rapid expansion of Creative Writing in UK Higher Education, with an accompanying shift in the teaching and conceptualisation of English Studies. The growth of the discipline follows the pattern of its prior emergence in the USA, which begins with a questioning of its academic credentials, proceeds haltingly to an accommodation with its undeniable appeal to students and administrators, progresses through a period of sudden and exponential growth that provokes a further questioning of its academic credentials, and eventuates in a reformed understanding of its relationship to other disciplines. This article describes the varieties of practice and orientation that have emerged at each level of provision, including the increasingly vocational orientation of many undergraduate programmes and the increasingly confident assertion of Creative Writing’s research credentials at Doctoral level, and identifies the key areas of contestation that are currently determining the parameters of the discipline, both in the UK and as a global phenomenon.