Oxford has long been the inspiration of some of the world’s best known and most loved writers. From C.S. Lewis to J.R.R Tolkien and from Oscar Wilde to Percy Bysshe Shelley, all have come to the literary world from Oxford. Whether it is Lewis Carol’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Oxford’s literary pedigree has been well established for centuries. Could there be a better place to try your hand at crafting your own literary masterpiece?

We offer a range of courses within creative writing for ages from 10 to 24 – take a look in more detail by exploring below.

Alizee Cordesse – Creative Writing student from 2015

Oxford Summer Courses was a unique experience for me: studying my favourite subject - creative writing - in the home of one of the most prestigious universities in the world is a huge opportunity. I could have seminars with a passionate tutor in a very small group (we were only two students) and we had to write a short story and a poem: difficult exercises but hugely satisfying and with so much constructive feedback and good advice from my tutor! We had also lot of freedom and could make so many discoveries: day-trips, concert, play, museums, (and punting!) and above all meeting people from all over the world. Moreover, all of the staff were so friendly and welcoming especially if we needed any help. In short, anyone who is interested in Creative Writing has to do it!

Dr Kieron Winn

Kieron Winn’s first collection of poetry, The Mortal Man, was published in 2015, and has been widely praised www.kieronwinn.com. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was awarded a doctorate for a thesis on Herbert Read and T. S. Eliot. His poems have appeared in magazines including Agenda, Agni, The Dark Horse, Literary Imagination, The London Magazine, The New Criterion, New Statesman, Oxford Magazine, Poetry Review, The Rialto, The Spectator and The Times Literary Supplement. Selections of his poems have featured anthologies including Carcanet’s Oxford Poets 2007 and Waywiser’s Joining Music with Reason, and he has read his poems on BBC TV and radio. He has twice won, in 2007 and 2013, the University of Oxford’s most valuable literary award, the English Poem on a Sacred Subject Prize. He lives in Oxford, where he is a freelance teach

Henry Little

Henry Little is a prize-winning author and highly experienced teacher and tutor of English language and creative writing. Born in Oxford and educated at one of the country's leading schools, Magdalen College school, he then moved Bristol to complete a Joint Honours degree in English and Philosophy. He then received a poetry scholarship from the Arvon foundation (studying under Hugo Williams and Julia Copus) before returning to Oxford in 2011 to gain a spot on what was then the University's most competitive Master's course, the recently-founded Creative Writing MSt.

He has written and published across a range of genres, from food and wine (as a restaurant critic in London), to poetry, drama and prose. His theatrical Adaptation of Kafka's A Country Doctor was staged at Oxford's Burton Taylor Theatre in 2012. He now resides in Oxford where he balances tutoring with a move to becoming a full-time writer with the completion of his first major work.

Yolanda Barton

Yolanda Barton (M.A.; Postgraduate Certificate of Education) is a secondary school English teacher who qualified to teach in British state education in June 2016, through the University of Oxford. Previously, she took her Bachelor of Arts in English through the University of Nottingham, scoring a 2:1, and followed this with a Master of Arts in English, specialising in Norse and Viking Studies. She has previously taught English in the state system in South Korea and private schools in Taiwan, and is TESOL certified. Yolanda has worked as a proof-reader for Ulsan City Council in South Korea, where she also helped the Council compile a multilingual cookery book for the migrant spouses of locals. In the UK, she has worked as a proof-reader for the Open University, and as a moderator and contributor on an online group aiming to launch the careers of aspiring poets. She hopes to have her first novel published in the near future.