University of Winchester, MA, Writing for Children

The programme offers students the opportunity to develop creative work in progress, give and receive feedback and produce new writing; whilst also encouraging students to discuss the work of established writers and consider the: theoretical, social and cultural contexts of contemporary writing for children; modules include: creativity and children’s literature is an introductory module, both practical and theoretical, which explores the notion of creativity in the arts generally as they relate to children; writing for early years addresses 1 of the fastest growing genres in writing for children and aims to reveal that writing for image-based texts, such as those in television and the picture book, does not fall outside the category of nor is the enemy of children’s literature (rather, such writing can be seen to supplement the wide-ranging oeuvre that is writing for children); fiction for children addresses fiction for the middle years of childhood up to and including teenage fiction; fantastic fiction for children allows students to investigate non-realist writing, the fantasy genre, historical fiction and non-mainstream fiction which is popular with children; writing for education studies the craft of writing for education, for readers between the ages of 4 and 18, giving appropriate guidance to the appropriateness, delivery and presentation of ‘education’ for the different age groups; publishing project is a module in which all students develop a writing project to the point of submission publication; this could involve the development of a publishing proposal, initial chapters and letter to agent/publisher, or else a fully-fledged self-publication of some kind.