Edinburgh: City of Inspiration

Caroline Dunford: Caroline has a love of putting characters in a crucible and turning up the heat. In fiction, as in real life, she believes that it’s only under times of pressure that human nature reveals it’s best - and its worst. She has had over thirty books published, seven plays performed and has a background in short stories and journalism.  Her best loved fiction series, The Euphemia Martin’s Mysteries, about a young woman who, through no fault of her own, ends up as an agent in the SIS during WWI, now has a spin-off with The Hope Stapleford Adventures. She has also written science-fiction, thrillers and romance. Recently she broke in YA with Fake News, a story based around today’s slack attitude to the truth. Caroline has been a Teaching Fellow at the Centre for Open Learning at the University of Edinburgh for over ten years. 

Nicky (nick-e) Melville: Dr Nicky Melville is a poet, creative writing teacher, musician, and occasional artist with a PhD from the University of Glasgow. He has been grafting on and in the margins for over twenty years, developing a range of publications in a variety of forms: found poetry, erasures, visual poetry, lyric experiment, process poetry and a badge. His work takes aim at and interrogates the imperatives of capitalism, politics and ideology. Nicky’s most recent books are a selected poems, Decade of Cu ts: new and selected poems 2010-2020 (Blue Diode Press), and ABBODIES COLD: SPECTRE (Sad Press), which explores the neoliberal and fascist elements of Brexit through the lens of ABBA songs, aliens and James Bond. In 2022, Nicky served as a judge on the panel for the Janet Coats Memorial Prize at the Paisley Book Festival. Nicky teaches a wide range of popular creative writing courses at the Centre for Open Learning at the University of Edinburgh including Experimental Poetry, Creative Non-Fiction, Short Story Writing, Starting to Write and Poetry in Practice. He is also a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Glasgow.

Classes will focus on examining creative processes and the role of revision in the writing process. Students will have the opportunity to explore different forms of creative writing including prose fiction and poetry in seminars. Students will receive individual feedback on their developing work during class and through one-to-one sessions with a specialist tutor. Students will have the opportunity to discuss their own process in a reflective journal that will accompany their final piece/s of creative work.

Throughout the course, students will visit unique locations and learn how to harness different sources of inspiration within the City of Edinburgh for students’ own creative writing. In the first half of the course, students will develop a distinctive voice/style (by examining examples of contemporary work) in student’s chosen format of creative writing. This will be informed by studying the formal qualities of modern and contemporary creative writing as well as characterisation, narrative, plotting, dialogue as appropriate for different formats of creative writing (poetry and prose). Students will focus on creative writing in the format of their choice including practical instruction on editorial, revision and selection skills to construct a coherent portfolio of writing. Publication and performance will also be discussed with relation to manuscript presentation, literary consultancies, agents and submitting to editors.

Teaching methods will include lectures, listening to examples and analysis of clips/script excerpts as well as giving and receiving peer feedback. Students will be given practical exercises to work on individually and in groups to master the skills demonstrated. Seminar sessions will allow students to read, analyse and feedback on each other’s work. Students will be encouraged to write, share and discuss creative work.  

Week 1 and Week 2

• Monday - Friday (10:00-13:00)

Assessment will comprise: 

• 100% Coursework:
• Reflective commentary/journal 15% (750 words max) 
• Creative writing 85%  

Students will choose ONE option according to which format of creative writing they choose in week 2:

• Poetry (max. 120 lines) 
• Prose (max. 3000 words) 

 On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Distinguish and describe the effective elements of a piece of creative writing. 
2. Critique their own writing, diagnose problems, devise solutions and revise.  
3. Design, lay out, write and present creative work according to appropriate industry formats.   
4. Appraise and explore the formal qualities of modern and contemporary writing.  
5. Evaluate the use of different sources of inspiration for creative writing. 

The course fee does not include accommodation during your study. Please see our Accommodation section for more information. 

To ensure your experience at the University of Edinburgh's Summer School is memorable, we encourage students to embrace the city and its culture and take part in the variety of social activities available.

More about our social programme activities >

Applications have now closed for 2024.