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- Louisa Flynn – Studying in the margins o...
Back in 2023, and having recently moved to Bournemouth from London, I stumbled across an Earth Day symposium at AUB. It had been 20 years since my undergrad at Winchester, and being back in a learning environment, discussing ideas and talking about the importance of art and storytelling for change, especially when it comes to the climate crisis, reignited something in my creative practice. A potential path was outlined, but I was unsure of the next step.
As a writer who has written for decades about wellbeing (a field I continue to enjoy, writing magazine articles, blog posts, and creating wellness content), I increasingly found myself wanting to explore my creativity, particularly as the climate crisis is fundamental to our collective wellbeing. So, with a seed of an idea for a project bubbling away, I knew that postgraduate study could help me to better underpin my work and understand the ground I stand upon.
I cannot deny that when I first read the opening content, I wondered whether I was out of my depth and had done the right thing. Just getting my head around the academic language was a challenge. Juggling studies, work, and motherhood has not been easy. But the online offering of the course has enabled me to study in the margins of my life, amid my responsibilities, and overall, it has been a fun and profound experience!
What drew me to AUB’s MA Creative Writing (Online) course was the flexibility it offered. But also, the unit topics, which covered everything from reflecting on research methods and considering genre and form to thinking about what it means to be a meaningfully engaged writer. All instrumental in my decision to focus on a piece of New Nature Writing for my Final Major Project, which I will hand in this September. Submitting for the last time.
Another great aspect of the course is the encouragement to get involved in numerous additional opportunities. There is often exciting news about relevant places to publish work, along with warm invitations to attend events on campus and beyond. Whether online or in person, if you're lucky, like me, to live close by. For instance, alongside my studies, I am assisting with the launch event for our course anthology, Tendrils, and participating in this year's Earth Day symposium, where I will present some of my ongoing creative-critical research. This feels like coming full circle, considering it was the same event three years ago when I was first introduced to AUB.
Now, I am on the final leg of this, at times a race and at others a meander of a course, and I not only have a much better appreciation of where my work fits within the broader publishing industry, but, crucially, I understand myself more as a writer, the type of writing I would like to develop going forward, and why.
From feeling slightly overwhelmed by academia to now considering continuing my studies in creative writing research, I hope my experience will encourage you, if you are curious about developing your practice and yourself as a writer, to enrol here at AUB.
