Centre for Place Writing

Since the millennium there has been an explosion of interest in place writing: literature that moves setting from the background to the foreground, figuring place as the foremost subject. This preoccupation with place is evident across a range of literary forms including creative nonfiction, fiction and poetry, with place writing rapidly becoming one of the most important and popular emerging new literary genres.

A cluster of writers and creative-critical thinkers from Manchester Metropolitan’s Department of English established the Centre for Place Writing. Our aim is to develop new research in the field and promote the study of the genre, alongside providing a platform to discuss and showcase new thinking and writing on place.

What we define as place writing is writing that seeks, in the language of the academy, to ‘generate new knowledge’ about place and human relationships with place, through a deeper or more intense engagement, or by unearthing or producing new data and perspectives. The diverse range of locations explored within place writing can include the multifarious forms of landscapes conventionally described as ‘natural’ to those of the contemporary city, as well as ‘edgeland’ locations, sites of erasure or displacement and every place and ‘non place’ in between.

The Centre for Place Writing acknowledges the current lack of diversity in the literary field of place writing and is committed to changing the cultural landscape of the genre. We aim to play a leading role in actively reshaping the field through our public engagement activities, events, workshops, teaching and projects. This agenda will be at the forefront of the work that we do.

PLACE 2020

The Centre for Place Writing has been developing its research through key publications by our members, by expanding our courses and supervision and through our multiple public engagement activities. We have been operating as a research cluster since 2014 but the Centre officially launched with the digital project PLACE 2020. This major collaboration between the Centre and some of the greatest thinkers, artists and writers in the place writing field examines, via a dynamic mix of new writing, poetry, essays, films and podcasts, how ideas of place shifted radically in 2020 during the global lockdown due to the Covid-19 virus.

For further information visit PLACE 2020

Place Writing Courses and Supervision

We support the study of place writing from undergraduate to postgraduate level through to PhD study and beyond. ‘Writing & Place’ is a level 6 option on our BA (Hons) undergraduate programmes within the Department of English. Place Writing is also taught as part of the new Creative Non-Fiction pathway in the MA/MFA in Creative Writing in the Manchester Writing School. Students study a diverse range of twentieth-century and twenty-first-century creative non-fiction texts alongside developing their own creative practice through workshops with leading writers. And over the past few years, with so many leading creative and critical writers in the field affiliated to the Centre for Place Writing, Manchester Met has become a key institution for students wishing to pursue PhD study on the relationship between writing and place.

Masters StudyPhD Study

Staff Members and Research

The Centre takes pride in the internationally renowned research and multiple award winning key publications produced by its members, which informs both undergraduate and postgraduate curricula and public engagement activities. The Centre for Place Writing is based in the Department of English and is home to a plethora of scholars, poets and creative writers specialised in the field of place writing.

Staff members and research Key Publications

Public Engagement and Other Activities

The Centre for Place Writing is committed to bringing our research into the wider community locally, nationally and internationally. We have run multiple public events and collaborated on major projects and festivals, with some of the most renowned global writers, thinkers, artists and filmmakers on place including: Polly Atkin, Rob Cowen, Amy Cutler, Caroline Bergvall, Gareth Evans, Tim Dee, Kerri ní Dochartaigh, Mark Goodwin, Hayley Flynn, Kathleen Jamie, Andrew Kotting, Julian Hoffman, Zaffar Kunial, Jessica J Lee, Amy Liptrot, Robert Macfarlane, Blake Morrison, Fiona Mozley, Jacob Polley, Sukhdev Sandhu, Paul Scraton, Adam Scovell, Anita Sethi, Iain Sinclair, Jos Smith and Ken Worpole. Furthermore our members talk regularly about their research in writing and place at festivals and events throughout the world. For further information on some of the Centre’s activities to date explore the public engagement tab. We also have strong ties with a number of key presses and blogs in the ‘place writing’ world (see associated presses tab). 

Public EngagementAffiliated Presses