“I have been so impressed by the poems submitted to this year’s ‘Survivor Stories’ competition and want to thank all the entrants for writing so honestly and movingly. The quality has been outstanding and I do not envy the task of having to choose the winners.
There is wonderful diversity in the poems, but it’s also easy to recognise the common themes and experiences. This competition reminds us all how important creativity is in creating opportunities to hear the voices of those who may otherwise go unheard. I’m honoured to be able to share these with Michael Rosen and look forward to being able to announce the winning poems soon.”
Katherine Shaw
The Advocacy Project CEO
That’s it for another year! Our poetry competition for 2024, on the theme of ‘Survivor
Stories’ is now closed. We want to thank everyone who has entrusted us with a poem – we have been so moved by all the submissions and it’s a reminder of how creativity provides an important platform to talk about issues that touch all our lives in some way.
We are excited to forward the poems to guest judge and author, poet and broadcaster Michael Rosen to select 3 winners, and one overall winner who will receive a bundle of books by Rosen himself.
This year’s focus was on the stories of those who have faced, or continue to face, prolonged physical or mental health challenges. We’re passionate about giving everyone a voice, and we know that creativity helps people express themselves during the darkest days of their health journeys and throughout their recovery. It helps support self-understanding and empowers individuals to share experiences in a way that is incredibly personal but also universal. The power of poetry to give voice to some of our most difficult personal experiences was evident in all the entries, with each submission a unique voice but with common themes and motifs expressed throughout. As one of our entrants said:
‘Writing poems has really helped me make sense of things’
We hope to announce winners by mid-September, but if you have submitted an entry and haven’t heard from us by then, please do feel free to contact us at
We plan to run these poetry competitions annually, so watch this space for news of our next launch. In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about the background to our previous competitions, as well as a bit more about how creativity can boost our mental health, follow the links below.
You can read more about the background to this competition in our news article.
You can read more about creativity and recovery here.