Welcome to our launch page! We’re so excited to introduce our 2024 poetry competition Survivor Stories, launched by guest judge and award-winning broadcaster, poet and author Michael Rosen.
This year’s focus is on the stories of those who have faced, or continue to face, prolonged physical or mental health challenges. What does that mean? We’re not being prescriptive here – if you have something to say about your experience of living with, or alongside, any form of physical or mental health, then we’d love to hear from you.
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.
You can read more about the background to this competition in our news article.
Creativity and recovery
As William Sieghart writes in ‘The Poetry Pharmacy’, “Suffering is the access point to poetry for a lot of people: that’s when they open their ears, hearts and minds”. We want to celebrate the role that creativity can play in recovery by shining a light on the benefits of reading and writing poetry. Writing from personal experience can help others to feel less alone, as well as help to release and process difficult emotions.
Findings from a study published in 2023 showed that reading, writing and sharing poetry is good for mental health and can help people cope with loneliness or isolation and reduce feelings of anxiety and depression. Listening to poetry being read aloud has also been shown to help reduce intensity of pain and increase feelings of hope. Sharing poetry can help build empathy in healthcare professionals towards their patients by offering profound insight into the experiences of those who have had or continue to have ill health. In essence – poetry is good for all our health.
We are delighted to open up this competition to everyone with a story of survival to share and we can’t wait to hear what you have to say!
Presenting your poem
You can write, record or film your poem (we know some people prefer to record the spoken word or film their entry instead of writing it down).
Your poem should be a maximum of 25 lines.
How to enter
Print out and fill in the entry form then send it with your poem. You can:
Email your poem to
Post it to: The Advocacy Project, c/o SEIDs Hub, Empire Way, Wembley HA9 0RJ
Hand it to staff who work for The Advocacy Project and they will make sure it’s entered into the competition
Closing date: midnight, 31 August 2024.
UK entrants only please.
Judging
The poems will be judged by Michael Rosen, broadcaster, poet and author. We will keep the names of everyone who enters anonymous until the winners are announced.
Prizes
The winning poet will receive a bundle of books by Michael Rosen and will be featured on our website and across social media channels, alongside shortlisted entries.
Donation
If you would like to make a donation to The Advocacy Project to help with the cost of this event or our work please contact Katherine Shaw, CEO:
For more information
If you’d like more information on the competition, please email