Writing Awards 2021
The theme for SMHAF 2021 was Normality? Read the shortlisted entries from our writing competition, collected in this ebook illustrated by Emily Wylde.
The writers were selected from over 300 entries to the competition. Work was submitted exploring mental health and the theme of ‘Normality?’ across three categories: Fiction, Poetry and Creative Non-Fiction.
Author Kirstin Innes, who was on the jury and hosted the awards ceremony, said: “I was honoured to be asked to judge and present the awards this year. SMHAF is an organisation close to my heart and some of the work submitted makes for really outstanding reading – very excited to be able to share these writers with you.”
Read the Book
Click here or on the cover image to read the PDF as single pages, and here or on the open book image to read it as a book.
Featured Writers
Congratulations to the category winners, highlighted in bold, and the overall winner Laura Barbour for her short story ‘Egg’.
Fiction
Laura Barbour – Egg (winner)
Emily Gifford – A Nearly Life in the Willows Maternity Ward (and what remains thereafter)
Jenny Hulton – Borderline Normality
Steve Wade – The Other Mama
Poetry
Ellena Loughrey – The World’s Testimony (winner)
Stephanie Powell – Highstreet, Lockdown 2021
Angie Wright – When All This is Over
Creative Non-Fiction
Elaine Lockhart – Normal Children Get Sick Too
Hanna Louise – Fifty Days (winner)
Nichelle Santagata – Dancing is My Liberation – Dancing is My Power
Heather Still – Eugenic Thought is Normal Amongst the Able Bodied: Discuss