Wellcome Collection
x Spread the Word
Writing Awards

Aimee is a writer originally from Leicester, now living in London. She studied English at Oxford University, and later became a music and culture journalist, with bylines in the Guardian, Dazed, Vice, Pitchfork, and more. She has also trained in counselling skills, and volunteers as a helpline counsellor. In her late 20s, she was diagnosed as autistic, which certainly explained a lot of things. Currently, she’s working as a digital copywriter for a disability charity while also working on her non-fiction book proposal for the Wellcome Collection x Spread the Word Writing Awards. 

Aimee says: ‘I’m a huge fan of the work that Spread the Word does to diversify literary circles and nurture the work of disabled and chronically ill artists. I’m immensely grateful to have their trust, and that of the Wellcome Collection, in my project. This programme will be so valuable, giving me the space, expert advice, and resources I need to do the work.’ 

About Aimee’s project

Crossed Wires: Notes on Autistic Empathy 

Stereotypes tell us that autistic people are unfeeling, unemotional robots. Why? Because, according to the textbooks, they can’t feel empathy. Crossed Wires: Notes on Autistic Empathy will be a collection of essays exploring how this idea became so dominant. It will challenge the reader to reconsider what they think they know about autism, and about empathy itself. 

Dylan is a freelance journalist, editor and fiction writer. She has bylines in the Guardian and the Independent, with essays in Ploughshares and Litro. Her fiction has appeared in places like Spread the Word’s London Short Story Prize anthology and Berfrois. As an editor, Dylan has worked on publications about topics including human rights law and better death care. She’s interested in underreported stories about healthcare, motivated by her own experience of OCD.  

Dylan says: ‘I was excited about this programme even before I was selected to take part. Writing about mental illness as a journalist, I know how infrequently patients’ voices are heard outside of a clinical setting. Being selected to write a book about OCD as part of a programme that challenges this kind of status quo is an enormous honour. The award is an incredible opportunity to get professional support and meet other writers pushing the boundaries of traditional storytelling.’ 

About Dylan’s project:

The History of Obsession 

I am writing a history of OCD and its place in society. Because of its focus on taboo, OCD is also the history of what’s off-limits, from sex to religion. The book will look at the contentious space OCD occupies, exploring how we classify mental illnesses, the politics of treatment, and what role mental illness plays in our sense of self.

James is a writer, artist and occasional ambient music maker who is a regular contributor to disability arts.online, and has written about Tate Exchange, Unlimited Festival and Shape Open to name a few. He is fascinated by the ways in which disability is seen from the outside and felt within. Having been born with Cerebral Palsy, his work probes what it is to experience the world from an altered perspective, understanding how that perspective shapes the way we see, feel and love. In writing he strives for simple clarity to connect thought and emotion. He is interested in playing with multiple forms (essay, poetry, memoir) to create an integrated system of meaning.

James says: ‘Having written about disability for the last five years, this Award is my first chance to give shape to those bigger ideas that I’ve been wanting to pursue for a while now. Apart from the generous ego boost – I feel vastly underqualified – this Award proves that our institutions are taking seriously the need to dismantle, deconstruct and move towards new ideas of what constitutes our personal, social and political lives. This Award has the potential to open many doors to writers who have things to say, and I feel equally proud and terrified to be counted among them.’ 

About James’ project: 

Notes on Limitation 

This book is an exploration of what it means to have Cerebral Palsy, tracing the political, social and medical ways in which it is built, but also how it is experienced, intimately, by those who have it.

Mashal is a psychiatry trainee currently based in north London. She has volunteered for various global health charities, ranging from overcoming militarised barriers with OxPal to deliver medical education programmes in Palestinian medical schools, to organising for MedAct’s securitisation of healthcare group. These experiences have made her passionate about health equity in mental illness and the intersection of criminal justice with mental health services, they have also gone on to inform the themes on which she writes. She has produced a mixture of pieces that have been published in online platforms such as Skindeep, Media Diversified and Tribune, or produced on stage as theatrical performances at Tara Arts Theatre. When she is not rallying against social and health injustice, she enjoys drinking endless cups of tea and trips to local heritage sites with her two-year old son.

Mashal says: ‘I have never received any formal training in either fiction or non-fiction writing, my skills have thus far been finetuned by the arbitrary feedback of editors who either reject or accept my pitches. Painfully high childcare fees and rent have priced me out of affording writing courses that could help start my career as an author. The offer of this fellowship is the first time I have been able to dare to think the efforts behind my writing dreams may become a reality. I am very grateful for this amazing opportunity and the doors that may open as a result.’ 

About Mashal’s project: 

Unshackling Health 

A critical book about policing and healthcare, which explores the way carceral institutions influence delivery and communal experience of healthcare, and the impact this has on our health as a whole. The book will seek to critically analyse the historical and present-day nature of this relationship, and end by exploring liberatory, abolitionist models of health systems.

Masud is an academic neurologist and neuroscientist. Born in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), he came to the UK in the 1960s and grew up in inner-city London and Birmingham, during a time when outsiders were often not warmly embraced. He studied Medicine at Oxford and was a Harkness Fellow at MIT, before holding positions at Imperial College and becoming Professor of Neurology at University College London and the National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery. He leads a research group which investigates cognitive disorders in people with conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, Parkinson’s disease and stroke. He is now Professor of Neurology & Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and holds a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow. He leads the Neurological Conditions theme of the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre and is Professorial Fellow at New College, Oxford. He is Editor of Brain, an international journal of neurology. 

Masud says: ‘Although I have a lot of experience in scientific and medical writing, I’ve not previously written for a general audience. This award gives me a real opportunity to develop skills to tell a compelling story, to provide a fresh perspective and to make complex neuroscience accessible to the wider public. I want to tell patients’ stories but crucially also uncover what it reveals about normal brain functions. And I’d like to do this against the backdrop of contemporary Britain.’ 

About Masud’s project: 

Outsiders 

Many people who develop a brain disorder become different. They may effectively become outsiders, ‘foreigners’ even to family and friends. I want to describe their conditions, and what it’s like to become alien to others. My proposal is about understanding outsiders in the modern world: people with brain disorders and individuals who are immigrants, strangers for other reasons.

Rageshri is a sexual health doctor and writer. Born in Mumbai and brought up in Essex, she is now based in London. She has written for The Lancet, BMJ Leader, Media Diversified, Discover Society and Cost of Living. Her clinical work, research and advocacy focus on reducing health inequalities for minoritised groups. She has appeared on BBC Woman’s Hour, BBC World Service and BBC Asian Network and regularly runs community workshops on sexual health. She is currently completing a Masters in Social Epidemiology at UCL.  

Rageshri says: ‘I am thrilled to be given this Award. To have the opportunity to focus on my writing, to be mentored and receive feedback will be invaluable. I look forward to meeting the other writers and learning more about publishing. By the end of the scheme, I plan to have developed a firm book proposal, which I hope to be able to take on further.’ 

About Rageshri’s project

The Medical Practice of Silencing 

To produce and pass on knowledge is an important part of what makes us human. But what happens when what we say is not heard, understood or valued? And how does this contribute to health inequity? This book will explore who is and isn’t listened to in medicine and how it impacts on health at an individual and global scale.

Bio: Having obtained a PhD in Biochemistry at UCL, Dr Camilla Pang is currently a postdoctoral scientist, specialising in translational bioinformatics at a pharmaceutical company developing treatments for immunological and neurological based diseases. She is also the author of the book Explaining Humans (Penguin Viking, March 2020), a memoir that uses scientific principles to understand human behaviour through the lens of someone who has autism and ADHD. The book has been shortlisted for the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize 2020, as well as the British Psychological Society Book Prize 2020. 

Dr Camilla Pang says: ‘What a great programme! It is a much needed effort to shine a light on talent otherwise hidden – to create opportunities in place of inaccessibility. The barriers one has based on race and shape of mind are finally being reframed, where difference is recognised as not only present and valuable, but an imperative that gives society its edge to push the world forward. I am honoured to be judging it and I am optimistic that this will be the first of many initiatives to come.’ 

Bio: Dr Annabel Sowemimo (she/her) is a Sexual & Reproductive Health (SRH) trainee and founder of community based organisation – Decolonising Contraception (DC). Her interests include tackling Gender Based Violence and improving SRH access for Black & people of colour. She is a regular columnist for gal-dem and freelance journalist. She is a part-time PhD candidate at King’s College London with her research focusing on the experiences of Black British women and contraception. She is also a trustee for Medact Charity. Annabel firmly believes that healthcare should be about empowering people with knowledge to make informed choices about their bodies. She spends her spare time campaigning on reproductive justice, against NHS cuts and improving healthcare for marginalised groups. She is currently writing her first book Decolonising Healthcare set to be released in 2022.  

Dr Annabel Sowemimo says: ‘I found my voice by writing for media platforms established for Black women because mainstream outlets were not commissioning the stories I wished to write. I am so pleased that the Wellcome Collection x Spread the Word Writing Awards is being launched to uplift writers from underrepresented groups – our stories have been stifled for far too long. Change is happening.’ 

Bio: Raymond Antrobus was born in London to an English mother and Jamaican father. He’s a Cave Canem Fellow and the author of To Sweeten Bitter, The Perseverance and All The Names Given, as well as children’s picture book Can Bears Ski?. He is the 2019 recipient of the Ted Hughes Award as well as the Sunday Times/University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award, and became the first poet to be awarded the Rathbone Folio Prize. 

Raymond Antrobus says: ‘I can’t wait to read these entries. I expect wild, inquisitive, innovative and fearless writing!’