Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards

Lindsey Allen is a researcher, writer, and designer based in Bristol. She writes in the intersections of care, time, disability, and the environment, with a focus on creative non-fiction and the essay form. She has been published in Sick Magazine, and through Sticky Fingers Publishing, as well as through various online publications. In her broader creative practice, she makes socially-engaged, often participatory, work, with facilitation and creative workshops that utilise caring methodologies forming a key part of this. All her work is grounded in anthropological methods, aiming to explore how people understand the world they live in, and their hopes and imaginaries around how this world could be.

Yemisi Bokinni is a medical doctor turned health and science journalist, with a medical degree and a bachelor’s degree in human genetics from King’s College London. She writes about the intersection of medicine, culture, and the environment, with bylines in The BMJ, Nature Africa, IFLScience, and The Royal Society. Yemisi is also a 2025 UN Foundation Press Fellow.

Dylan Brethour 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. Dylan is currently writing a non-fiction work based on her experience of OCD. Her book proposal won the Wellcome Collection x Spread the Word writing award for ideas that engage with health and being human.

Dylan says: “I applied to the programme with a lot of ideas that hadn’t quite come together yet. Working with Wellcome and Spread the Word was instrumental to shaping my jumble of opinions, experiences, and thoughts into a coherent non-fiction proposal. While the process was challenging, I went from having very little idea of how to pitch a non-fiction book to having a proposal and finding an agent. It made an enormous difference to my writing to learn from the Wellcome editors, my mentor, and the hugely talented writers in the programme.”

James Zatka-Haas is a writer and artist working within the realms of disability art and culture. He has written for disabilityarts.online and has covered the Shape Open, Unlimited Festival and Tate Exchange to name a few. He is interested in the ways meaning is expressed through art and writing, and blends different disciplines together to create an integrated body of thought. Having been born with Cerebral Palsy, James’ 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.

James says: “The programme was the first opportunity I had to really consider what publishing is all about and how I could potentially go down that path myself. We covered everything from exploring our stylistic voice to the ins and outs of literary agents, proposals and publishers. I would highly recommend the programme to anyone who has an itch to write a book, but could use a helping hand in getting there from some folks who really know what they’re talking about.”

Mashal Iftikhar is an NHS doctor working in psychiatry. She engages in voluntary work for various global health charities which focus on overcoming policing structures in healthcare. She has previously worked for OxPal, an organization which delivers medical education programmes across militarised borders in the Palestinian territories. She is currently engaged in working for MedAct’s campaign against the Prevent duty for NHS workers. Experiences from her career and activism have made her passionate about the impact of securitisation on health services and have 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.

Mashal says: “I am really grateful to the Wellcome Collection and Spread the Word for offering me an amazing opportunity to improve my writing. The mentorship, skills workshops and network opportunities have turned the idea of publishing from a daunting and impossible prospect to something achievable. The experiences I gained and the friends I made will stay with me forever.”

Masud Husain is Professor of Neurology & Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and Professorial Fellow at New College, Oxford. He has published over 200 research articles, including in Nature and Science and edited the Oxford Textbook of Cognitive Neurology & Dementia. He is Editor-in-Chief of Brain, a leading international journal of neurology. He is a practising clinician with over 25 years of experience of seeing people with a range of neurological conditions. He has been a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK) since 2008 and has been awarded Fellowships of the American Academy of Neurology and European Academy of Neurology for his contributions to the field.

His forthcoming book, Our Brains, Our Selves, has been acquired by Canongate.

Masud says: “The programme turned out to be a revelation. It exposed us to what editors and agents are looking for and how to persuade them of the value of our work. It nurtured creativity as well as critical thinking in a very supportive environment which was crucial for my development as a writer. Within a short time, it transformed my half-baked ideas into a cogent book proposal. Overall, it was a fantastic learning opportunity with great people sharing their knowledge and perspectives.”

Rageshri Dhairyawan is a doctor, researcher and author. She is an NHS Consultant in Sexual Health and HIV Medicine based in London. Her clinical work, research, writing and advocacy focus on improving health equity and she is a sought-after speaker on this topic. Rageshri’s own experiences of being unheard as a patient and her work with minoritised communities, have inspired her to speak up about injustice in healthcare.

Rageshri is the author of Unheard: The Medical Practice of Silencing and has contributed an essay to the anthology No One Talks About This Stuff. She is an inaugural Wellcome Collection x Spread the Word writer awardee. Rageshri has written for The Lancet, BMJ Leader and Media Diversified and has appeared on The Victoria Derbyshire Show, Channel 5 News, BBC Woman’s Hour, BBC World Service and BBC Sounds, among others.

Rageshri says: “This scheme has been lifechanging. Getting a place gave me the confidence to believe that I was a writer and that my book idea had merit. The editing and writing mentorship played a significant role in shaping Unheard and the workshops helped me to develop my skills. I was very grateful for the bursary, which gave me the time and space I needed to research and write the proposal. It was also wonderful to share the experience with the fellow awardees and learn from each other. Seeing my book on shelves now feels like an impossible dream, made real.”

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!’