The centre appealed for aspiring novelists, writers and poets to take part in the initiative which was launched earlier this year.

With two categories in the over-16s contest and one combined category for those aged between 14 and 16, participants could submit poetry with a maximum of 40 lines or flash fiction, with a limit of 500 words.

Under the title Be Bold - Be Brave - Be Heard, the competition was open to Key Stage 4 students and was organised by undergraduate Kat Beeton and judged by course leader and author Andrew McDonnell.

Our student Marija won the Key Stage 4 category (aged 14-16) and received £50 of book tokens as a prize. Her work will also be published on a blog run by arts students at UCP, which works with the Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.

Her 500-word piece called Whispered Promises is a dark, descriptive narrative of a young woman struggling with mental health and its ‘treatment’.

A pdf with the full story is attached.