Flourish Magazine: Submissions open for Issue 4 on the theme of ‘Balance’

Do you take photographs, write, create art, craft or do anything creative? Are you, or anyone close to you, living with cancer? We need you! 

We are looking for artwork, photography (this can also include photos of your craft, embroidery, artwork, etc.), creative or personal writing for Issue 4 of Flourish Magazine, a free print and digital magazine by and for the cancer community, around the theme of ‘Balance’.

Read previous issues of Flourish Magazine here 

How do you find balance? When you’re going through cancer or taking care of someone going through cancer, establishing balance can be especially important, but especially tricky.

We want to see your creative responses to the theme, which is totally open to interpretation. It could be ways in which you balance cancer treatment with life’s ever-competing priorities, how you balance taking care of yourself with taking care of others, the elusive “work-life balance”, or even the act of balancing itself (calling all yogies and acrobats!). Perhaps you think balance is a myth that needs busting, or that we’ve got balance all wrong. Whatever your response to the word is – we want to know about it!

We are looking for contributions from those:

• living with or beyond cancer
• living in relation to it, i.e. a friend or family member of someone who has experienced cancer
• working with people with cancer, such as carers or healthcare professionals.
• You don’t need to have any experience of art or have done anything creative before.

Submission criteria:

• Writing submissions should not be more than 700 words.
• Submissions of artwork or photography should be high-resolution.
• Please ensure you own the copyright to any work submitted.

We are particularly interested in submissions from Global Majority communities, d/Deaf and disabled communities, the LGBTQ+ community, as well as those living in or around Bristol, South Gloucestershire or Gloucestershire – so please feel free to identify this in our submission if you’re comfortable to do so.

All contributions must be sent to flourish.mag@artlift.org by 10pm, Wednesday 24th January 2024.

We look at everything that is sent to us, but won’t necessarily choose everything to go into the magazine. If you have questions about our selection process or what you can submit, please get in touch on flourish.mag@artlift.org. 

If you are a health or care professional, nutritionist or therapist and would like to be featured or interviewed for the magazine, please contact Editor Natalie Beech on flourish.mag@artlift.org

We’ll let you know if your work has been selected for the magazine by Friday 2nd February 2024.

Important: This is a volunteer and unpaid opportunity. If your work is included in the magazine, we’ll send you a copy of the issue and you will be credited.

We will no longer be doing digital content on our blog for Flourish Magazine, due to team capacity. This means that we are sadly able to feature less contributors, but that if you are chosen your work will be in the print magazine, which will also be available online.

About Flourish Magazine
Flourish Magazine is a joint venture between integrative cancer care charity Yes to Life and creative health charity Artlift and funded by Macmillan and National Lottery Awards for All, aiming to explore the benefits of an integrative and creative approach to living with cancer.

The magazine is created with the support of a steering group that includes people living with cancer and partners Macmillan, Macmillan Next Steps and Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust.

It features a range of creative responses, expert information and interviews in each themed edition that offer support and represent the diversity of the cancer community.

Read more about the integrative approach here
Read more about arts on prescription here