We’re delighted to announce that award-winning poet Cheryl Moskowitz will be judging our first ever creative writing competition, which is now open for entries.

The theme of the competition is family, friends and caring. There are separate competitions for poetry and short stories, and we’d love to hear from you whether you’re an experienced writer or someone who has never done creative writing before. Prizes include a year’s free membership of the Poetry Society, and winning entries will be published on the Carers UK website.Find out more about the competition.

Cheryl was born in Chicago, Illinois and moved to the UK in the 1970s. She was a co-founder of LAPIDUS, the Writing for Wellbeing organisation, and taught on the Creative Writing and Personal Development MA at Sussex University from 1996-2010.

She has won a number of awards for her work, including the Bridport Prize, 2010; Troubadour International Poetry Prize, 2010; the International Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine, 2011; Kent and Sussex Poetry Prize, 2013; and the Magma Editors Poetry Prize, 2014. Publications include novelWyoming Trail, poetry for children Can it be about me? and poetry collection The girl is smiling. Read one of Cheryl’s poems.

Cheryl explains why she is proud to be judging the first Carers UK creative writing competition:

“My father had Alzheimer’s for the last seven years of his life during which time I visited him as often as I could in the care home where he lived in San Francisco. The time I spent with my father, though often difficult and emotionally challenging, also became a great source of inspiration for my writing.

“Carers, it seems to me, are much better placed than most, to understand those qualities that lie at the very core of being human; strength, vulnerability and need, which are qualities, after all, that any good writing ought to be able to reflect.

“The role of the carer can be all consuming. Perhaps that is why there is not nearly enough literature on the subject. Could it be that carers put all their creative energy into their caring role leaving the world bereft of the poems and stories they might have to tell? It is time to change all that. Get writing!”