Flourish Magazine: Call-out for creative contributions on the theme of ‘Community’

Have you been impacted by cancer? Enjoy being creative? We want to show your work in our magazine!  

What we are looking for: 

We are looking for artwork, photography, creative or personal writing, craft, pottery, painting, embroidery or anything creative for Issue 7 of Flourish Magazine, Artlift’s free print and digital magazine by and for the cancer community, around the theme of the ‘Community’. What does community mean to you? 

We are looking for contributions from people: 

• living with or beyond cancer. 

• living in relation to it, e.g. a friend or family member of someone who has experienced cancer. 

• working with people with cancer, such as carers or healthcare professionals. 

You do not need to have any experience of the arts or to have published or shared you artwork publicly before.  

We would love to include artwork and writing in our magazine that shows a diversity of experiences and backgrounds. We’d like to platform work and tell the stories of people who may have been marginalised – for example learning disabled people and/or those with Black or South Asian heritage.   

We’d also love to platform work by people living in Gloucestershire and Bristol, as those are the areas where the hard copy magazines will be distributed. 

Read previous issues of the magazine here 

Please send your work to Editor-in-Chief Natalie Beech on natalie@artlift.org by 5pm, Monday 28th December 2026.

Theme: ‘Community’ 

This year, Artlift celebrates its 20th anniversary, and it has got us thinking about how important community is. Over the years we’ve met so many incredible participants, staff and volunteers through our creative health programmes and activities and by far one of the most important things we’ve seen is the sense of community that taking part in creative activities can offer.  

With loneliness on the rise, how do we find community in our day-to-day lives? As always, we welcome any and all interpretations of the theme, but offer some questions and prompts to inspire you: 

How does community (or the lack of it) impact our mental and physical health? 

How can creativity create community?  

What does community look like to you? 

Has the meaning of community changed throughout your life? 

Tell us about an unusual community!

Send us your communally made creative works! 

Submission guidelines:  

• Writing submissions should not be more than 700 words. 

• Submissions of artwork or photography should be sent in high-resolution (WeTransfer.com is a good, free tool to do this). 

• Photographs of craft, pottery, etc. should be sent in high-resolution. 

• Please ensure you own the copyright to any work submitted. 

We look at everything that is sent to us, but cannot guarantee your work will be selected for the magazine. If you have questions about our selection process, please get in touch with Editor-in-Chief Natalie Beech on natalie@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-in-Chief Natalie Beech on natalie@artlift.org.

We’ll let you know if your work has been selected for the magazine by Tuesday 6th January 2027.

Important information:  

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

Broadly Flourish magazine does not accept submissions where generative AI has been the main contributor to the creative/making process.  

However, in keeping with our (Artlift/Flourish) accessibility policy, we do recognise that the use of supportive AI can be essential for disabled people to engage in a creative process and we will consider any submission making use of such supportive technology on a case-by-case basis. Please let us know if you want to discuss this when you submit.