About the project

The project “Order, Chaos and Chronic Illness” looked at how we talk, think and write about chronic ill health (by which we mean any long lasting health condition or disease) through the medium of poetry. It considered how reading and writing poetry impacts on a person’s well-being. The project explored the possibility suggested by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre in 2012 that poetry can open a different window as a means of articulating and communicating the lived experience of chronic illness (and research into chronic illness), “emphasising in its singular way discontinuity, surprise, and the uneasy relationship between words and the life of the body”.

Elements of the project included:

a series of free poetry writing workshops for members of the public, health professionals, and researchers led by the poet Peter Sansom ("One of the best writing tutors in the world" - The Guardian) of Yorkshire based The Poetry Business
two free, major events during the York Festival of Ideas in which the themes of Order, Chaos and Chronic Illness are explored by major poets and others
an anthology of poetry written by participants in the workshops, with contributions from the poets who took part along with other writing. This was published by The Poetry Business at the end of the project

The project aimed to build a collaboration of writers, researchers, public involvement specialists and the public. Further work is planned for the future.