Discoveries longlistee Rosy Dawson never expected to be writing with a chronic illness.

But after her life changed overnight when she caught Covid, it gave her the motivation she needed to pursue her writing career. Here, she tells us about submitting her work to Discoveries, finding her voice again on the page and not letting her chronic illness stop her from chasing her dreams.

Rosy Dawson:

In April 2023 I received an email to say that I was longlisted for Discoveries.

I almost didn’t enter at all, because I thought it would be so unlikely that I would get noticed.

I was also hugely preoccupied with significant health issues. I was in the kind of survival mode where good things no longer seemed realistic, or even possible. Yet somehow, I persuaded myself to enter.

By November, I had signed with my amazing agent, and we are working on editing my debut novel, a feminist thriller in a dark academia setting.

To write that sentence is the stuff of dreams to me. I never would have believed this would have happened. Especially since in recent years, I had been living a nightmare.

In 2020 I caught Covid and my life was changed forever. I went from working as a Covid response policy team leader in Westminster, jogging daily to cope with the stress, to struggling to walk for almost 2.5 years at age 29. I could barely manage sound and light, conversations gave me migraines, I sometimes had to crawl to get to the bathroom and I couldn’t wash my own hair.

It was a fierce battle to be able to listen to, and eventually read, books again. After just over a year and a half, I could sit upright and hold a notebook and pen for a short time. And so I forced myself to write.

I had started writing many novels in my twenties, but never finished one. Now, confronted with the fragility of life and unable to participate in the world, I knew I had to finish something and get myself published. I had no voice when I was unable to leave my sickbed, cared for by my loving family. But perhaps I did have a voice on the page.

Four years in and I have symptoms every day, but am functional, with the help of my family. I hope my health challenges will fade in time, and the bloody-mindedness I have acquired will help me become a published writer and deal with the ups and downs of that journey. When you have faced the loss of everything you once knew, what more is there to lose from putting your story into the world?

To writers with a chronic illness or disability: keep writing, keep hoping and dreaming, and keep believing in your worth. You have an inner strength and a depth of understanding of life many others would lack. And you should enter Discoveries, whether you feel ready or not!