The new wild card category in the Saboteur awards has thrown up some intriguing entrants. Write Out Loud looks at two of those shortlisted.

Deerheart is an art and poetry collaborative exhibition described as “a celebration of survival in a fragile world”, and is the work of poet Yvonne Reddick, pictured, and multimedia artist Diana Zwibach. It has been on show at the New Hall Art Collection, Cambridge, and at the PR1 Gallery in Preston. 

Yvonne Reddick said: “Deerhart celebrates our relationship with nature, but it also recognises that the changes that human beings have made to our environment are irreversible.”

Diana Zwibach’s artwork has been showcased at over 20 solo exhibitions worldwide.. Yvonne Reddick’s poetry has been shortlisted for the 2016 Keats-Shelley prize and the 2014 Jane Martin Memorial prize, and one of her poems was seen by an audience of 3.5 million at the 2015 Blackpool illuminations.

Deerhart, the poetry pamphlet that began Diana and Yvonne’s collaboration, was also longlisted for the Saboteur award for best pamphlet.

Another project shortlisted for a Saboteur wild card award is Manchester’s Seymour Poets Project, run by Jackie Hagan – whose show, Some People Have Too Many Legs, won a Saboteur award last year -  and Joanna Hope Bricher.

In a Facebook post Jackie said: “It's a not for profit that promotes the benefit of creative expression for marginalised adults. We run workshops that are geared towards people that might, for whatever reason, find it hard to go to traditional writing workshops. We also publish anthologies, individual collections and support people through recovery.”

She added: “We are good. We work dead hard, often for no pay. If we get an award it will great for an upcoming funding bid which will mean we can support more people and take on more Jackies and Joannas so that we don't fall to bits.”

Seymour Poets are conducting a series of 28 workshops, for a group of 25 people, on the themes of self-acceptance and confidence building, healthy eating and telling your own story. They aim to improve people’s life skills and make people feel better. They will be producing postcards, which will have a simple, healthy recipe on one side and a first-person account of a life journey from despair to success on the other.

The cards will be distributed to libraries, primary care trusts, psychiatric wards, local spoken word events and community centres. The project is funded by Thrive Trafford and the Trafford Partnerships Team, and the workshops are held  1-3pm every Tuesday at Old Trafford Wellbeing Centre.

You can vote for the Saboteur awards here. The deadline is 24 May.