The Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards is a writer development programme for non-fiction writing on health and being human.

The six writers selected for the 2025 programme are each working on topics that are urgent and will “shift the narrative around health” (Fran Barrie, Wellcome Collection Publisher). They are all fascinating ideas that we wanted to share with you.

About the winning projects

The International Health Service, Ammad Butt

Migration has played a pivotal role in the sustenance of Britain’s healthcare prior to and following the inception of the NHS, and yet this is rarely discussed or appreciated. In a time of deep political divide around migration, I want to pay homage to the thousands of workers from across the world who have kept Britain alive during difficult times and their contribution to science and medicine. This book will explore the argument that without migration, not only would our health service collapse but the UK itself would not be able to function.

Ammad Butt is an NHS resident doctor and freelance writer from Birmingham, who commentates on the NHS and health-related issues. He is particularly interested in health policy and highlighting the real-life inequalities both patients and healthcare staff face in the UK.

Disability, Space and Citizenship, Jordan Whitewood-Neal

Disability, space, and citizenship will explore what it means to democratise, broaden, and make transnational our understanding of disability in relation to eugenics, health, cure, and debility, read through spatial histories. Architectural education in the university context has failed to grasp the complexity of disability and space and fundamental questions of being human. This book therefore proposes how an alternative pedagogical approach to disability, understood within the context of education’s historical goal to create citizens, can reimagine both the concept of spatial literacy but also expose deeper relationships between citizenship and health.

Jordan Whitewood-Neal is a disabled architectural researcher, designer and educator working in architectural history, pedagogy, and critical disability studies. His recent work addresses disability in relation to eugenic history, spaces and the construction of citizenship, exploring the impact of colonial legacies of the academy and architectural education.

Fallow, Lindsey Allen

In environmental writing, the degraded environment has often been compared to the disabled, or sick, body. Fallow will shift the negative lens of these metaphors, asking how disability can help us understand our environment, and what we can do in the face of climate degradation and loss. This exploration is grounded by the focal point of a disabled body and an auto-ethnographic study of disability, pain, cure, and care. Through applying theories and lived experiences of disability to the environment, Fallow brings into conversation disability justice, environmental philosophy, and a politics of care.

Lindsey Allen is a researcher, writer, and designer based in Bristol. She writes in the intersections of care, time, disability, and the environment, with a focus on creative non-fiction and the essay form. All her work is grounded in anthropological methods, aiming to explore how people understand the world they live in, and their hopes and imaginaries around how this world could be.

Street Life: The Science of Health Outside Your Front Door, Ricky Nathvani

Every time you step out your front door, the street shapes your life. My book, Street Life, is a tour through the elements of city streets that influence human health: air pollution, noise, waste, water, temperature, mobility, green space and playability. The chapters explore each element, connecting our everyday experience of navigating and living in cities to the impacts they have on our bodies and minds, and the scientific journeys that uncovered these connections. The book will explore the historic progress driven by passionate campaigners and scientists and the future challenges for developing healthier streets and how we get there.

Ricky Nathvani is an urban data scientist and writer, born and based in London. He is currently Lead Data Analyst for Camden Borough across the Planning, Housing, Environment, Development and Public Spaces directorates. Ricky has written over 100 science videos for popular YouTube channels including SciShow, Crash Course, Study Hall and Veritasium.

Speculum: a history of women’s bodies through one object, Shema Tariq

The vaginal speculum is ubiquitous in gynaecological examinations, but what can this seemingly mundane object tell us about the female body in society? At a time when women’s bodily autonomy is being eroded, there is an urgency to understanding how we got to this point. My book will trace the cultural history of the vaginal speculum, using this one object to explore how women’s bodies have been viewed, how they are viewed now, and how they could potentially be reimagined in the 21st Century.

Shema Tariq is a Consultant in HIV and Sexual Health in London, with over 25 years of experience in the NHS. Over the past 15 years, much of Shema’s research has focused on women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. And, as she told Nuala McGovern on BBC Women’s Hour, Shema has performed over 10,000 speculum examinations during her career (a conservative estimate).

Finding Medicine, Yemisi Bokinni

Everyday medicines like metformin for diabetes and some of our most important chemotherapies have their origins in plants. But what happens when they’re lost before they’ve ever been found? Finding Medicine investigates the race to uncover life-saving medicines in nature, while celebrating the inspiring work of scientists and Indigenous knowledge keepers, and examining the profound consequences of biodiversity loss for humanity.

Yemisi Bokinni is a medical doctor turned health and science journalist, with a medical degree and a bachelor’s degree in human genetics from King’s College London. She writes about the intersection of medicine, culture, and the environment.

About the Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards

Find out more about the Wellcome Collection Non-Fiction Awards on our project page. The 2025 programme will conclude on 12 November with a sharing event where the writers will present their work to agents and publishers. Throughout the programme a public series of masterclasses and panel events will offer a wider range of support to aspiring non-fiction writers, which you can sign up to from our events page, and discover in our newsletter.