Surviving stevenage

Abstract

Surviving Stevenage is a brief history of Stevenage Survivors Poetry group. The group was created in 2000 by Darren Messenger and Roy Birch, to, as the group's mission statement says, "employ poetry in all its forms to assist survivors of mental distress to survive more adequately." The chapter tells the story of the group's evolution; its successes and failures; gives examples of the work of group members past and present, and expresses what they feel about the group and its effect upon the canon of survivor literature and its therapeutic use locally.