The 'Free Spirits' writing competition was held last year, asking for stories and poems recognising personal experiences with mental health.

All the submissions were included in an anthology collection, while finalists in the competition were invited to the launch of the collection last night to share their work and receive prize packages.

Club president Emily Fishenden said she was thrilled with the amount of support the project had received.

"I am really amazed at the amount of support we got for it, it's quite touching to see the whole community get behind it and come out tonight to support us," she said.

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"It is hard to see, and it's hard to realise how many people out there feel the same way that I do but it's comforting to know that there is support out there and no matter how hard things get, people overcome it and we can too."

In addition to the poetry and short story categories, a special award was given to Kelly Whelan for her poem - "The Battle".

Ms Whelan won the 'Stella Prize' for her poem, a prize created in honour of Stella Bordignon. A poem from Stella marks the beginning of each section of the anthology.

Lauren Forner won the 'short story' category for her story 'Undisturbed.'

"I didn't know there were prizes, I thought we were just submitting so I'm very surprised," she said.

"I thought it was really important to submit to this competition because of the important things the Griffith writer's group are trying to do for the community."

Money raised from the book sales was donated to Headspace Griffith and Wellways to promote their mental health support services going forward.

The FAW group has a range of exciting plans going forward, including a return to the Free Spirits competition towards the tail end of the year.

"We've got a smaller competition coming up, and at the end of the year we will re-run this competition but slightly different. Same themes, same ideas, but a topic twist," Mrs Fishenden said.

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