The Perch: Social, a creative arts journal focused on mental health, has received an Award of Excellence in the 2026 University & College Design Association Design Awards.
The recognition comes from a competitive pool of 776 entries, of which 184 were selected for awards this year.
The 196-page issue, created and sponsored by the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health (PRCH), examines the vital role of social support in promoting wellness and facilitating recovery from mental health challenges.
The issue brings together poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, visual art, and scholarly writing by contributors with lived experience, family members, caregivers, and scholars, showcasing a diverse array of original voices.
Lead editors for this issue are Charles Barber, author and lecturer in psychiatry at Yale, and Chyrell Bellamy, PhD, professor of psychiatry and director of PRCH.
The journal’s design is by Jeanne Criscola, professor of art and design at Central Connecticut State University. Managing editors are Graziela Reis and Kimberly Blackman at PRCH.
The Perch, which for more than a decade has served as a platform to bring creative and artistic voices into the conversation about mental health, is co-produced by the College of Letters at Wesleyan University and Central Connecticut State University. The work was partially funded by the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services; the views expressed in the publication are those of the authors and do not reflect the department or the State of Connecticut.
PRCH is a division of the Yale Department of Psychiatry.
New Call: THE MIX — Submissions Open
The Perch is now accepting submissions for its next issue, THE MIX, which explores the complex mixture of mental illness and mental health: the pains and limits of illness alongside the depth, awareness, and new stories many survivors describe.
The editors seek personal and creative work — poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, visual art, and scholarly pieces — that illuminate this mixture. This is a peer-reviewed, open call; all submissions are welcome.
Deadline: October 31, 2026. Submit at: https://theperch.submittable.com/submit. Questions: graziela.reis@yale.edu or jcriscola@ccsu.edu.
The issue is expected to launch in October 2027.