TALENTED poet Olivia Tuck, who has already seen her work in print, is using her experience to nurture young, up and coming writers.

Olivia is not afraid to dig deep into pain and emotional vulnerability in her poetry, which has been published online and in print.

The 21-year-old’s poems are characterised by raw, powerful imagery which she uses to explore the challenging territory of mental health.

In Things Only Borderlines Know, published in in Amaryllis online in November, she opens the poem with “That whatever you are, you need to destroy it” and moves on to, “Solar flares. Wild nights. Broken bottles. Hailstorms. Hollow / chocolate girl for Easter; eyes dead, smile warped.”

This is poetry with no holds barred.

She faced the challenge of growing up with undiagnosed Asperger’s Syndrome and dealing with other mental health issues. Now she will be using the experience of her own creative journey by volunteering her time to support children and young people who want to make their own path into poetry.

“I wish there had been something like this when I was a younger writer,” she says. “We will welcome young people from all backgrounds and with all levels of writing experience – even if you have never written a poem outside the school classroom, but you would like to come. There is no kind of selection – it’s just first come, first served.

“If you are struggling with your confidence or stressed out – you would be very welcome.”

Olivia, from Wanborough, will start an undergraduate course in creative writing at Bath Spa University in September. She went to the Ridgeway School and Sixth Form, and always enjoyed expressing herself through writing.

“At primary school I had some teachers who were always very encouraging. When I was little I wanted to be a musical theatre actress, and I had periods when I wanted to be a writer,” she says.

Not one to shy away from difficult topics, Olivia reached the finals of the Wicked Young Writers Award with a piece of short fiction about a young girl who had contracted HIV from her mother.

“It was the first time I became serious about writing. I was 17 and going through a lot in my life,” she says. Aged 15, Olivia had finally been diagnosed with Asperger’s.

“I had suffered from a lot of anxiety. I didn’t understand how you make friends. Sometimes I was closed off. I suffered from bullying – it was all very difficult.

“This went on for years. It is still very painful. I had anorexia and I was referred to CAMHS (Children and Adolescence Mental Health Service) by the school.”

Eventually she was also diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and she undertook dialectical behavioural therapy, which Mind describes as techniques to help people manage intense and difficult emotions. For Olivia, it proved very helpful.

“I want to write about emotions more than anything else,” she says. “I want to talk about emotions in general – it’s something we can all relate to. It’s such a fundamental human thing.”

Olivia says her life was changed forever when she went to a creative writing course at New College two years ago, run by Swindon poet Hilda Sheehan. She says the part-time course, for adult beginners, ignited her passion for writing poetry.

“I was keen on writing before then, and when I first went I had fragments of stuff. After the course, I was down the poetry road – that is what I do best, writing with images.”

She began to develop her poetry practice and attended writing events at the Richard Jefferies Museum, joining a writing group and then the monthly poetry group, where poets critique each other’s work.

“I went to quite a few workshops, and the Swindon Poetry Festival. Originally, I was going to do English at university. I had never thought of doing creative writing. It had taken me a bit of time to go to university due to mental health concerns – a subject which is a big part of my work.

“I was going to go to Royal Holloway in London, but that didn’t work out. Then Bath Spa was suggested,” she says.

Already Olivia is getting her work published, both online and in print. Two poems by Olivia – Things Only Borderlines Know, and My 9.45 has Bipolar Disorder, were also published in an anthology called Please Hear What I am Not Saying, edited by Isabelle Kenyon, which raised funds for the mental health charity Mind.

Olivia’s poems have also appeared in the journal Three Drops from a Cauldron, and on the poetry websites Amaryllis and Lonesome October Lit. Another poem – called Cigarette Break Outside Green Lane Hospital – will be published in poetry magazine Lighthouse in the spring.

Among her favourite poets are Carrie Etter, Sylvia Plath and Caroline Bird – as well as her first poetry mentor, Hilda Sheehan.

“I admire her work so much – it is so experimental and outside the box,” she smiles. “Most people go through their lives without meeting someone like her.”

Olivia is currently volunteering for Beanstalk in Swindon, a charity that helps promote children’s literacy.

Her ambition is to have a collection of poetry published, and to mentor and teach young people, which she is already beginning, with her Jefferies Young Poets project. Organised with Hilda’s help, the project is aimed at young poets aged 12 to 21.

“The structure for the sessions will involve looking at a poem – some of the more obscure, surreal and experimental poems than you might read at school – talking about it, the key themes and different techniques they use, then doing some writing exercises,” she explains.

“We have lots of exciting opportunities for young poets here – workshops with spoken word poets, chances to perform. We can help give them those opportunities.”

In addition to the Jefferies Young Poets, Olivia will lead a group called the Jefferies Young Poets Pen Club, for younger writers aged eight to eleven.

“The sessions will follow the same basic structure, but with age appropriate poems and perhaps broader topics, like the seasons,” she says. “Both groups will be very informal, friendly and relaxed.”

The groups are free and are supported by Arts Council England and Artswords. The younger meets from 9.45 to 11am and the older from 11am to 1pm, on Saturdays from April 21, for six weeks.

Booking is essential. For more information, visit Twitter @JefferiesYP, Instagram @jefferiesyoungpoets and the Facebook page Jefferies Young Poets, or email jefferiesyoungpoets@gmail.com.