RSL announces 2026 Fellows and Honorary Fellows
Our 2026 cohort of Fellows and Honorary Fellows were inducted into the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) on the evening of Monday 29 June 2026 at the RSL’s annual summer party – the first time their election to the Fellowship has been publicly announced. At the evening’s event, new Fellows and Honorary Fellows elected in […]
2026 RSL Christopher Bland Prize Winner Revealed
The RSL today announces the winner of the RSL Christopher Bland Prize for authors aged over 50. The prize, now in its eighth year, is an annual award of £10,000 given to a debut novelist or non-fiction writer first published aged 50 or over. Frank Thabani Sayi won this year’s prize for his memoir No […]
New RSL Residency Initiative Launched for Dalloway Day
Dalloway Day, the annual celebration of Woolf’s landmark novel taking place over a Wednesday in mid-June, has arrived. This year, we are excited to announce the launch of a new nationwide initiative designed to provide female writers with uninterrupted time and space to work. Conceived by and delivered in partnership with RSL Fellow Esther Freud, A Week of One’s Own will provide week-long residencies […]
2026 RSL Ondaatje Prize Announced
We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2026 RSL Ondaatje Prize. Diana McCaulay won the £10,000 award for her novel A House for Miss Pauline. The prize was created in 2004 to celebrate outstanding writing that best evokes the spirit of a place. McCaulay said: ‘To evoke the spirit of a place has been […]
New £1 Million RSL Hawthornden Literature Matters Grants Launched
The RSL Hawthornden Literature Matters Grants are a major intervention by the RSL and Hawthornden Foundation in support of literature, an area of the arts which is critically under-supported. The grants, totalling £1 million, will promote literature in communities across the UK by supporting book events, literary festivals, workshops and more. Research commissioned by Arts […]
RSL Hawthornden Literature Matters Grants
Annual grants of £5,000 to £30,000 each year made to promote literature in communities across the UK. About the Grants The RSL Hawthornden Literature Matters Grants support individuals and organisations who are promoting literature in communities across the UK. The grants, totalling £1 million, will be distributed over five years through annual funding rounds of […]
RSL Announces New President Elif Shafak
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is thrilled to announce its new President is novelist and storyteller Elif Shafak. Shafak replaces Bernardine Evaristo OBE whose four-year term came to its end at the RSL’s Annual General Meeting on 4 December. Founded in 1820, the RSL acts as a voice for the value of literature, honouring […]
RSL Pioneer Prize
An annual prize of £10,000 spotlighting and celebrating female writers who have been pioneers in their field The 2025 Prize The 2025 winner of the RSL Pioneer Prize is Maureen Duffy – poet, playwright, novelist, activist and non-fiction writer. Across her long career, Duffy has brought to light previously unspoken stories; articulated the unheard voices […]
RSL Announces New Pioneer Prize and 2025 Winner
Today, the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) announces its newest literary prize, established thanks to the generosity of RSL President Bernardine Evaristo. The RSL Pioneer Prize seeks to acknowledge and celebrate pioneering British women writers – across all genres – who have been trailblazers in their field, especially in the past when it was more […]
2025 RSL Scriptorium Award Winners Announced
We’re delighted to reveal the names of the first ten writers to receive an RSL Scriptorium Award, winning a writing residency in a cottage on the Kent coast gifted by RSL President Bernardine Evaristo. Yvonne Battle-Felton, Satinder Chohan, Suji Kwock Kim, Tom Newlands, Emma Norry, Irenosen Okojie, Hanna Silva, Claudine Toutoungi, Ralf Webb and Claire Wilson will […]
Announcement of 2025 Fellows and Honorary Fellows
On Wednesday 16 July 2025, the Royal Society inducted twenty-eight new Fellows and eight new Honorary Fellows into the society at the annual RSL summer party, hosted at the Garden Museum. At the event, new Fellows and Honorary Fellows elected in 2025 signed their names in the RSL roll book using a pen from its […]
RSL Scriptorium Awards
Ten writer residencies presented to professionally active writers in need of a place to write. The 2025 Prize This year marks the inaugural presentation of the RSL Scriptorium Awards, inviting applications from UK writers of any form with a successful track record in publishing or equivalent industries. The winners of the 2025 RSL Scriptorium Awards […]