RSL Appoints New Director
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is pleased to announce that it has appointed a new Director. Laura Greenfield will take up the role in the summer, joining the RSL from Cambridge University Library. ‘The Royal Society of Literature has celebrated extraordinary writers for two centuries, and it is an absolute privilege to take this […]
2025 RSL Ondaatje Prize Winner Announced
We offer our warm congratulations to the winner of the 2025 Ondaatje Prize Carys Davies, who has won the £10,000 award for her novel Clear. On receiving her award, Davies said: ‘Thank you so much to the RSL, the Ondaatje family and this year’s judges. I’d also like to say a huge thank you to […]
RSL Fellows and Review Magazine Guest Curator Among Windham-Campbell Prize Winners
The RSL is incredibly proud that three of its Fellows have been honoured in this year’s Windham-Campbell Prizes, which celebrate eight writers across fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama. Each awardee receives $175,000 each, a sum that is intended to allow them the space and time to support their boldest, most vital work independent of financial […]
RSL Remembers: Fleur Adcock Recordings
Fleur Adcock’s work defined a new tone in 20th century poetry. Her writing was, and remains, beloved by poets, teachers and a wide range of readers, who value her incisive wit, beautiful frankness and often surprising humour. To quote Carol Ann Duffy’s description of Fleur Adcock’s poetry: “The sharper edge of her talent is encountered like […]
Literature Matters: Michael Imperioli and Ocean Vuong
Please enjoy Michael Imperioli and Ocean Vuong in this exclusive online conversation about their writing and the importance of literature in their lives. Both Michael and Ocean published their debut novels in recent years, The Perfume Burned His Eyes and On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous respectively. They discussed the experience of writing and releasing […]
Newcastle Poetry Festival 2023
Celebrating its seventh year, the Newcastle Poetry Festival theme last year was ‘Community’, exploring poetry’s contribution to different communities and the power of writing collectives to encourage creativity. As part of the festival on the 13 May, we introduced RSL Fellow Sandeep Parmar, who gave a lecture on ‘Motherhood, Whiteness and Empathy in Contemporary British Poetry’: considering […]
Tom Vowler wins the 2024 V.S. Pritchett Prize.
The Royal Society of Literature is delighted to announce the winner of the V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize. The prize, worth £1,000, is an annual award for unpublished short stories between 2,000 to 4,000 words in length. From the shortlist of seven writers announced last week, this year’s judges Julia Armfield, Fred D’Aguiar and Juliet […]
V.S. Pritchett Prize 2024 Longlist
The longlist for the 2024 V.S. Pritchett Prize has been announced. The V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize is an annual award for unpublished short stories between 2,000 to 4,000 words in length. The winner will receive £1,000 and their entry will be published in Prospect magazine online and the RSL Review. This year’s judges Julia […]
Submissions for the Entente Littéraire Prize are now open.
We are delighted to announce that submissions to the Entente Littéraire Prize (Prix de l’Entente Littéraire), a new UK-France literary prize for writers of young adult literature, are now open. The submissions window will be formally opened at Receptions at the French Embassy in London and the British Embassy in Paris on 23 January as […]
2023 RSL Giles St Aubyn Award Winners Announcement
Established in 2017, the RSL Giles St Aubyn Awards support writers with their first commissioned works of non-fiction with 3 awards – one of £10,000, one of £5,000 and one of £2,500. This year’s Awards were judged by Leila Aboulela, Fiona St Aubyn and Tom Burgis. Congratulations to our 2023 winners: £10,000 – Oliver Basciano […]
Celebrating Black History Month
To mark Black History Month, we have collected some highlights from our events and content in recent years. From an audio tour of historical Black Soho, to the poetics of grime music – listen to a range of speakers celebrate and interrogate Black history through the lens of literature. Videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuc7ahHLbWEhttps://youtu.be/76Th4jw30zwhttps://youtu.be/tjThEsmfQcEhttps://youtu.be/S3RccYZT2dchttps://youtu.be/YP67enJFpJEhttps://youtu.be/Kxir96jescshttps://youtu.be/q1QDPMhZ7UQhttps://youtu.be/TnpaO3YFarwhttps://youtu.be/XY0UCipC_NAhttps://youtu.be/QLxda_aZojkhttps://youtu.be/oyJodV57FGkhttps://youtu.be/PD-mXemx3_0?si=qGW-ZDkeyLDS10bA Literature Matters: RSL 200 […]
Awards and Prizes now open
Three more RSL awards and prizes are now open for entries across fiction, non-fiction and poetry! RSL Ondaatje PrizeThe Prize awards £10,000 for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, that best evokes the spirit of a place. RSL Christopher Bland PrizeRecognising those who come to writing later in life, £10,000 is given to […]