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Nicholson, Norman

Norman Nicholson

Elected: 1945

Year of birth: 1914

Year of death: 1987

Norman Nicholson was a poet and dramatist. He is particularly admired for his poetry and topographical writing and is now recognised as a writer who dealt with important environmental and ecological themes.

Author of Obituary: Antoinette Fawcett

Obituary : Nicholson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1945, shortly after having been awarded the inaugural Heinemann Award for his first full collection of poetry, Five Rivers (Faber & Faber, 1944). Nicholson was then only 31 years old. Nicholson's emphasis on locality  and on the interaction of humans with their environment is particularly relevant in our times. His work is accessible and authentic, written in a distinctive voice that is still engaging. Norman Nicholson studies have taken off in recent years, with a doctoral thesis by Dr. David Cooper on 'Norman Nicholson and the Poetics of Place and Space' (Lancaster, 2007) and current work at the University of Oxford on Nicholson and Norse Medievalism and at the University of Durham on Nicholson's Cumbrian Landscape. Nicholson received the Queen's Medal for Poetry and several honorary degrees in recognition of his outstanding work.

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Fellowship Election Process​

Fellows are nominated by peers and elected by our Council of writers – our governing Board. Being elected a Fellow of the RSL is a lifetime honour. This role gives them the opportunity to support other writers, readers and the future of literature. The RSL connects writers in the Fellowship to one another, and to a wider readership.