Elected: 2024
Jacob was born and grew up in Cumbria. He has published five books of poems with Picador, UK. His fourth, Jackself, won the 2016 T.S. Eliot Prize for poetry; his third, The Havocs, won the 2012 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. His 2009 novel, Talk of the Town, set in and around Carlisle on one day in 1986, won the Somerset Maugham Award. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University.
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.
