Elected: 2026
Lola Shoneyin is a Nigerian poet, novelist and publisher. She is the author of three poetry collections, ten children’s books and the novel The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives. Longlisted for the Orange Prize, it won the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award. It was been widely translated and adapted for stage and screen. Shoneyin founded Ouida Books in 2016. She is the director of the Aké Arts & Book Festival and the Lagos International Festival of Illustrations. She currently runs OUIDA, a cultural hub in Lagos.
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.
