History is in the Making

For our History is in the Making anthology, we asked 20 of our current Fellows to tell us about writers from the last 200 years – from when the RSL was founded in 1820 to now – who they would like to have seen nominated for an RSL Fellowship. They’ve written letters to those writers, thought about why they weren’t celebrated by the RSL when they were alive, and shared with you – their readers – why you should be reading them too. 

Remembering these writers is important – those who are famous, and those who you’ve never heard of before. But it’s only part of the work the RSL and literature in the UK needs to do – we’ve also got to build a society that champions literature for everyone. 

To celebrate the launch of the anthology, we ran a competition for 13 -18-year-olds living in the U.K, asking them to tell us about the writer from the past that most inspires them. You can find the winning entries below or here. 

We hope that it inspires you to read people you’ve never read before, and to write with confidence, knowing that literature is for everyone.