RSL Scriptorium Awards

Ten writer residencies presented to professionally active writers in need of a place to write.

The 2025 Prize

This year marks the inaugural presentation of the RSL Scriptorium Awards, inviting applications from UK writers of any form with a successful track record in publishing or equivalent industries.

The winners of the 2025 RSL Scriptorium Awards are Yvonne Battle-Felton, Satinder Chohan, Suji Kwock Kim, Tom Newlands, Emma Norry, Irenosen Okojie, Hanna Silva, Claudine Toutoungi, Ralf Webb and Claire Wilson.

The ten writers were selected by a specially-convened panel of RSL Fellows Sarah Sanders, Kayo Chingonyi and Victoria Hislop, with priority given to writers who do not have their own dedicated writing space and experience barriers to their literary careers.

The 2025 award is now closed for entry, with first residencies taking place in Autumn 2025. Please ensure you have read and understood the RSL Scriptorium Awards Eligibility and Guidelines prior to entering.

History

Founded and generously supported by President Bernardine Evaristo, the RSL Scriptorium Awards provide free writing residencies in a cottage on the Kent coast owned by Evaristo for up to a month at a time, offering uninterrupted time for professionally active writers to focus on their projects. Each writer will also be awarded a bursary to support them taking up their residency.

Census research undertaken by the RSL shows that our Fellowship – including many of the most eminent writers at work in the UK today – is skewed towards those living in London, who are highly educated and who come from a household where the main earner was in a professional occupation. Reflecting on these insights, the RSL Scriptorium Awards take into consideration some of the structural barriers still facing writers at work today. These might include:

Geography: where you live in the UK has an effect on how likely you are to have a career as a writer.

Education: having a bachelors degree or postgraduation qualification makes you more likely to succeed as a writer.

Social class: growing up in a household where the main earner was in a professional occupation makes it more likely for someone to have a career as a writer.
Ethnicity, cultural background, gender or disability: all impact a writer’s capacity to reach into, and succeed within, publishing networks.

Become a Member

Our Members are champions of literature. Their support makes our engagement work in schools and prisons possible and they enable us to celebrate literature in all its wonderful diversity. As a thank you, we give them all the joys of a literary festival and book club rolled into one, all year round.