RSL Remembers: Fleur Adcock Recordings
Fleur Adcock’s work defined a new tone in 20th century poetry. Her writing was, and remains, beloved by poets, teachers and a wide range of readers, who value her incisive wit, beautiful frankness and often surprising humour. To quote Carol Ann Duffy’s description of Fleur Adcock’s poetry: “The sharper edge of her talent is encountered like […]
New Daughters of Africa
Winsome Pinnock is elected a Fellow of the RSL.
Women in Power
On International Women’s Day 2019, three women working in the fields of business, law and politics discuss affecting change through writing, and what it means to be a woman with influence. Baroness Helena Kennedy is a leading barrister and expert in human rights law. In her 1992 book Eve Was Shamed, which was re-issued in […]
Literature Matters: Writing and Frankness
Why do we read? Why do we write? What do we reveal when we do? A writer (Deborah Levy), a psychotherapist (Adam Phillips) and a philosopher (Amia Srinivasan) discuss what we reveal about ourselves through literature and the difference, if any, between non-fiction, novels and the psychotherapist’s couch. The conversation is chaired by writer and […]
Truth to Life
In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1995, Seamus Heaney said, ‘I credit poetry because credit is due to it, in our time and in all time, for its truth to life, in every sense of that phrase.’ Five years after his death, we celebrate the lasting power of Heaney’s verse, his ability to ‘credit […]
Masked/Unmasked
‘Man is least himself when he talks in his own person,’ wrote Oscar Wilde. ‘Give him a mask and he will tell the truth.’ During the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition ‘Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun: behind the mask, another mask’ the RSL co-hosts a discussion about how masks can both hide and reveal. Novelist and […]
T. S. Eliot Memorial Reading with Carol Ann Duffy
Born in the Gorbals in 1955, Carol Ann Duffy has been Poet Laureate for the past eight years. Her poems blend humour and warmth with sharp social commentary and are on GCSE and A-level syllabuses.Her work has been garlanded with prizes, including the Forward Prize, the T.S. Eliot Prize and the PEN/Pinter Prize. She reads […]
Encore: The Phenomenon of the second novel
Some novelists hit a remarkable seam on their second outings, and among the second novels that have earned their place in history are The Mill on the Floss, Pride and Prejudice, The Master and Margarita, Fahrenheit 451 and Midnight’s Children. This year the RSL takes over the administration of the ¬£10,000 Encore Award, founded in […]
The Art of Non-Fiction
As non-fiction writers become more innovative in finding new structures and voices with which to tell their stories, how do they decide on their approach? What are the literary models on which they draw? Hisham Matar’s first novel, In the Country of Men, won several prizes, including the 2007 RSL Ondaatje Prize. Last year he […]
Why Race Matters
How has the intersection of race, feminism and class evolved since the 1980s? Reni Eddo-Lodge is a young, black, feminist journalist who burst on to the literary scene with her 2014 blog post ‘Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race’, which went viral. Her first book – of the same title – […]
The Swimmer
November 2018 marks 100 years since the end of the First World War. The RSL is marking this anniversary by looking back to Wilfred Owen’s words for peace, and looking forward to how poetry today can take us towards a more peaceful future. We have commissioned 14 of our poet Fellows to respond to Wilfred […]
The Spring
November 2018 marks 100 years since the end of the First World War. The RSL is marking this anniversary by looking back to Wilfred Owen’s words for peace, and looking forward to how poetry today can take us towards a more peaceful future. We have commissioned 14 of our poet Fellows to respond to Wilfred […]