On Thursday 11 July 2024 we celebrated the induction of 42 new Fellows and Honorary Fellows. The Garden Museum played host to a packed evening of entertainment as inductees celebrated alongside their friends and family, and guests invited from across the literary arts scene. RSL Chair Daljit Nagra and President Bernardine Evaristo led proceedings, with Bernardine speaking about the crucial role of readers and reading, reminding those gathered of the benefits of consuming books: emotional, intellectual, social and cultural.  You can read Bernardine’s address here or have a look at ou ..read more

On Friday 21 June, the RSL announced the shortlist for the 2024 RSL Christopher Bland Prize for authors aged over 50. The prize, now in its sixth year, is an annual award of £10,000 given to a debut novelist or non-fiction writer first published aged 50 or over. This year’s judges are Josh Cohen, Niall Griffiths and Shaparak Khorsandi, who identified the retelling stories of forgotten voices as a unifying thread in their shortlist selection. The five books they chose for the shortlist are: Now I Am Here – Chidi Ebere (Pan Macmillan) The Silence Project – Carole Hailey (Atlantic Books) The Box ..read more

We are delighted to announce that Isabella Hammad has been awarded the 2024 Encore Award for Enter Ghost yesterday evening on Wednesday 19 June. Isabella received her award at a special event in central London, at which former winner Caoilinn Hughes – who took the prize home in 2021 – acted as host for the evening. ‘I’m so thrilled to be awarded this wonderful prize,’ Isabella said. ‘Second novels are, as I was repeatedly told, notoriously difficult – not only to write, but also to sell. Everyone loves a debut, but I think it may actually be in the tricky transition from th ..read more

We’re excited to reveal the shortlist for the 2024 Encore Award. This award celebrates the ‘difficult second novel’, marking the achievements of authors moving beyond their literary debuts. This year’s judges are Fergal Keane, Malika Booker and Maura Dooley, who selected the following five shortlisted books: A Spell of Good Things – Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ (Canongate) The Glutton – A. K. Blakemore (Granta) Enter Ghost – Isabella Hammad (Vintage) Tell Me What I Am – Úna Mannion (Faber and Faber) Ordinary Human Failings – Megan Nolan (Penguin) Describing all of the books as outstanding, the judges off ..read more

We are delighted to announce that Ian Penman has been awarded the 2024 RSL Ondaatje Prize for Fassbinder Thousands Of Mirrors this evening on Tuesday 14 May. ‘I can’t believe it,’ Ian said on collecting his prize from Jans Ondaatje Rolls, overseeing the ceremony on behalf of her father Christopher. ‘I’d like to thank Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who I think is astonishing and created a culture very much not like our own. Without him there wouldn’t be this book, and I dedicate this award to him. Thank you so much.’ Chair of judges Xiaolu Guo praised Penman’s ingenuity and originality: ‘This is the ..read more

Do you love books? Then you’ll want to be part of our club…  If you sign up for a Royal Society of Literature Membership by the end of May, you get two years’ Membership for the price of one! Membership is just £60 a year, which gets you:   FREE entry to all RSL events (in person and online) Discounted entry for friends and family A subscription to Review, the RSL magazine Access to special Member-only content online A place in the ballot for tickets to the RSL summer party! Becoming a Member will also mean you support the RSL’s work celebrating and nurt ..read more

On Friday 26 April, we revealed the shortlist for the 2024 RSL Ondaatje Prize. This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the prize, which was instituted in 2004 to celebrate outstanding works of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that best evoke the spirit of a place. This year’s prize is judged by Francis Spufford, Jan Carson and Xiaolu Guo, who have whittled down 194 entries to their shortlist of six authors. Falling Animals – Sheila Armstrong (Bloomsbury) ‘A truly impressive debut from a storyteller who knows how to control the rhythm and poetry of her narrative. I was immersed in that uniqu ..read more

On Monday 8 April, we unveiled the longlist for the 2024 RSL Ondaatje Prize. This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the prize, which was instituted in 2004 to celebrate outstanding works of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that best evoke the spirit of a place. ‘Place has always been important to me as a writer, and I’ve loved the brilliant variety of its imaginative reflections in the longlist,’ says Francis Spufford, who judged the prize alongside Jan Carson and Xiaolu Guo. They whittled down 194 entries in selecting their longlist of fourteen authors. Jan Carson says: ‘Judging the RSL O ..read more

This spring the RSL public programme will be popping up in some new spaces, featuring literary luminaries alongside emerging voices, celebrating iconic texts alongside new writing, UK writers as well as writers from across the Americas.  The RSL Lecture will be a feature of this year’s Newcastle Poetry Festival where Anthony Joseph will speak about ‘The Architecture of Longing’ in poetry.  Anne Michaels, an RSL International Writer, will be here from Toronto offering a lecture on poetry in memory of poet Wanda Barford. Michaels will also be in conversation with Claire Messud on their ..read more

The Royal Society of Literature is delighted to announce the winner of the V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize. The prize, worth £1,000, is an annual award for unpublished short stories between 2,000 to 4,000 words in length. From the shortlist of seven writers announced last week, this year’s judges Julia Armfield, Fred D’Aguiar and Juliet Jacques selected Tom Vowler’s story ‘Voyagers’. As well as the prize money, Tom wins publication of his story in Prospect magazine online and in the RSL’s Review. You can read ‘Voyagers’ in Prospect magazine here. Tom was presented with the prize at the ALCS A ..read more