Royal Society of Literature

Royal Society of Literature

HQ at Somerset House
Abbreviation	RSL
Formation	1820; 204 years ago (1820)
Type	Learned society
Headquarters	Somerset House, London, England, United Kingdom
President	Bernardine Evaristo
Patron	Queen Camilla
Website	rsliterature.org

The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elected from among the best writers in any genre currently at work. Additionally, Honorary Fellows are chosen from those who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of literature, including publishers, agents, librarians, booksellers or producers. The society is a cultural tenant at London's Somerset House.

The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) was founded in 1820, with the patronage of George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent",^[1] and its first president was Thomas Burgess, Bishop of St David's (who was later translated as Bishop of Salisbury). As of 2018, the RSL's patron is Queen Camilla, who took over in the role from Elizabeth II.^[2][3]

At the heart of the RSL is its Fellowship, "which encompasses the most distinguished writers working today", with the RSL Council responsible for its direction and management, being drawn from the Fellowship. As an independent charity, the RSL receives no regular public or government funding, relying on the support of its Members, Patrons, Fellows and friends to continue its work. The RSL has about 600 Fellows, elected from among the best writers in any genre currently at work. Additionally, Honorary Fellows are chosen from those who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of literature, including publishers, agents, librarians, booksellers or producers, or who have rendered special service to the RSL.^[4] Paid membership is open to all and offers a variety of benefits.^[5][6]

The society publishes an annual magazine, The Royal Society of Literature Review,^[7] and administers a number of literary prizes and awards, including the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the RSL Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction, the RSL Encore Award for best second novel of the year and the V. S. Pritchett Memorial Prize for short stories.

In 2000, the RSL published a volume that provides a description and history of the society, written by one of its fellows, Isabel Quigly.^[8]

In 2020, the RSL celebrated its 200th anniversary with the announcement of RSL 200, "a five-year festival launched with a series of major new initiatives and 60 new appointments championing the great diversity of writing and writers in the UK".^[9] Initiatives included RSL Open (electing new Fellows from communities, backgrounds and experiences currently under-represented in UK literary culture), RSL International Writers (recognising the contribution of writers across the globe to literature in English)^[9] and Sky Arts RSL Writers Awards.^[10]

In 2021, the RSL launched "Literature Matters: Reading Together", a project aiming to make recreational reading accessible to young people across the UK.^[11]

The society maintains its current level of about 600 Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature: generally 14 new fellows are elected annually, who are accorded the privilege of using the post-nominal letters FRSL.

Past and present fellows include Samuel Taylor Coleridge, J. R. R. Tolkien, W. B. Yeats, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Koestler, Chinua Achebe, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Robert Ardrey, Sybille Bedford, Muriel Spark, P. J. Kavanagh, Hilary Mantel, and Sir Roger Scruton. Present Fellows include Margaret Atwood, Bernardine Evaristo, David Hare, Kazuo Ishiguro, Andrew Motion, Paul Muldoon, Zadie Smith, Nadeem Aslam, Sarah Waters, Geoffrey Ashe, J. K. Rowling, and Nick Cave.^[12] A newly created fellow inscribes his or her name on the society's official roll using either Byron's pen, T. S. Eliot's fountain pen, which replaced Dickens's quill in 2013,^[13] or (as of 2018) George Eliot's pen,^[14] with pens belonging to Jean Rhys and Andrea Levy being additional choices from 2020.^[15][16]

From time to time, the RSL confers the honour and title of Companion of Literature to writers of particular note. Additionally, the RSL can bestow its award of the Benson Medal for lifetime service in the field of literature.

The RSL runs a membership programme offering a variety of events to members and the general public. Membership of the RSL is open to all.^[17]

The RSL also runs an outreach programme, currently for young people and those in prison.

The RSL administers two annual prizes, two awards, and two honours. Through its prize programmes, the RSL supports new and established contemporary writers.

• The RSL Christopher Bland Prize — £10,000 for debut prose writers aged 50 or over.
• The Encore Awards — £10,000 for best second novel of the year. The RSL took over the administration of this award in 2016.
• The RSL Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction – annual awards, currently one of £10,000 and one of £5,000 and one of £2,500, to authors engaged on their first commissioned works of non-fiction (replaced the Jerwood Award in 2017).
• The RSL Ondaatje Prize – an annual award of £10,000 for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place.
• The V. S. Pritchett Memorial Prize – an annual prize of £1,000 for the best unpublished short story of the year.
• The Benson Medal – awarded to those who have done sustained and outstanding service to literature.
• Companion of Literature – the highest honour that the Society can bestow upon a writer.

The Council of the Royal Society of Literature is central to the election of new fellows, and directs the RSL's activities through its monthly meetings. Council members serve for a fixed term of four years, with new members being elected by Council when members retire.^[18]

Patron

Queen Camilla

President

Bernardine Evaristo

Presidents Emeriti

Sir Michael Holroyd

Colin Thubron

Marina Warner

Chair of Council

Daljit Nagra

Vice-Chair of Council

Irenosen Okojie

Vice-Presidents

Council

• 1820–1832: Bishop Thomas Burgess
• 1832–1833: George Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover
• 1834–1845: F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich
• 1845–1849: Henry Hallam
• 1849–1851: Spencer Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton
• 1851–1856: George Howard, 7th Earl of Carlisle
• 1856–1876: The Rt Rev. Connop Thirlwall (Bishop of St David's until 1874)
• 1876–1884: The Prince Leopold (Duke of Albany from 1881)
• 1885–1893: Sir Patrick Colquhoun
• 1893–1920: Hardinge Giffard, 1st Earl of Halsbury
• 1921–1945: Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe
• 1946–1947: Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton
• 1947–1982: Lord Butler of Saffron Walden
• 1982–1988: Sir Angus Wilson
• 1988–2003: Lord Jenkins of Hillhead
• 2003–2008: Sir Michael Holroyd
• 2008–2017: Colin Thubron
• 2017–2021: Marina Warner
• 2022–present: Bernardine Evaristo

The Royal Society of Literature comprises more than 600 Fellows, who are entitled to use the post-nominal letters FRSL.

New fellows of the Royal Society of Literature are elected by its current fellows. To be nominated for fellowship, a writer must have published two works of literary merit, and nominations must be seconded by an RSL fellow. All nominations are presented to members of the Council of the Royal Society of Literature, who vote biannually to elect new fellows. Nominated candidates who have not been successful are reconsidered at every election for three years from the year in which they were proposed. Newly elected fellows are introduced at the Society's AGM and summer party. While the President reads a citation for each, they are invited to sign their names in the roll book which dates back to 1820, using either T. S. Eliot's fountain pen or Byron's pen. In 2013, Charles Dickens' quill was retired and replaced with Eliot's fountain pen,^[13] and in 2018 George Eliot's pen was offered as a choice, the first time in the RSL's history that a pen that belonged to a woman writer was an option.^[14]

In 2018, the RSL honoured the achievements of Britain's younger writers through the initiative "40 Under 40", which saw the election of 40 new fellows aged under 40.^[19]

In 2020, pens belonging to Andrea Levy and Jean Rhys were added to the choices offered to fellows for signing the RSL roll book.^[15][20]

The RSL's 2022–23 Open initiative aimed to recognise writers from backgrounds currently underrepresented in UK literary culture by electing 60 fellows over a two-year period from communities, backgrounds and experiences currently under-represented in UK literary culture, through drawing on a broad range of writers from "different parts of the UK, from different communities, different demographics", as Bernardine Evaristo noted.^[21][22]

The * before the name denotes an Honorary Fellow. The list is online at the RSL website.^[25][26]

The RSL International Writers programme is a new life-long honour and award recognizing the contribution of writers across the globe to literature in English, and the power of literature to transcend borders in bringing people together, the inaugural list of recipients being announced in 2021.^[27]

Year	Writer	Country	Language(s)	Genre(s)	Panel of Nominators
2021[27]	Don Mee Choi (b. 1962)	South Korea  United States	Korean and English	poetry, translation	Chair: Daniel Hahn Members: Lisa Appignanesi Syima Aslam Bibi Bakare-Yusuf Sophie Collins Sasha Dugdale Max Porter Philippe Sands Elif Shafak Boyd Tonkin
	Annie Ernaux (b. 1940)	France	French	novel, memoir, autobiography
	David Grossman (b. 1954)	Israel	Hebrew	novel, essays
	Jamaica Kincaid (b. 1949)	Antigua and Barbuda  United States	English	novel, essays, short story
	Yan Lianke (b. 1958)	China	Mandarin	novel, short story
	Amin Maalouf (b. 1949)	Lebanon  France	French	novel, essays
	Alain Mabanckou (b. 1966)	Republic of Congo  France	French	novel, poetry, essays
	Javier Marías (1951–2022)	Spain	Spanish	novel, short story, essays, translation
	Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (b. 1938)	Kenya	English and Kikuyu	novel, drama, short story, essays
	Claudia Rankine (b. 1963)	United States	English	poetry, essays, drama
	Olga Tokarczuk (b. 1962)	Poland	Polish	novel, short story, poetry, essay, screenplay
	Dubravka Ugrešić (1949–2023)	Croatia	Croatian	novel, essays
2022[28]	Anne Carson (b. 1950)	Canada	English	poetry, essays	Chair: Daniel Hahn Members: Mojisola Adebayo Nick Barley Sharmilla Beezmohun Maureen Freely Nell Leyshon Nadifa Mohamed Daljit Nagra Katherine Rundell
	Maryse Condé (1937–2024)	France	French	novel, drama, essays
	Tsitsi Dangarembga (b. 1959)	Zimbabwe	English	novel, drama, essays, screenplay
	Cornelia Funke (b. 1958)	Germany	German	novel
	Mary Gaitskill (b. 1954)	United States	English	novel, short story, essays
	Faïza Guène (b. 1985)	France	French	novel
	Saidiya Hartman (b. 1960)	United States	English	essays
	Kim Hyesoon (b. 1955)	South Korea	Korean	poetry, essays
	Yōko Ogawa (b. 1962)	Japan	Japanese	novel, short story, essays
	Raja Shehadeh (b. 1951)	Palestine	Arabic	memoirs, essays
	Juan Gabriel Vásquez (b. 1973)	Colombia	Spanish	novel, short story, essays
	Samar Yazbek (b. 1970)	Syria	Arabic	novel, short story, essays
2023[29]	Tony Birch (born c. 1957)	Australia	English	novel, short story, essays	Chair: Maureen Freely Members: Sandra Agard Kit Fan Daniel Hahn Margaret Jull Costa Hannah Khalil Musa Okwonga Gaby Wood
	Yussef El Guindi (b. 1960)	Egypt  United States	English	drama
	Lorna Goodison (b. 1947)	Jamaica	English	poetry, essays, memoir
	Yaa Gyasi (b. 1989)	Ghana  United States	English	novel
	Han Kang (b. 1970)	South Korea	Korean	novel
	Yiyun Li (b. 1972)	China  United States	English	short story, novel
	Attica Locke (b. 1974)	United States	English	novel
	Valeria Luiselli (b. 1983)	Mexico	Spanish and English	essays, novel
	Anne Michaels (b. 1958)	Canada	English	poetry, novel
	Scholastique Mukasonga (b. 1956)	Rwanda  France	French	short story, novel
	Maria Stepanova (b. 1972)	Russia	Russian	poetry, novel, journalism
	Gao Xingjian (b. 1940)	China  France	Chinese	novel, drama

• The Royal Society of Literature website
• RSL Review magazine (archived at Wayback Machine)
• RSL literary prizes and awards Archived 30 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine
• Current RSL Fellows Archived 5 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine
• Roy Jenkins & The Royal Society of Literature – UK Parliament Living Heritage