17 August 2020 The 2021 Society of Authors’ Awards are now open for entries – with 7 awards spanning fiction, poetry, non-fiction and illustrated children’s books. Each year the SoA Awards recognise the best and most promising voices of the year. This year’s ceremony was hosted online in the midst of lockdown measures with a…
10 August 2020 The SoA launches Step Up, a fundraising drive to call for donations to the Authors’ Contingency Fund to ensure it can continue to offer hardship grants to authors, as emergency funding runs low and the health crisis continues. ‘It is no exaggeration to say that this grant helped me, and my family,…
7 August 2020 Over 50 authors have been awarded nearly £185,000 in grants this month to help them focus on their latest writing projects – either with research costs or by giving them valuable time to write. The grants are awarded by the Society of Authors each year as part of the Authors’ Foundation and…
29 July 2020 The Society of Authors has agreed a new pension entitlement for all scriptwriters commissioned by the BBC for their dramatic television and radio programming. In the past, when the BBC engaged a writer, they could choose to have pension contributions deducted from their fee and paid to the BBC Pension Fund or,…
22 July 2020 The 2021 Imison Award is now open for entries, celebrating new talent and outstanding achievement in UK audio drama. Awarding £3,000 to the best original script by a writer new to audio drama, the Imison Award is calling for entries that are ‘fresh, combative, provocative, diverse’ – with entries judged by the…
21 July 2020 The SoA has joined with eight other organisations representing over 330,000 members for the second time in a month in tabling detailed evidence to MPs’ post-pandemic economic growth inquiry led by the House of Commons’ committee for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). The move follows submissions to the House of Commons’…
15 July 2020 Max Porter, winner of the 2016 Sunday Times PFD Young Writer of the Year Award, to judge the TA First Translation Prize for 2020 alongside writer and translator Maureen Freely and prize sponsor and translator Daniel Hahn. The TA First Translation Prize, for debut translation from any language, closes for submission on…
The past couple of years have seen unprecedented change and challenge for the Society of Authors. We campaigned harder than ever as you faced ever greater challenges to make a living from your work. We reached more authors of all kinds, in more places, through our events, groups and networks. We continue to offer expert,…
26 June 2020 We welcome the publication of the UK’s first academic study on diversity in trade fiction and publishing. Rethinking ‘Diversity’ in Publishing throws down a broad set of critical challenges to industry, and could not have come at a more apt time. Written by Dr Anamik Saha and Dr Sandra van Lente, as…
22 June 2020 SoA and eight other organisations representing over 330,000 members table joint evidence to DCMS Select Committee on the historic challenges facing the cultural and creative industries. Following last month’s written evidence to the House of Commons Select Committees for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS),…
18 June 2020 Drag performer and screenwriter Amrou Al-Kadhi, playwright Inua Ellams, ‘Son of the Hebrides’ Donald S. Murray and illustrator Elena Arevalo Melville among Society of Authors’ Awards 2020 winners in a celebration of literature’s power to challenge inequality. We are delighted to reveal the winning writers, poets and illustrators from across the…
A statement of support for Black authors and members of the Black community, from the SoA staff and Management Committee
