In the final week of the SoA @ Home Festival we were joined by SoA Chair Joanne Harris, Director of the Royal Society of Literature Molly Rosenberg, and editor of The Author James McConnachie, to look back over the last 12 weeks and discuss the changes to authors’ lives and the literature sector during lockdown.

What can we do to stay resilient and connected after lockdown? What stays, what goes? What does the future look like for authors, publishers and the wider industry?

Broadcast live by the Society of Authors in Week 12 of the SoA @ Home Festival on 7 July 2020.

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Joanne Harris – Author, Chair of the SoA’s Management Committee and non-executive Director of ALCS
Joanne Harris is an author of 19 novels in varying genres, including Chocolat, two collections of short stories, a Dr. Who novelette, various stage musical projects and three cookbooks. Joanne’s books have been published in over 50 countries and have won a number of British and international awards. She succeeded David Donachie as Chair of the SoA’s Management Committee in January 2020.
Website: joanne-harris.co.uk | Twitter: @joannechocolat

Molly Rosenberg, Director of Royal Society of Literature
Molly Rosenberg has worked at the Royal Society of Literature for 10 years and, as Director, oversees the Society’s business and creative strategy. She is thrilled to be working towards the RSL’s 2020 bicentenary with RSL staff and trustees on a number of new programmes, showing how much Literature Matters. Molly has previously worked at the Royal Opera House and Southbank Centre, and as an independent researcher. She holds an MPhil in Irish Writing from Trinity College Dublin and is completing her PhD at King’s College London, where her doctoral thesis examines the relationship between contemporary Irish poetry, nation, and the poetics of the trace.

James McConnachie – Editor of The Author and non-executive Director of ALCS
James McConnachie is editor of The Author, the quarterly magazine of the Society of Authors. He is also a non-executive director of ALCS, the Author’s Licensing and Collecting Society and has been a lead reviewer for the Sunday Times for the last ten years. His own work includes a history of the Kamasutra, The Book of Love, and numerous travel and reference books for Rough Guides, notably the Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories. He has presented TV and radio programmes for the BBC and Channel 4, including a five-part BBC series on Italian culture. He is currently writing a biography of a Himalayan mountain, to be published by Bloomsbury.