Catch up on the 2024 SoA Awards

News

21 June 2024

by Jasmine Scott

Jasmine Scott

Jasmine joined the SoA in January 2023. She leads the Communications team and sets communications strategy for the whole organisation. Jasmine also manages the production of the SoA’s journal, The Author.

In this story: Prizes, SoA Awards

Thank you for helping us celebrate the 2024 SoA Awards

…and what we must do, more than anything, is keep saying that words matter.
Keynote speaker Kate Mosse

On Thursday 20 June hundreds of SoA members joined us for the 2024 SoA Awards and Summer Party to celebrate fiction, non-fiction, poetry and children’s literature.

Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, Chair of the SoA Management Committee, hosted the event, welcoming more than 200 guests in-person to Southwark Cathedral and many more online.

The Very Reverend Dr Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark Cathedral, welcomed guests with a rousing speech on the power of the written word.

There is much around at the moment that would prefer dishonest simplicity to an honest complexity, but the work we acclaim this evening refuses to play that stifling game that takes the oxygen out of our air, but uses words in loyalty to a shared future and a more comprehensive, open, and generous, if I may use this word tonight, soul.
The Very Reverend Dr Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark Cathedral

Following Kate Mosse’s inspiring keynote on the radical act of writing, we shared more than £140,000 in prizes with over 30 writers, poets and illustrators.

In this beautiful cathedral tonight, there are many, many, many stories and that is wonderful. So as part of raising our voices and using our platforms, let’s also use our ears, and use our elbows to make space for the people who may not have always had the chance to speak.
Keynote speaker Kate Mosse

Read the 2024 SoA Awards news release
Buy the books (bookshop.org – all purchases result in a contribution to the SoA’s Drusilla Harvey Access Fund, giving authors support for travel, subsistence, childcare or access needs for events, residencies, and retreats)

Many thanks to everyone who joined us on the day – in-venue or online – for helping to make the evening so special.

Speeches and prizegiving

The speeches and prizegiving were streamed live to an international audience.

Meet some of the 2024 celebrated writers

Paul Torday Memorial Prize winner Jacqueline Crooks, Betty Trask Prize shortlisted writer Stephen Buoro and Somerset Maugham judge Akeem Balogun shared their thoughts with us on the night.