Members of the Society of Authors have elected four of their peers to represent authors’ views on the Management Committee (board).
SoA members AJ West, Ian Giles, Polly Atkin and Lucinda Hawksley join the board of directors which is responsible for the strategic direction of the organisation.
Nine nominees stood as candidates for election for four available places on the board. The new board members will begin their term following the SoA’s AGM on 20 November 2025.
Two existing board members complete their three-year terms at the AGM, leaving a total of 11 members on the board.
Welcoming the results, Chair of the Management Committee, Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, said:
“We had a great range of nominees. The elected members are passionate about helping address the hardship that comes with being an author, and the challenges the profession faces from AI. We’re grateful, also, to benefit from the unique experience brought to us by Polly Atkin, who is a member of our group of Authors Living with Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses.
“Standing for election is a big decision. We are hugely appreciative to those who stood this year and are delighted that so many of you took the time to vote. It may seem like a routine part of the process, but your involvement is crucial to ensuring authors’ views are proportionally represented on the board, and to direct our strategy and work of the Society going forward.
“I’d like to thank retiring board members Harriet Evans and Abie Longstaff for their dedication and incredible contribution to the work of the Society of Authors during their terms of office. We look forward to their ongoing involvement in our campaigns and committees.”
The election, managed by Civica Election Services, recorded ballots returned by 2,002 members, of which 1,997 were valid, which represents 20.2% voter turn-out.
Alongside the new board members for 2025/2026 will be Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin (chair), Nadine Matheson, Julia Williams, Charles Harris, Helen Epega, Juliet McKenna, and Simon Michael.
Meet our new elected members
AJ West
AJ West is a novelist, media trainer, and presenter. A former BBC journalist and charity communications director, he has written widely on the challenges facing authors in a changing publishing landscape. His debut novel was published without an agent, while his second, The Betrayal of Thomas True, became a Sunday Times bestseller and won the 2025 CWA Historical Dagger Award.
AJ co-founded The Book Party, a reader-writer event series that has grown from a one-off gathering into regular large-scale celebrations of the book community, connecting traditionally published and independent authors with audiences around the country.
He also works with authors to develop skills in public speaking and interviews. AJ has toured extensively in support of independent bookshops, and he remains an active advocate for the role of booksellers in sustaining the literary ecosystem.
Ian Giles
Ian Giles is a literary translator specialising in Scandinavian languages based in Edinburgh. He has translated more than 35 books across a wide range of genres and is Chair of the Translators Association. His work in translation has given him direct insight into the challenges of authorship in an evolving industry.
Ian has experience of leading small membership organisations and brings a focus on practical skills development for authors, including rights negotiation, income diversification, and working responsibly with technology.
Ian has been active in promoting professional recognition for translators and authors alike and has ‘championed translators individually and collectively in the face of these same challenges’.
Polly Atkin
Polly Atkin is a poet, nonfiction writer, editor, and bookseller based in Cumbria. Her writing includes biography, memoirs, and nature writing, and she has been active in the literary and academic worlds for more than two decades. She co-owns a long-established independent bookshop and has organised and hosted arts events across the UK.
Polly has taught literature and creative writing in schools and universities and has been an active member of the Society of Authors ADCI group for Disabled and Chronically Ill Authors since it was founded in 2020.
She is particularly engaged with issues of accessibility and equity in the arts and has been a consistent advocate for disabled, deaf, and neurodivergent writers.
Lucinda Hawksley
Lucinda Hawksley is an author of fiction and non-fiction. Over the course of her career, Lucinda has written more than twenty books on social history and art literature, including biographies of Lizzie Siddal, Princess Louise, and Kate Perugini (née Dickens). Lucinda has campaigned for fair pay and better recognition of authors’ contributions to publishing.
Lucinda lectures widely in the UK and abroad, appears on television and radio, and contributes to literary festivals and museum programmes. A great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens, her work with heritage organisations includes events with the Charles Dickens Museum and other institutions devoted to nineteenth-century culture.
As a member of the Society of Authors for 20 years, Lucinda notes that there have been several times in her writing career when she has run into difficulty and every time the Society of Authors has helped find a solution. A regular commentator on authors’ professional conditions, Lucinda is a
‘firm advocate that everyone should be paid – and paid fairly – for their work and expertise’.
