Industry Insider – AI in Wales: How authors can protect their rights

Chaired by SoA Committee member and associate professor Carole Burns, our discussion will explore the threats AI poses to creators as well as steps SoA members can take to protect their future work.

We’re pleased to be joined by member of the House of Lords The Right Hon Lord Brennan as one of our panellists. Lord Brennan worked on an All-Party Parliamentary Group looking at the impact of AI on musicians, who face similar concerns as authors. He will fill us in on the landscape of Government legislation including future plans. Also joining the panel is SoA CEO, Anna Ganley, who will explain what members can do to protect themselves and their work from future exploitation, including the new Human Authored scheme, and Philip Gwyn Jones, an agent at Greyhound Literary and a former editor, who will talk about an agent’s role.

#SoAatHome Industry Insider events – free for all + donation

Our #SoAatHome industry insider events are free for all but with a donation option when registering for the event.

All donations made go towards the Society of Authors’ Access Fund. The fund is to help provide authors support for travel, subsistence, childcare or access needs for events, residencies, and retreats. If you would like to make a donation with your booking, please do so when registering for the event below.

Programme

• Welcome, introductions and housekeeping from Carole Burns (3 mins)
• Panel discussion chaired by Carole Burns with Lord Brennan, Philip Gwyn Jones and Anna Ganley (60 mins)
• Comfort break (5 mins)
• Q&A with audience (20 mins)
• Summary and closing comments (2 mins)
• This event will be moderated by Emma Boniwell – Head of Membership & Author Communities, SoA

The Line-up

Carole Burns

Carole Burns is a prize-winning author whose most recent book, The Same Country (Legend Press, 2023), was named a top 2023 Welsh fiction book by the Wales Arts Review.  A journalist for publications such as the Washington Post and LitHub, she recently served as the lead fiction judge for the 2025 Wales Book of the Year Award. Her collection, The Missing Woman and Other Stories, published by Parthian Books, won the 2015 John C. Zacharis First Book Award, given by the prestigious U.S. literary journal Ploughshares. Off the Page: Writers Talk About Beginnings, Endings, and Everything in Between, published by W.W. Norton, was based on interviews with 43 authors including Jhumpa Lahiri, Anthony Doerr and the late A.S. Byatt.

She is an associate professor at the University of Southampton, where she founded and directs the Writers in Conversation reading series with guests including Xiaolu Guo, Jennifer Egan, Katherine Stansfield, Philip Gross and Patrice Lawrence. Carole lives in Cardiff.

Lord Brennan

Lord Kevin Brennan, Baron Brennan of Canton, is a Welsh politician. A member of the Labour Party, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Cardiff West from 2001 to 2024. He served as a Minister of State at both the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Children, Schools and Families from 2009 to 2010.

Brennan held several junior ministerial offices from 2006 to 2009 at the Treasury, the Cabinet Office and the Department for Children, Schools and Families. In opposition, he served in various shadow ministerial positions from 2010 to 2020. He was Shadow Minister for Victims and Sentencing from September 2023 until his retirement from frontline politics at the 2024 general election. Brennan was subsequently appointed to the House of Lords in 2025.

Anna Ganley

Anna Ganley is Chief Executive of the Society of Authors – the UK’s largest trade union for writers, illustrators and literary translators at all stages of their careers. We have been advising individuals and speaking out for the profession for more than a century www.societyofauthors.org.

Anna is also Chair of the Creators’ Rights Alliance – a coalition that exists to promote, protect and further the interests of creators through policy, advocacy and campaigning work. Anna sits on the board of the International Authors Forum and the London Book Fair Advisory Board.

Born in Sunderland, Anna grew up on the north-east coast. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Durham and her MA in Management from Durham Business School.

LinkedIn: Anna Ganley | Email: AGanley@societyofauthors.org

Philip Gwyn Jones

Philip Gwyn Jones was an editor and publisher for 33 years, being publisher of, in reverse order, Picador, Scribe, Granta/Portobello, Flamingo and Fontana Press, but has turned agent with Greyhound Literary these last three years. Born and schooled in Cardiff, he has served on the English-language grants panel of the Books Council of Wales for the last decade.

What will this session cover?

• AI and how it impacts authors in Wales in particular.
• Offer some top tips on how to protect your work from future AI scraping and other copyright infringements.
• Update you on the latest position on AI for SoA members from a government perspective and the SoA’s work on AI.

Who is this session for?

Authors interested in protecting themselves from further copyright infringements, and for those interested in finding out more about what the future holds for creatives. Although this event is hosted by SoA Cymru, as AI is not a devolved issue, writers from other parts of the UK will find the content relevant.

About the Society of Authors Cymru

The Society of Authors Cymru is a national group of the Society of Authors. Established in 2018, we provide professional advice and support for Welsh writers at all stages of their career, whether they write in English or Welsh.

We organise regular events and host socials across the year via a volunteer steering committee and local groups. Join us to meet authors across Wales, find out what’s happening in your area and be a part of your local Society of Authors community.

Find out more here

Send us your questions

If you would like to send questions in advance, email EBoniwell@societyofauthors.org with ’AI in Wales’ in the subject header. We will prioritise questions sent in advance and answer as many as we can from the audience on the day.

SoA Fundraising Bookshop

Browse our virtual Bookshop.org store featuring books by authors and speakers taking part in our events programme. When you make a purchase using our affiliate links, a percentage will go to the Society of Authors’ Access Fund, giving authors support for travel, subsistence, childcare or access needs for events, residencies, and retreats.

Need to know

Accessibility

• Attendees will have the option to turn on the live transcript, to watch with subtitles
• If you require BSL interpretation for this event, please email events@societyofauthors.org

Before the event

• Once registered, you will be sent a confirmation email with the Zoom link
• If the confirmation email doesn’t arrive in your inbox, please check your junk/spam email folder
• Please add events@societyofauthors.org to your Safe Senders list so you receive our confirmation and reminder emails

During the event

• This online event will take place on Zoom Webinar; you will not be visible on screen but will be able to ask questions via the Q&A function or interact via the chat box
• This event will be recorded but you won’t be on screen
• Attendees have the option to turn on the live transcript
• This event is 90 minutes

After the event

• Hashtags for this event: #SoAatHome 
• You’ll be able to catch the recording on our Vimeo channel

Booking

Please either use the form titled ‘Register – no donation’ or the option of the different ticket options with a donation amount depending on how much you would like to donate towards the Society of Authors Access Fund.