24 August 2018

By the start of 2018 we had received an enormous number of applications from writers of a wide range of genres and styles. This year we are delighted to be able to support some exciting new work from established and emerging authors. Over 50 authors will receive cheques amounting to £180,000 enabling them to complete their latest projects.

Each application is different and there is no single use for the funds, which can ensure that financial realities don’t get in the way of writers completing their work. Typically the grants are used to assist with research costs or to buy writers the time they need to focus on their work.

New Applicants

If you would like to apply for a grant the next deadline is 1 September and all applicants will be contacted before the end of the year.

After 1 September, in a change to the usual process, all authors are encouraged to submit their applications via email to funding@societyofauthors.org.

August 2018 recipients

Tom Bullough

“It is no less a lonely business, writing, even when you come to your fifth novel. I have been working for three years on A Bird Is Born Twice: a story suffused with Welsh myth and history, inspired by a 15th-century rood screen and with a cast including sirens, satyrs and cynocephali – quite unlike the novels I have written before. An Authors' Foundation grant means, of course, time – I can now see my way through the months to its end – but it also means a great boost in spirits and confidence, a sense that others too believe in this project. For both of these things, I am enormously grateful.”

Rachel Seiffert

“I am currently researching and drafting a novel starting in the Caribbean in the 1600s, during England's first forays into Empire and slave trading.  Thomas Gilbert, an Englishman and former indentured servant, will be the protagonist to start the narrative, which will explore the lure of the New World, the human cost of ownership and being owned, the vital importance of liberty, and its limits too, in a world where all must struggle to seek advantage. The award will fund a research trip to Barbados, allowing me time to consult the National Archives which have holdings from the earliest days of English settlement through to abolition and beyond; it will also enable me to explore the island's botany and topography.”

Chris Power

Awarded the Eric Ambler Award, in memory of the spy thriller writer

“The importance to me of this Eric Ambler Award is profound, and so is my gratitude for it. It means time to work - the most valuable thing a writer can be given - and the ability to undertake research trips that are vital for the novel I'm writing.” 

Burhana Islam

“I am wholly grateful to have been awarded an Author's Foundation grant for my verse novel-in-progress, Sticks and Stones. Being a teacher, as well as having responsibilities at home, makes it difficult to fit in time to write, but because of the grant, I can really work on something that means the world to me. The Society of Authors supports writers from all walks of life and this opportunity is not only a much-needed confidence boost, but it almost feels like it validates my own aims of getting a marginalised voice out to readers, one that needs be heard in this day and age. Truth be told, I cannot be more grateful for that.”

JJ Bola

“I express my complete gratitude to the Society of Authors for the award of an Authors' foundation grant, for my current project; a non-fiction book on masculinity. As a young, minority, working class writer, living and working in London, this grant will allow me to make greater research and contributions on this subject, connecting on a closer level with young people, young boys and the local community, through workshops and talks. And it alleviates some of the pressures of having to survive in an austerity driven, financially challenging city, which will help me concentrate more on the quality of work that I can produce.”

Justin Chambers-Coe

“I am delighted to have been awarded an Authors Foundation grant and I am grateful for the support of the Society of Authors and the K Blundell Trust. This grant will enable me to complete work on The Magic of Mums (provisional title) my second collection of children's poetry with Otter-Barry books, a follow up to my debut The Dictionary of Dads. Supporting my family on the wages of a working poet has never been easy but the recent cuts to education budgets have begun to seriously impact on my income, as more and more schools struggle to find funds for author visits. As well as buying me time to write, this grant will also enable me to offer a few free visits to schools to help research and trial the new poems, as well as inspiring young people to create work of their own.”