31 October 2022
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From left: Harriet Evans (photograph © Phillipa Gedge), Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin (photograph © Alice Rose Jordan), Abie Longstaff and Nicholas Rankin
Society of Authors members have elected Harriet Evans, Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin (re-elected), Abie Longstaff (re-elected) and Nicholas Rankin to join the union's Management Committee.
They will join the Board after the organisation's 2022 AGM on 17 November, when Simon Cann, Abie Longstaff and Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin complete their current three-year terms. Joanne Harris was unanimously re-elected as Chair in January 2022 and will serve until January 2024.
The Management Committee is the SoA’s board of directors, voted for by the union's members, and responsible for the strategic direction of the organisation.
SoA members were invited to stand for election in June and we received 14 nominations for four vacancies.
Welcoming the results, Chair of the Management Committee Joanne Harris said:
2022 has been an unpredictable year for authors and 2023 looks set to have an even greater impact on the day-to-day reality of earning a living and protecting our work. The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic continue to impact us, along with the ongoing impact of Brexit and now a deepening cost of living crisis.
Harriet, Vanessa, Abie and Nicholas start their three-year terms at a challenging time for so many in the creative industries. The fact that the SoA has continued to grow over the past few years, now representing over 12,000 authors, shows that more and more writers, illustrators and translators are looking to us for guidance and support — our new Management Committee members’ knowledge and input will be critical to delivering it.
The Management Committee for 2022/2023 will be Harriet Evans, Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, Charles Harris, Joanne Harris (Chair), Dorothy Koomson, Abie Longstaff, Juliet McKenna, Nicholas Rankin, Anne Rooney, Hugh Roberts, Margaret Skea, Tim Tate and Philip Womack.
Many thanks to Simon Cann for his strategic input to the direction of the organisation over the past three years.