SoA Comics Creators Network welcomes new Steering Committee
Five comics creators have joined the Steering Committee for the SoA’s Comics Creators Network alongside founders Hannah Berry and Woodrow Phoenix.
The SoA View on Budget 2021
We welcome the Chancellor’s £400 million boost for the arts, but the Budget fails to do ‘whatever it takes’ to help self-employed authors and creative professionals who have fallen through the gaps in Government support over the last 12 months.
Authors’ unions launch investigation into contribution publishers
UK writers’ unions the Society of Authors and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), backed by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), have joined forces to research the allegedly exploitative practices of some publishers that charge authors to publish their work. This follows a sharp rise in complaints from authors about these companies received by both unions.
COVID-19: how has it affected you so far and what will it mean for you this year?
The first 2021 round of our Authors in the Health Crisis survey is now open.
Author trade union concerns over PRH and Simon & Schuster merger
We have written to the Competition & Markets Authority and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy expressing concerns about the proposed $2.2 billion acquisition of US publisher Simon & Schuster by German conglomerate, Bertelsmann, which owns Penguin Random House.
Contingency Fund open for repeat applications
Individuals supported by the Fund in 2020 can now reapply, as we take stock of how the SoA can continue to support authors through the health crisis in 2021.
‘Writer and translator in powerful harmony’ – Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri wins John Florio Prize for translation
Author takes the 2020 John Florio Prize for her ‘exceptional’ and ‘agile’ translation from Italian of Trick by Domenico Starnone, in the Society of Authors’ annual Translation Prizes. Editor Saba Ahmed wins the TA First Translation Prize for the second year running.
SoA and AoI call on Government to end Brexit uncertainty for creators
The SoA has joined with the Association of Illustrators to submit written evidence to the House of Lords’ EU Sub-Committee inquiry into the future of UK-EU trade in services. In it, they call on Government to act urgently to end the uncertainty faced by creative practitioners as a result of Brexit and, ‘to ensure that the UK can be the best place in the world to be a creator.’
Shortlists for the 2021 Imison and Tinniswood Awards
The eight shortlisted writers include ‘Holby City’ writer Becky Prestwich, award-winning actor, writer and director Fraser Ayres, MA screenwriting graduate Isaac Fisher & more – part of the BBC Audio Drama Awards.
#FreewordsBelarus #StandWithBelarus #Justice4Belarus
The Society of Authors backs call from the European Writers Council (of which we are members) and the European Council of Literary Translators’ Associations to the Ministers of Culture from European countries to take urgent steps required to end the violence and repression against writers, translators, and the independent cultural scene in Belarus
We got it wrong
We have taken the difficult decision to postpone next week’s TA @ Home Festival.
Four members join SoA’s Children’s Writers and Illustrators committee
Ian Billings, A M Dassu, Chitra Soundar and Isabel Thomas will represent children’s fiction, poetry, scriptwriting, audio drama, educational books and more on the Group’s committee.