9 January 2018 The Scottish Law Commission (SLC) has published its Report on Defamation, which includes a draft defamation reform bill. This follows hundreds of campaigners responding to the SLC’s consultations on defamation in 2016 and on a working draft of a defamation reform bill last summer. The SoA has lobbied in favour of Scottish…
We’ve announced the shortlists for this year’s Imison Award (for best original audio drama script by a writer new to the medium) and Tinniswood Award (for best original audio drama script of the year). Topics tackled by a thematically diverse array of scripts include colonialism, Jewish divorce and a chilling vision of a near future…
22 December 2017 Established and debut authors share in this year’s second round of literary grants for works in progress. (from left: Nazneen Ahmed, Sarah K Marr, Muhammad Khan, Eli Goldstone, Sam Riviere and Wendy Moore) Over the past six months we have received more applications than ever before for our biannual round of literary…
13 December 2017 The Internet Archive is a San Francisco–based nonprofit digital library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. It seeks donations of hard-copy books from libraries and individuals and then scans, digitises, and offers them for lending and downloading without paying royalties or PLR. According to our sister organisation…
Practical advice and guidance from the SoA’s advisory team
8 December 2017 This year the Bookseller has recognised contributions by our President, Philip Pullman, and our Chief Executive, Nicola Solomon. Pullman has campaigned tirelessly for authors’ rights this year, as usual, leading the charge for better school library provisions, protection of public libraries, freedom of expression and fairer approaches to deep discounts on book…
5th December 2017 The £2,000 prize was presented at the All Party Parliamentary Writers Group (APWG) Winter Reception at the House of Commons on 5th December. The winner of the 2017 Award is THE BOOK OF BEES, written by Wojciech Grajkowski, illustrated by Piotr Socha, and translated into English from the Polish by Agnes Monod-Gayraud….
Practical advice and guidance from the SoA’s advisory team
7 December 2017 Sally Rooney’s debut novel CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS (Faber) has won this year’s Sunday Times / Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award 2017. The £5,000 award was presented at a ceremony at The London Library on Thursday 7th December. This year’s prize was judged by The Sunday Times Literary Editor…
1st December 2017 We are delighted to reveal the four books that have been shortlisted for the 2017 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize, which recognises full-length works of imaginative and creative writing translated from Arabic. The winner will be announced in January, and presented with their £3,000 award at the Society of Authors Translation Prizes on…
29 November 2017 Next month the funds available to Scottish culture will be decided in a settlement between Creative Scotland and the Scottish Government. The proposals have been made available and each one presents a scenario where significantly less funding and fewer opportunities are available to develop arts and culture in Scotland. The Advocacy Group…
28 November 2017 The Management Committee has agreed that the fees paid to speakers at Society of Authors events should be increased. Authors – both as part of the SoA and independently – have pushed hard for literary festivals to pay speakers a fair rate. Considering the vital role authors play in bringing attendees and…
