Full name The Society of Authors Members Over 9,000 | Founded 1884 | |
Key people David Donachie, ChairPhilip Pullman, President | ||
The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers that was founded in 1884 to protect the rights and further the interests of authors. As of November 2014, it has over 9,300 members and associates.
Contents
The SoA advises members on any queries about the business of writing, as well as providing training, representing authors in collective negotiations with publishers to improve contract terms, lobbying on issues that affect authors such as copyright, UK arts funding and Public Lending Right.
The SoA administers a range of grants and prizes such as the Authors’ Foundation, which is one of the few bodies making grants to help with works in progress for established writers.
The SoA also acts as the literary representative for the estates of a number of writers. This list includes George Bernard Shaw, Virginia Woolf, Philip Larkin, E. M. Forster, Rosamond Lehmann, Walter de la Mare, John Masefield and Compton Mackenzie.
Writers of all kinds are eligible to join as soon as they have been offered a contract from a publisher, broadcaster or agent.
History
It has counted amongst its members and presidents numerous notable writers and poets including Tennyson (first president), George Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy, John Edward Masefield, Thomas Hardy, H. G. Wells, J. M. Barrie and E. M. Forster.
Bernard Shaw was an early member who took a prominent part in action and discussions, founding the League of Dramatists in 1931 as part of the Society. The Authors' Licensing and Collection Society was also formed after much action by the Society.
The Society's quarterly journal, The Author was first published in 1890. Its first editor was novelist and historian Walter Besant, the Society's founding Chair. He was succeeded by George Herbert, author Denys Kilham Roberts, author C.R. Hewitt (writing as 'C.H. Rolph'), the theatre critic, biographer and newspaper editor Richard Findlater, author Derek Parker, novelist Andrew Taylor, novelist and publisher Fanny Blake and novelist and publisher Andrew Rosenheim. Since November 2012 the editor has been the writer and critic James McConnachie.
In 1958 the Translators Association (TA) was established as a specialist group within the Society of Authors.
Awards and prizes
Prizes for fiction and non-fiction administered by the Society include:
The Society also administers a number of literary translation prizes, including:
Writers in Oxford
Writers in Oxford is a society for published authors living or working in the Oxford area of the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1992 by local members of the Society of Authors such as Philip Pullman and is run by its members for the benefit of fellow writers. It holds some joint events with the Society of Authors as well as its own programme of speaker meetings, visits and networking gatherings.
Members range from poets to novelists, playwrights to journalists. The Society supports local events such as the Oxford Literary Festival. It publishes a newsletter, The Oxford Writer.
Members
A selection of members, past and present: