News from The Royal Society of Literature

August news This month we welcome our new Director Tim Robertson. Read more about Tim below.   Our Autumn/Winter Programme is now available to book online. The first event will be American theatre critic and biographer John Lahr discussing Tennessee Williams on 9 September. Book now.   Writers! We are accepting applications for the autumn round of RSL Brookleaze Grants. The purpose of these grants is to buy time for novelists, short-story writers, poets or playwrights with pieces of work in hand. Please visit our website for full details of eligibility and how to apply. Deadline for applications is Monday 2 November 2015.   We have increased our Young Person's membership age from 24 to 30; now all those aged 18 to 30 can enjoy all the benefits of RSL membership for £30 per year. RSL Membership makes a great gift for birthdays and other celebrations. For more information contact Ellen Harber membership@rsliterature.org or call 020 7845 4679.

New RSL Director Tim Robertson "I have always believed with Shelley that poets – and literary prose writers – are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. The RSL plays a unique national role in restoring some of that acknowledgement – to individual writers and to the crucial contribution that literature makes to society, helping us see ourselves and envisage the future. I feel privileged to be picking up the reins of this vital tradition, and tremendously excited to start working with the staff, Fellows, Members and wider literary field in taking it forward." Read Tim's biography on our website. What's so great about Trollope? 7 October, 7pm Courtauld Institute of Art Should we take Anthony Trollope seriously? Are Barchester Towers, Phineas Finn and The Way We Live Now comfort reading for addicts of the heritage industry and TV costume drama, or is Trollope up there with Dickens, Hardy and the Bronte exponents of the Victorian novel at its most incisively original? In an event marking the bicentenary of his birth, Jonathan Keates, Kwasi Kwarteng, Michael Symmons Roberts and Joanna Trollope examine his reputation, his surprising narrative range and his often audacious and strikingly humane treatment of controversial themes and characters. BOOK NOW Fellows' news  Congratulations to Romesh Gunesekera, pictured, who has been shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2015 for his novel Noon Tide Toll.   Speakers at the Ways With Words, Southwold Literature Festival, (5-9 November) include: Melvyn Bragg and Penelope Lively. Tickets for all events (except the literary dinner) are £12. Click here for the full programme.   Hermione Lee is one of the confirmed speakers at  'We All Have These Thoughts Sometimes', a one-day conference on the work of Stevie Smith (1902-1971). Proposals are still invited. Visit the conference website for more information. MORE