The RSL Pioneer Prize, which will run for ten years from 2025, will be awarded annually to a living female writer over the age of 60 who has been a pioneer in their field. Each year the RSL Pioneer Prize will focus on one literary genre, with a jury of specialists in that field—who could be agents, literature workers, publishers, critics or writers—who will choose the winning writer. The definition of pioneer in this context is to mean women writers who broke new ground in literature and other definitions of the term ‘pioneer’ that are deemed appropriate by each jury.
The winner will receive £10,000 and be asked to spotlight a deceased and forgotten female writer who inspired them when they were starting out. Additionally, the winning writer will select three emerging younger writers to spotlight.
Excellent news from the Royal Society of Literature. The money for the prize was donated by Bernardine Evaristo, the current President of the RSL, and the first winner is Margaret Duffy. A large part of the RSL archive has also been digitised at Cambridge to mark the two hundredth anniversary of its founding. You can see the digitised documents here.
This is exactly the sort of thing the RSL ought to be doing. It is good to see that all the brouhaha is finally over and good work is being done. Kudos to all involved!
