|
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society and the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent".〔(www.lib.cam.ac.uk )〕 The society's first president was Thomas Burgess, Bishop of St David's (who was later translated as Bishop of Salisbury). The society maintains its current level of about 450 Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature: generally 14 new fellows are elected annually, who are accorded the privilege of using the post-nominal letters FRSL. Past fellows include Samuel Taylor Coleridge, J. R. R. Tolkien, W. B. Yeats, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Koestler and Chinua Achebe. Present Fellows include Antonia Fraser, Athol Fugard, V. S. Naipaul, Peter Dickinson, Tom Stoppard, Helen Dunmore and J. K. Rowling. A newly created fellow inscribes his or her name on the society's official roll using either Byron's pen or Dickens's quill. The society publishes an annual magazine, ''The Royal Society of Literature Review'',〔(RSL Review )〕 and administers a number of literary prizes and awards, including the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the RSL Jerwood Awards for Non-Fiction and the V. S. Pritchett Memorial Prize for short stories. From time to time it confers the honour and title of ''Companion of Literature'' to writers of particular note. Additionally the RSL can bestow its award of the Benson Medal for lifetime service in the field of literature. The RSL also runs a membership scheme (RSLM)〔(www.rslit.org/content/membership )〕 and offers a varied programme of monthly lectures to members and their guests. The society is a cultural tenant at London's palatial Somerset House. ==Awards and prizes== The RSL administers two annual prizes, two awards, and two honours. Through its prize programmes, the RSL supports new and established contemporary writers. * The RSL Brookleaze Grants - a total of £5,000 is awarded annually to novelists, playwrights, poets or short story writers who need time away from their normal lives to write. * The RSL Jerwood Award's for Non-Fiction (1902) – three annual awards, one of £10,000 and two of £5,000, to authors engaged on their first commissioned works of non-fiction. * The RSL Ondaatje Prize (1882) – an annual award of £10,000 for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place. * The V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize – an annual prize of £1,000 for the best unpublished short story of the year. * The Benson Medal – awarded to those who have done sustained and outstanding service to literature. * Companion of Literature – the highest honour that the Society can bestow upon a writer. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Royal Society of Literature」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|