As part of the ongoing RSL 200 festival, we are delighted to announce a new group of 12 International Writers as part of the The RSL International Writers programme. They are Anne Carson, Maryse Condé, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Cornelia Funke, Mary Gaitskill, Faïza Guène, Saidiya Hartman, Kim Hyesoon, Yōko Ogawa, Raja Shehadeh, Juan Gabriel Vasquez and Samar Yazbek.  RSL 200, a five-year festival with a series of major new initiatives, features 60 new appointments championing the great diversity of writing and writers in the UK. The RSL International Writers programme is an award recognising the contribution of writers across the globe to literature in English, and the power of literature to transcend borders to bring people together. A life-long honour, new writers will be invited to join the RSL’s International Writers each year forming an ever-expanding global community of authors.

These newly awarded RSL International Writers join the inaugural awardees: Don Mee Choi, Annie Ernaux, David Grossman, Jamaica Kincaid, Yan Lianke, Amin Maalouf, Alain Mabanckou, Javier Marías, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Claudia Rankine, Olga Tokarczuk and Dubravka Ugrešić.

Readers and writers were asked to recommend writers outside the UK for nomination. Readers and writers were asked to recommend writers outside the UK for nomination. Daniel Hahn chaired a panel of Fellows and Honorary Fellows including Mojisola Adebayo, Nick Barley, Sharmilla Beezmohun, Maureen Freely, Nell Leyshon, Nadifa Mohamed, Daljit Nagra and Katherine Rundell, who nominated writers for Council to appoint.

In more good news, the programme is now open for 2023 nominations, send your recommendations in by 5pm, 28 April 2023!