The Literature Matters Hub

Scottish BAME Writers Network

Recipient of 2019 RSL Literature Matters Award Alycia Pirmohamed shares some of the work from the 'Ceremony' anthology.

Mallarmé Matters

Short fiction from RSL Fellow Robert Fraser.

Interview with Matt Bryden

Recipient of 2018 RSL Literature Matters Award Matt Bryden talks about his time in residence in Bristol Temple Meads Train Station.

Interview with Pascale Petit

Recipient of 2018 RSL Literature Matters Award Pascale Petit talks through her writing process and influences.

Literature Matters: Identity and Idealism

Hari Kunzru reflects on what literature means to us; whether its meaning changes when you develop from a reader into a writer; and whether fiction should have political ramifications.

Why Literature Matters – interview with Tracy Chevalier

How digital, mobile literature can foster gender equality

By Giulia Pelosi, Worldreader Gender Specialist

A Civil Engineer’s View

Retired civil engineer Gyan Shrivastava on why literature matters to him.

Literature Matters: The democracy of reading

For the second of our Literature Matters event RSL Vice President Philip Pullman discusses the importance of reading.

Imagination in Action (full transcript)

A full transcript of RSL President Marina Warner's talk 'Literature Matters: Imagination in Action'

Reader

A poem by Grahame Davies.

Literature Matters: imagination in action

Marina Warner looks at the interactions of stories and power in unsettled times.

Why literature matters

The idea that literature can make us emotionally and physically stronger goes back to Plato. RSL Fellow and Vice-Chair of Council Blake Morrison on why Shakespeare is more beneficial than self-help guides.

Boost your brain with the classics

Is technology is silencing the art of the spoken and written word?

Jane Austen banknote

Victoria Cleland, Chief Cashier, Bank of England, on the new Jane Austen banknote

So why does literature matter?

A former RSL Schools Outreach participant Vincent Otterbeck on the difference creative writing classes had on his enjoyment of literature

Literature matters

A former RSL Schools Outreach participant Sophie Crabtree on why literature matters

A comic strip about the Literature Matters Hub

A comic strip by Anna Trench

Why Literature Matters?

English Literature student Safeerah Mughal on the literature that matters to her

What I think about when I think about literature by Jennifer Obidike

RSL Volunteer, Jennifer Obidike, reads a Jeanette Winterson extract

The power of stories: Michael Morpurgo’s full Book Trust lecture

Michael Morpurgo's lecture for BookTrust

Literature In Britain Today

Our report following an Ipsos MORI poll of attitudes to literature across Great Britain.

News from Nowhere by A. L. Kennedy

A. L. Kennedy's keynote address delivered at the British Library for European Literature Night on Wednesday 10 May 2017

Why Writing Matters by Michael Rosen

Talk given by Michael Rosen to celebrate the first National Writing Day, 21 June 2017

Why Writing Matters by Jonathan Coe

Talk given by Jonathan Coe at the Arnolfini Gallery to celebrate the first National Writing Day, 21 June 2017

Books, by Caleb Femi

Poem commissioned for RSL Review, Spring 2017

Why Literature Matters by Kamila Shamsie

RSL Vice-Chair and novelist Kamila Shamsie on why literature matters