The Society of Authors is a United Kingdomtrade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to protect the rights and further the interests of authors., it represents 11,000 members and associates. The SoA vets members' contracts and advises on professional issues, as well as providing training, representing authors in collective negotiations with publishers to improve contract terms, lobbying on issues that affect authors such as copyright, UK arts funding and Public Lending Right. The SoA administers a range of grants for writers in need and to fund work in progress, awarding more than £250,000 to writers each year. The SoA also administers prizes for fiction, non-fiction, poetry, translation and drama, including the Betty Trask Award and the Somerset Maugham Award. The SoA acts as the literary representative for the estates of a number of writers. This list includes George Bernard Shaw, Virginia Woolf, Philip Larkin, E. M. Forster, Rosamond Lehmann, Walter de la Mare, John Masefield and Compton Mackenzie. Authors of all kinds are eligible to join, whether they are already established or at the beginning of their careers.
History
It has counted among its members and presidents numerous notable writers and poets, including Tennyson, George Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy, John Edward Masefield, Thomas Hardy, H. G. Wells, J. M. Barrie and E. M. Forster. Bernard Shaw was an early member who took a prominent part in action and discussions, founding the League of Dramatists in 1931 as part of the SoA. The was also formed after much action by the SoA. Well known contemporary members include Philip Pullman, Malorie Blackman, Neil Gaiman, Philip Gross, Judith Kerr, Hilary Mantel, J. K. Rowling and Lemn Sissay. The Society of Authors' quarterly journal, The Author, was first published in 1890. Its first editor was novelist and historian Walter Besant, the SoA's founding Chair. He was succeeded by George Herbert, author Denys Kilham Roberts, author C. R. Hewitt, the theatre critic, biographer and newspaper editor Richard Findlater, author Derek Parker, novelist Andrew Taylor, novelist and publisher Fanny Blake and novelist and publisher Andrew Rosenheim. Since November 2012 the journal's editor has been the writer and critic James McConnachie. In 1958 the Translators Association was established as a specialist group within the Society of Authors.
