Royal Society of Literature

Three annual awards — of £10,000, £5,000 and £2,500 — are available for authors engaged on their first commissioned works of non-fiction.

The Awards are open to writers for their first commissioned works of non-ﬁction. Writers may submit applications themselves or their publisher or agent may submit on their behalf.

Entrants may have previously published work for an academic audience or edited books of writing by others, but the submitted entry must be their ﬁrst substantial work of non-ﬁction for a general readership. Entries from writers well-established in another genre are unlikely to be accepted.

The writer must be resident in the United Kingdom (UK) or Republic or Ireland (RoI).

Only books due to be published in the UK or RoI, by UK- or RoI-based publishers will be considered.

Self-publishing or vanity publishing organisations are not eligible.

Cookbooks or recipe books are not eligible.

Books written in another language, or to be translated into English, are not eligible.

 RSL Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction

Applications must include all of the the following as separate documents with no page numbers, footers, headers, or contact details for the author (with the exception of the letter from publisher and contract):

i. a letter of support from the publishing editor (1 page)
ii. a statement from the writer about their work and how an Award would further this particular project, including a brief summary of their ﬁnancial circumstances (max. 2 pages)
iii. a synopsis of the book, outlining the time frame for research and writing (max. 2 pages)
iv. a draft chapter of the book or other brief sample of writing up to 20 pages
v. a signed copy of the contract with the publisher.

RSL Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction

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