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RLF Writers’ News: March 2026

Publishing

Ruth Dugdall has signed a six book deal with HQ Harper Collins for her Cate Austin Casefiles crime series, which examine the dark side of human nature from the rarely seen world of the probation service. The series began with The Woman Before Me, which won the Debut Dagger in 2005.

Ex-probation officer Ruth says:

Authenticity is my North Star and all of my writing is informed by personal experience or real cases. The probation officer exists at the most delicate places within the Criminal Justice System, sentencing and release, and I aim to show the challenges probation officers face daily through my protagonist Cate Austin.

Read more on The Bookseller.

Lauren J Joseph’s new novel Lean Cat, Savage Cat has been published by Bloomsbury:

“Charli has finished art school and has no idea what to do with her life. One night in Soho, she encounters the charismatic musician Alexander Geist. Androgynous, glamorously handsome, mysterious and just a little sinister, he feels something like a soul mate, so when he heads off to Berlin, Charli follows. There, at the centre of the city’s febrile party scene, they embark on their great project to make Alexander into the biggest star since David Bowie. Charli is in over her head before she realises just how self-destructive her life has become under his spell.” 

Lauren will be appearing with Olivia Laing at the London Review Bookshop to mark the publication of Lean Cat, Savage Cat on Wednesday 4 March. Tickets here.

Jim Carruth‘s long awaited verse novella Knockan has been published by Tapselteerie Press.

Described by Martina Evans as “powerful, spare and heart-breaking”, this novel-in-verse is an original and powerful exploration of a crofter and her estranged daughter, set amidst the savage beauty of Assynt, North-West Scotland.

Jim will perform from Knockan at the opening night of Stanza 2026, Scotland’s International Poetry Festival, on Friday 13 March. Details here.

Jill Dawson’s new book Pixie is published on 12 March by Bloomsbury.

An immersive and wildly entertaining historical novel, Pixie reimagines the boundaries-pushing story of Pamela ‘Pixie’ Colman Smith – artist, publisher and illustrator of the still-iconic Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck – at the turn of the twentieth century.

Jill will be at the Cambridge Literary Festival on 18 March to introduce Pixie and give tarot readings in the intimate setting of the University Arms Hotel Library. More information here.

Caroline Corcoran’s sixth book, The Next Woman, is released on 16 March.

A thriller set on Aurora Island – a paradise of beautiful beaches and picture-postcard villages a mile off the mainland – the story follows protagonist Lily, who has escaped to the island to reinvent herself. But when women begin vanishing in a chilling alphabetical pattern and a hit true-crime podcast host arrives to cover the story, panic builds – and for Lily, time is running out.

Jane Rogoyska’s new book, Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War, has been published by Allen Lane/Penguin.

 Hotel Exile is about what happens on the edges of a war. It tells the story of the only ‘grand’ hotel on the bohemian Left Bank, a place for musicians, politicians and artists including André Gide, James Joyce, Picasso and Matisse which became a focus for some of the most dramatic and terrible events in recent history. 

Jane will launch Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War at an event in conversation with Anne Sebba at Daunt Books, Marylebone on Thursday 26 March. Find out more here. There will also be a special display of the book at Foyles on Charing Cross Road, London until March 6.

Broadcasts 

Stephen Wyatt‘s dramatisation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy is currently available on BBC Sounds.

Blake Ritson, David Warner and John Hurt star in Dante’s epic poem, in which 35-year-old Dante finds himself in the middle of a dark wood, in extreme personal and spiritual crisis. Hope of rescue appears in the form of the venerable poet Virgil, now a shade himself, who offers to lead Dante on an odyssey through the afterlife. Many years later, the older Dante, still in enforced exile from his beloved Florence, attempts to finish his great poem and reflects on the events that have led him to its writing.

Listen here. Available until 20 March.

Sol B River’s radio play Double Exposure has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 as part of their ‘Secrets and Lies’ season.

Double Exposure follows Ernest Withers, a key photographer in the Civil Rights movement. During the Emmet Till trial, Withers took the photo that was said to have inspired Rosa Parks. He took those first photos of Martin Luther King on a desegregated Montgomery bus, he photographed the Little Rock Nine, the March Against Fear and the Sanitation Workers Strike. His photos carried the story; he was at the heart of the movement. And he was also working for the FBI…

Sol B River’s documentary drama explores the man, the motivations and key images in the history of the movement, reflecting light on the volatile world of Southern USA in the 1950s and 60s. Starring Steve Toussaint as Ernest Withers and Ayesha Antonie as Dorothy Withers.

Available to listen now on BBC Sounds.

Collected: Live 

This month’s Collected: Live panel events include:

• How Writers Work with Liz Hyder and Juliet Clare Bell, chaired by Leila Rasheed, at Kings Heath Library in Birmingham on 14 March. Features panel discussion and Q&A. Details here. Contact the library to book.
• The Writing Habit: Conversations with Writers from the Royal Literary Fund with Dr Christy Ducker, Kathleen Jones and Harry Man at Collected Books in Durham on 25 March. Inspired by clips from the RLF’s audio archive, the writers will discuss their own experiences and take questions from readers. Tickets here.

Events

A number of RLF and WritersMosaic poets will be appearing at the Stanza International Festival of Poetry, including:

• Marjorie Lotfi on 13 and 14 March
• Anthony Joseph on 14 March
• Nick Makoha on 14 March
• Pascale Petit  on 14 March
• Harry Man on 15 March

WritersMosaic presents Iranian Women’s Voices, an evening of conversation, poetry, film, music and protest at The British Library on Monday 16 March.

Marjorie Lotfi, Sana Nassari and Shara Atashi will be joined by Iranian musicians for an event that will also feature the extraordinary photography of Hengameh Golestan, documenting women protesting the oppression of the Iranian authorities.

The event draws on work published in the latest WritersMosaic Quarterly, Iranian Women’s Voices, where creative women from Iran and the diaspora reflect on art, the constraints of present-day Iran and dreams for the future, inspired by the ‘The Rebel Poet of Iran’, filmmaker Forough Farrokhzad.

Tickets here.

Awards

Diane Samuels has been nominated in the Creation category of 2026 OffWestEnd Awards for As Long As We Are Breathing, a multi-sensory evocation of the true-life story of Miriam Freedman which premiered at the Arcola Theatre last year, in a production directed by Ben Caplan.

Live music, audio, video, personal testimony and physical theatre piece together an intimate encounter with Miriam’s older and younger self, her childhood experience of hiding in Slovakia during the Holocaust and search for healing and forgiveness.

Find out more here.

Jane Rogoyska’s new book Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War has been longlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction.

Read the full longlist here.

Rosalind Harvey will be translator-in-residence at the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT) for the next four months, working on a non-fiction book project about translation and therapy and contributing to the research seminar series and MA workshop programme.

The 2025 winner of the Jan Michalski Prize, Rosalind is a founding member of the Emerging Translators Network, and her current creative non-fiction book examines literary translation through a personal, psychotherapeutic lens. For more on her BCLT research, visit the UEA website.

RLF Fellow Maisie Chan and Laura Henry-Allain MBE of WritersMosaic have been shortlisted for the 2026 Ruth Rendell Award, which honours authors who have significantly influenced and championed literacy in the last year.

The award was launched in 2016 by The Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) and the National Literacy Trust in honour of the best-selling crime author and literacy advocate Ruth Rendell. Previous winners include Andy McNab, Cressida Cowell, and Chris Smith and Greg James. The winner of the 2026 Ruth Rendell Award will be announced at a reception at Goldsmiths’ Centre in London on 26 February 2026.

Details  here.

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