About the Royal Literary Fund
Founded in 1790, the Royal Literary Fund (RLF) is a UK charity that helps writers in financial need. We annually deliver over £5 million in grants, education, and outreach programmes.
We offer a range of grants to professional writers needing short-term to long-term financial support, whether because they are in debt, facing reduced income, or unable to write due to a change in circumstances, sickness, disability, or age.
Since 1999, our RLF Education programmes have created earning opportunities for over 750 professional writers at over 100 universities and institutions. Most begin as RLF Fellows, teaching students writing skills across the UK, from Aberdeen to Aberystwyth, Belfast to Brighton. Many then continue to work with the RLF by creating local reading round groups, leading expressive writing sessions, and helping develop writing skills in the workplace.
For over two centuries and through our commitment to supporting literary excellence and representation in contemporary writing, we have been able to support many writers who have gone on to produce some of their most influential and best-known works, including Anna Burns, Margaret Busby, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Joseph Conrad, Elizabeth Jennings, James Joyce, Hanif Kureishi, D.H. Lawrence, Doris Lessing, Mustapha Matura, Edith Nesbit, Edna O’Brien, Mervyn Peake, Monique Roffey, Ali Smith, Bram Stoker, Dylan Thomas, and Antonia White.
Our Mission
We believe writers matter because writing matters. Professional writers should be able to sustain themselves and thrive, even when times are hard. The RLF offers financial support, advice and earning opportunities across the UK, enabling writers to keep writing and to share their skills with others.
Writing can change lives for the better.
- We believe all writers who seek assistance from us should be able to do so without stigma.
- We are inclusive and work with and support writers from all backgrounds.
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We believe writers in public education and the community can foster a deeper appreciation of the power of the written word within society.
Our Values
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Annual Reports
Our yearly reports provide an important retrospective into how we’ve delivered on our mission to change writers’ lives and the impact they make with the organisations and people we work with across the UK.
Our reports cover the financial year, 1 April – 30 March.