The Royal Society of Literature is launching a groundbreaking new prize funded entirely by its President Bernardine Evaristo. The RSL Pioneer Prize will recognize pioneering British women writers over 60 who have been trailblazers in their field, marking the RSL’s 200th anniversary with a celebration of literary pioneers.

Evaristo is donating the entire £100,000 cash prize from her recent Women’s Prize Outstanding Contribution Award to establish this new annual prize. The Outstanding Contribution Award was a special one-off honour marking the 30th anniversary of the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2025, funded by Bukhman Philanthropies.

“It felt right that I should share this substantial and unexpected windfall with other older women writers as a way to acknowledge their pioneer spirits and achievements,” says Evaristo. “It’s very easy to forget the feminist struggles of the past and the intrepid women who paved the way for successive generations, and it’s important to celebrate our trailblazers while they are still around to enjoy it.”

The RSL Pioneer Prize will run for ten years from 2025, with an annual £10,000 award going to a living female writer over 60 who has broken new ground in literature. Each year will focus on a different literary genre, with specialist juries choosing the winners.

The inaugural winner is Maureen Duffy, poet, playwright, novelist, and activist who has authored more than 60 published works. Duffy’s openly lesbian bestselling novel The Microcosm was groundbreaking when published in 1966, and she co-founded the Writers’ Action Group in 1972 and was instrumental in establishing the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society in 1977.

“When I conceived of the prize Maureen Duffy was always foremost in my mind as the recipient because she is a true trailblazer in every sense of the word,” Evaristo explains. “Raised in a working-class, single-parent family, she has had a prodigious, prolific and varied career as a brilliant, imaginative and groundbreaking writer since the early 1960s.”

Winners will also be asked to spotlight a deceased and forgotten female writer who inspired them, plus select three emerging younger writers to celebrate throughout the year.

Duffy’s win will be celebrated at a special event at the British Library on Sunday 30 November at 2.30pm, where Evaristo will host tributes from writers influenced by Duffy’s work and activism.

The prize launch coincides with the 200th anniversary of the RSL’s incorporation with a Royal Charter on 15 September 1825. To mark the bicentenary, Cambridge University Library is releasing digitised versions of historic RSL documents online for the first time.

The second RSL Pioneer Prize will be awarded in autumn 2026, with next year’s panel chaired by Ruth Borthwick, Chair of PEN.