Nigerian novelist and Aké Arts and Book Festival founder Lola Shoneyin and Egyptian-born British food writer Claudia Roden have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) as part of the society’s 2026 cohort of 22 new Fellows.
The Royal Society of Literature Fellowship is one of the United Kingdom’s highest literary honours, recognising writers whose work has made a significant contribution to literature. New Fellows are elected by their peers and selected by the Society’s Council of writers—the governing board—along with its Vice-Presidents, President, and Presidents Emeriti. They are formally inducted by signing the Society’s historic Roll Book, which dates back to 1825 and bears the signatures of generations of distinguished writers. The Fellowship enables members to support other writers and readers while advancing the future of literature by connecting Fellows with a wider readership.
About The Elected Fellows
LOLA SHONEYIN is a Nigerian poet and author whose novel, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, was published in 2010. She has published three volumes of poetry and was named on the Hay Festival’s Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers under the age of 40 with the potential to define trends in African literature. A recipient of the PEN Award in America and the Ken Saro-Wiwa Award for Prose in Nigeria, Shoneyin was also longlisted for the Orange Prize for her novel, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives. She is the founder and director of the Book Buzz Foundation, established to promote arts and culture, and runs the annual Aké Arts and Book Festival in Lagos. In 2017, she was named African Literary Person of the Year by Brittle Paper.
CLAUDIA RODEN was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1936. She studied at St Martin’s School of Art in London before her studies were interrupted when her parents came to London as refugees. Her book A Book of Middle Eastern Food, published in 1968, was said to have revolutionised Western attitudes to the cuisines of the Middle East and North Africa. She later published Mediterranean Cookery, The Food of Italy, The Book of Jewish Food, Claudia Roden’s Invitation to Mediterranean Cooking – 150 Vegetarian and Seafood Recipes, Tamarind and Saffron, Arabesque, and The Food of Spain. In 2012, the Guild of Food Writers awarded her a Lifetime Achievement Award.
The 2026 fellows also include Arifa Akbar, Jake Arnott, Joanna Biggs, Dinah Birch, Leo Boix, James Campbell, Lauren Child, Patricia Duncker, Melissa Harrison, Sophie Herxheimer, Katie Hickman, Kapka Kassabova, Stuart Kelly, Nigella Lawson, Roger Lewis, Tim Liardet, Ankhi Mukherjee, Chris Riddell, Nell Stevens, and Philip Terry.
Congratulations, Lola Shoneyin and Claudia Roden!
