LMH English Fellow Professor Sophie Ratcliffe has been named as the 2026 recipient of the E.M. Forster Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
The $20,000 award recognises an outstanding writer from the United Kingdom or Ireland, and previous recipients include Julian Barnes, Carol Ann Duffy, Jeanette Winterson, Kate Atkinson, and Alan Hollinghurst.
Founded in 1898, the American Academy of Arts and Letters celebrates artistic excellence across literature, music, and the visual arts. Authors are nominated by Academy members, with winners selected by a rotating committee of writers. The 2026 committee was chaired by Mona Simpson, alongside Henri Cole, Adam Gopnik, and Yiyun Li.
Professor Ratcliffe’s writing explores the intersections of literature, philosophy, history, creative criticism, and fiction. Her publications include The Lost Properties of Love (2019), published in the United States as Loss, A Love Story (2024), and On Sympathy (2008). She is currently writing a novel, and completing an academic book on children and libraries, supported by a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship. Her edition of P. G. Wodehouse’s Letters was reissued by Penguin in 2025.
Alongside her academic work, Professor Ratcliffe is a regular reviewer for the national press.
Professor Ratcliffe will receive her award at the Academy’s annual Ceremonial in New York in May.
