About

Deborah Rogers

A literary agent all her professional life, Deborah Rogers (1938-2014) set up her own agency in 1967, and twenty years later formed Rogers Coleridge & White with Gill Coleridge and Pat White. One of the most influential literary agents of her generation, Deborah was renowned for her taste, her loyalty and her immense generosity in the support she gave to authors. At the 2014 London Book Fair, Deborah was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award in International Publishing, the first agent to have received the honour. Her sudden death a few weeks later sent a shockwave through the world of publishing and the many writers, publishers and agents whose lives she had touched.

Deborah’s particular genius lay in identifying and supporting talented young people. The Deborah Rogers Foundation (DRF) was therefore set up in her memory to continue to seek out and support emerging talent in the publishing world specifically by means of two awards:

  • The Writers Award which gives £10,000 to an unpublished writer to enable them to complete a first book, and 
  • The David Miller Internship Programme which offers two entry level, paid internships to rights and agenting, partnering with Creative Access to search for candidates from groups who are under-represented in the sector gain
    international work experience.

The Board chaired by Lord Berkeley of Knighton, Deborah’s widower, comprises people who knew and loved Deborah, including RCW colleagues, writers and friends from the publishing world.

For more information about these awards please go to the Writers Award page or the David Miller Internship Programme page.
 

News



Entries for the 2025 Writers Award will be sought from 1 January 2025 until 31 March 2025. The winner of the Award will be announced in November next year.
Leanne Francis and Lena Bruns have been selected as the successful candidates for the 2024 David Miller Internship Programme. Two paid internships provide an entry level insight into rights and agenting in publishing. Placements begin in September and include a visit to the Frankfurt Book Fair 2024.
Announcing the return of the DRF David Miller Internship Programme in partnership with Creative Access. Two paid internships providing an entry level insight into rights and agenting in publishing. Focus on attracting candidates from communities under-represented in the industry. Interviews in June, 6-week placements from mid-September including a visit to the Frankfurt Book Fair 2024.
April 2024 marks the tenth anniversary of the death of Deborah Rogers, after which this Foundation was set up in her memory. So this seems the appropriate moment to celebrate the positive impact that the DRF has made to our industry by supporting emerging talent in the publishing world.
Winning candidates Milan Sehmbi and Wiggy Bob Snow spent six weeks on placement with literary agencies and publishing companies to gain an insight into the world of publishing rights.
Judges Abdulrazak Gurnah, Claire Adam and Annalena McAfee announce Neil Rollison as the winner of the 2023 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award for his work, The Dead Don’t Bleed.

Twitter/X: @DRFWritersAward

Instagram: @deborah_rogers_org