Maureen Duffy

Maureen Patricia Duffy was an English poet, playwright, novelist and non-fiction author. Long an activist covering such issues as gay rights and animal rights, she campaigned especially on behalf of authors. Duffy received the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature in 2004 for her lifelong writings. In 2025, she was announced as the inaugural winner of the RSL Pioneer Prize, founded by Bernardine Evaristo, to be awarded to a different woman writer aged over 60 every year for ten years.