Eleanor Penny is a writer based in London. She writes essays, journalism, fiction and poetry.
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She is represented by Harriet Moore of Aitken Alexander Literary Agency and Georgia Kanner of Independent Talent
Her non-fiction writing has appeared in outlets including The New Statesman, The Independent, In These Times, Verso Books and The London Review of Books, Bower Magazine, and beyond.
She is on the editorial team at The Ecologist
She co-founded and co-directs the independent media production company Planet B Productions
She teaches creative writing at Goldsmiths University of London, City Lit, the Poetry School and more.
Her poetry pamphlet ‘Mercy’ was published flipped eye in June 2021. Awards for her poetry include the Verve Poetry Festival Prize 2020 and the Poetry London Prize, and longlisted for a Forward Prize 2021. She is a three-time Barbican Young Poet, and was twice shortlisted for Young People’s Poet Laureate for London. Commissions and residencies include the Poetry School, the Barbican and the Centre 4 Recent Drawing, Prospect Cottage.
She is working on her first novel as part of the London Writers Awards (Literary Fiction). She is currently researching the history of ports and shipping as part of an ongoing literature project Albion, funded by Arts Council England.
She has written comedy for Frankie Boyle’s New World Order and Frankie Boyle’s Review of the Year.
She has hosted the Verso Books Podcast, Novara FM, FUBAR Radio and Politics Theory Other. She founded and hosts the poetry podcast Bedtime Stories for the End of the World. She co-edited a book of the same name, illustrated by Inkquisitive and published in November 2020 by Studio Press.
She has appeared as a political & cultural commentator on national and international outlets including BBC Newsnight, talkRadio, LBC, Moral Maze, BBC Front Row and Al Jazeera. She has appeared on talks and panels at the British Library and the Institute of Contemporary Arts.
Eleanor Penny 