Laurie Penny (born Laura Barnett, 28 September 1986) is a British journalist and writer. Penny has written articles for publications including ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

,'' ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and ''Salon''. Penny is a contributing editor at the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'' and the author of several books on

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

, and they have also written for American television shows including ''

The Haunting of Bly Manor ''The Haunting of Bly Manor'' is an American gothic romance drama streaming television miniseries created by Mike Flanagan, and released on October 9, 2020 by Netflix. The second entry in Flanagan's '' The Haunting'' anthology series, it mostly ...

'' and ''

The Nevers ''The Nevers'' is an American science fiction drama television series created by Joss Whedon for HBO. The series is produced by HBO and Mutant Enemy Productions with executive producers including Whedon, Philippa Goslett, Doug Petrie, Jane Espe ...

''.

Early life and education

Penny was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

to two lawyers of Irish, Jewish and Maltese descent, and grew up in

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...

and

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

. Penny suffered from

anorexia Anorexia nervosa, often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by low weight, food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin. ''Anorexia'' is a term of Gre ...

as a teenager and was hospitalised with the condition aged 17. They later recovered from the illness and wrote about the experience from a feminist perspective in their book '' Unspeakable Things''. Penny attended the independent school

Brighton College Brighton College is an independent, co-educational boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 3 to 18 in Brighton, England. The school has three sites: Brighton College (the senior school, ages 11 to 18); Brighton College Preparatory Sc ...

before studying English at

Wadham College Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Career

Penny's blog "Penny Red" was launched in 2007 and was shortlisted for the

Orwell Prize The Orwell Prize, based at University College London, is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity (Registered Charity No 1161563, formerly "The Orwell Prize") governed by a boa ...

for blogging in 2010. Penny went on to become a columnist at ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' in 2012 and then a columnist and contributing editor for the ''New Statesman''. They are a regular contributor to ''The Guardian''. In April 2011, they presented the Channel 4 '' Dispatches'' programme "Cashing in on Degrees". and also appeared on Channel 4's satirical current affairs programme ''

10 O'Clock Live ''10 O'Clock Live'' is a British comedy/news television programme that ran from 2011 to 2013, presented by Charlie Brooker, Jimmy Carr, Lauren Laverne and David Mitchell. The programme was commissioned following the success of ''Channel 4's Alt ...

'' and on BBC Two's ''

Newsnight ''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availa ...

''. In 2012, ''Tatler'' magazine described Penny as one of the top 100 "people who matter". In October 2012, ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' ranked Penny as the 55th most influential left-winger in Britain, describing them as "without doubt the loudest and most controversial female voice on the radical left", and the knowledge networking company Editorial Intelligence awarded Penny its "Twitter Public Personality" award. In 2015 Penny was a

Nieman Fellow The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University awards multiple types of fellowships. Nieman Fellowships for journalists A Nieman Fellowship is an award given to journalists by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. Several of Penny's articles have provoked criticism, including a 2014 article for the ''New Statesman'' that argued short hair on women was a "political statement" and a 2015 article defending vandalism of the

Monument to the Women of World War II The Monument to the Women of World War II is a British national war memorial situated on Whitehall in London, to the north of the Cenotaph. It was first thought of and funded by Peri Langdale, sculpted by John W. Mills, unveiled by Elizabeth II, Qu ...

Publications

Penny is the author of seven books including ''Bitch Doctrine'', '' Unspeakable Things'' and ''Everything Belongs to the Future''. Penny's book ''Penny Red: Notes from the New Age of Dissent'' was shortlisted for the first

Bread and Roses Award The Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing is a British literary award presented for the best radical book published each year, with ''radical book'' defined as one that is "informed by socialist, anarchist, environmental, feminist and anti-r ...

for Radical Publishing in 2012. Their seventh book, ''Bitch Doctrine: Essays for Dissenting Adults'', was longlisted for the 2018

Screenwriting

Penny has also written for streaming TV, contributing to episodes of the Netflix show ''

'' and HBO's ''

'', and acted as a story editor on ''

Carnival Row ''Carnival Row'' is an American neo-noir fantasy television series created by René Echevarria and Travis Beacham, based on Beacham's unproduced film spec script, ''A Killing on Carnival Row''. The series stars Orlando Bloom, Cara Delevingne, ...

''.

Personal life

Penny came out as

genderqueer Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

pansexual , meaning "all" , definition = Sexual or romantic attraction to people regardless of gender , classification = Sexual identity , parent = Bisexuality , synonyms = , associated_terms = Polysexual, queer, heterofl ...

and polyamorous in 2015. In 2020, Penny stated a preference for the pronouns

they/them Singular ''they'', along with its inflected or derivative forms, ''them'', ''their'', ''theirs'' and ''themselves'' (or ''themself''), is a gender-neutral third-person pronoun. It typically occurs with an unspecified antecedent, in sentence ...

; but also uses

she/her In Modern English, ''she'' is a singular, feminine, third-person pronoun. Morphology In Standard Modern English, ''she'' has four shapes representing five distinct word forms: * ''she'': the nominative (subjective) form * ''her'': the a ...

pronouns, although they consider them to be "less accurate". In December 2020 Penny married in Los Angeles, California. Penny has stated they have

complex post-traumatic stress disorder Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD; also known as complex trauma disorder) is a psychological disorder that is theorized to develop in response to exposure to a series of traumatic events in a context in which the individual perceive ...

(CPTSD).

Awards

* 2010:

for blogging, shortlist * 2012:

, shortlist, ''Penny Red: Notes from the New Age of Dissent'' * 2014: Red Women of the Year Award, blogger category, shortlist * 2015: William Montalbano Nieman Fellow * 2015: Fellow at the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard University * 2017:

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer The ''Astounding'' Award for Best New Writer (formerly the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer) is given annually to the best new writer whose first professional work of science fiction or fantasy was published within the two previous ...

, finalist * 2018:

American Society of Magazine Editors The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) is an industry trade group for magazine journalists and editors of magazines published in the United States. ASME includes the editorial leaders of most major consumer magazine in print and digital ex ...

National Magazine Awards The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...

, Columns and Commentary category, finalist, for the columns "The Horizon of Desire", "We’re All Mad Here: Weinstein, Women, and the Language of Lunacy", and "The Unforgiving Minute".

Bibliography

* '' Meat Market: Female Flesh Under Capitalism'' (Zero Books, 2011) * ''Penny Red: Notes from the New Age of Dissent'' (Pluto Press, 2011) * ''Discordia: Six Nights in Crisis Athens'' (Random House, 2012) * ''Cybersexism: Sex, Gender and Power on the Internet'' (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013) * '' Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution'' (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014) * ''Everything Belongs to the Future'' (

Tor.com ''Tor.com'' is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers. The magazine publishes articles, reviews, original short fiction, re-reads and commentary on speculative fiction. From 20 ...

, 2016) * ''Bitch Doctrine: Essays for Dissenting Adults'' (Bloomsbury USA, 2017) * ''Sexual Revolution : Modern Fascism and the Feminist Fightback'' (

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a ...

, 2022)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Penny, Laurie 1986 births Living people Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford English atheists English bloggers English feminist writers English feminists English journalists English people of Irish descent English people of Jewish descent English people of Maltese descent English socialists English television writers Genderqueer people Marxist feminists LGBT Jews Jewish writers Jewish feminists People educated at Brighton College People from Brighton People from Lewes Sex-positive feminists English socialist feminists The Guardian people Writers from London Non-binary writers Polyamorous people Pansexual non-binary people