Laurie Penny
Penny in 2016
Born	Laura Barnett (1986-09-28)28 September 1986 (age 39) London, England
Occupation	Journalist, author, screenwriter
Education	Brighton College
Alma mater	Wadham College, Oxford

Laurie Penny (bornLaura Barnett, 28 September 1986) is a British journalist and writer. Penny has written articles for publications includingThe Guardian,The Spectator,The New York Times, andSalon. Penny is a contributing editor at theNew Statesman and the author of several books onfeminism, and they have also written for American television shows includingThe Haunting of Bly Manor andThe Nevers.^[1][2]

Penny was born inLondon, England, to two lawyers of Irish, Jewish and Maltese descent,^[3] and grew up inLewes^[4] andBrighton.^[5] Penny suffered fromanorexia nervosa as a teenager and was hospitalised with the condition aged 17. They recovered from the illness and wrote about the experience from a feminist perspective in their bookUnspeakable Things.^[6]

Penny attended the independent schoolBrighton College before studying English atWadham College,Oxford.^[7]

Penny's blog "Penny Red" was launched in 2007^[8] and was shortlisted for theOrwell Prize for blogging in 2010.^[9] Penny went on to become a columnist atThe Independent in 2012^[10] and then a columnist and contributing editor for theNew Statesman.^[11] They are a regular contributor toThe Guardian.^[12]

In April 2011, they presented the Channel 4Dispatches programme "Cashing in on Degrees".^[13] and also appeared on Channel 4's satirical current affairs programme10 O'Clock Live^[14] and on BBC Two'sNewsnight.^[15]

In 2012,Tatler magazine described Penny as one of the top 100 "people who matter".^[16] In October 2012,The Daily Telegraph 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",^[17] and the knowledge networking company Editorial Intelligence awarded Penny its "Twitter Public Personality" award.^[18] In 2015, Penny was aNieman Fellow atHarvard University.^[19]

Several of Penny's articles have provoked criticism, including a 2014 article for theNew Statesman that argued short hair on women was a "political statement"^[20] and a 2015 article defending vandalism of theMonument to the Women of World War II.^[21]

Penny is the author of seven books, includingBitch Doctrine,Unspeakable Things andEverything Belongs to the Future.^[22] Penny's bookPenny Red: Notes from the New Age of Dissent was shortlisted for the firstBread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing in 2012.^[23] Their seventh book,Bitch Doctrine: Essays for Dissenting Adults, was longlisted for the 2018Orwell Prize.^[24]

Penny has written for streaming TV, contributing to episodes of the Netflix showThe Haunting of Bly Manor and HBO'sThe Nevers. Penny also worked as a story editor onCarnival Row.^[25]

Penny came out asgenderqueer,pansexual andpolyamorous in 2015.^[26][27] In 2020, Penny stated a preference for the pronounsthey/them; they also useshe/her pronouns, although they consider them to be "less accurate".^[28] Penny disclosed in May 2022 that they areautistic.^[29]

In December 2020, Penny was married and living in the United States.^[30] By May 2025 they were divorced.^[31]

• 2010:Orwell Prize for blogging, shortlist^[32]
• 2012:Bread and Roses Award, shortlist,Penny Red: Notes from the New Age of Dissent^[33]
• 2014: Red Women of the Year Award, blogger category, shortlist^[34]
• 2015: William Montalbano Nieman Fellow^[35]
• 2015: Fellow at the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard University^[36]
• 2017:John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, finalist^[37]
• 2018:American Society of Magazine EditorsNational Magazine Awards, 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".^[38]

• 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, 2016)
• Bitch Doctrine: Essays for Dissenting Adults (Bloomsbury USA, 2017)
• Sexual Revolution: Modern Fascism and the Feminist Fightback (Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2022)ISBN 978-1526602213

Wikiquote has quotations related toLaurie Penny.

• Laurie Penny at theInternet Speculative Fiction Database
• Laurie Penny atIMDb

• 1986 births
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