Laurie Penny

Laurie Penny (born Laura Barnett, 28 September 1986) is a British journalist and writer. Penny has written articles for publications including The Guardian, The New York Times and Salon. Penny is a contributing editor at the New Statesman and the author of several books on feminism, and they have also written for American television shows including The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Nevers.

Early life and education
Penny was born in London, England, to two lawyers of Irish, Jewish and Maltese descent, and grew up in Lewes and Brighton. Penny suffered from anorexia 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 book Unspeakable Things.

Penny attended the independent school Brighton College before studying English at Wadham College, Oxford.

Career
Penny's blog "Penny Red" was launched in 2007 and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for blogging in 2010. Penny went on to become a columnist at The Independent 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 and on BBC Two's Newsnight.

In 2012, Tatler magazine described Penny as one of the top 100 "people who matter". 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", and the knowledge networking company Editorial Intelligence awarded Penny its "Twitter Public Personality" award. In 2015, Penny was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.

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.

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

Screenwriting
Penny has also written for streaming TV, contributing to episodes of the Netflix show The Haunting of Bly Manor and HBO's The Nevers, and acted as a story editor on Carnival Row.

Personal life
Penny came out as genderqueer, pansexual and polyamorous in 2015. In 2020, Penny stated a preference for the pronouns they/them; they also use she/her pronouns, although they consider them to be "less accurate".

In December 2020, Penny married in Los Angeles, California.

Penny has spoken of having complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) and autism.

Awards

 * 2010: Orwell Prize for blogging, shortlist
 * 2012: Bread and Roses Award, 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, finalist
 * 2018: American Society of Magazine Editors National 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".