Penny Pepper

Penny Pepper is an acclaimed author, poet, performer and disabled activist. A genre-defying and versatile writer, her work focuses on the examination of difference, inequality and identity. She tells stories we haven’t heard, making others see life differently, always with humour and wisdom.

Her champions include novelist Jake Arnott, writer Dame Margaret Drabble and Literary Journalist Danuta Keene. A regular award winner Penny is a finalist in this year’s prestigious international Hemingway Shorts 2021 Competition and her winning story is published in their competition anthology Vol. 6. She is also a recipient of multiple short fiction awards including for her taboo-breaking short story collection, Desires Reborn, a Creative Future Literary Award and Story Slam for flash fiction.

Other recent recognition includes Penny’s sombre monologue prize winner Letter to Paul performed by actor Liz Carr, celebrating 2020 International Day of Disabled People. It won a Cyber Performance Institute Award and can be viewed on Penny’s YouTube Channel - Penny On The Telly.

Penny published her groundbreaking much-loved memoir, First in The World Somewhere with Unbound and is a regular columnist for Byline Times. She is widely published including with Mslexia, The Guardian, amongst others. Her commissioned essay Words of Hope and Anger curated by Francesca Martinez for the Wellcome Collection’s Different Voices Series was exhibited in September 2019.

Penny has been a regular performer and reader at many leading spoken word and literature festivals since 2007. When her debut poetry collection, Come Home Alive, was published by Burning Eye Books, she embarked upon the Naked Punk Tour going on to appear at The Royal Albert Hall as part of That’s What She Said, the premier spoken word event for women.

Along with many other events she headlined at WOMAD’s HIP YAK POETRY SHACK 2019, one of the most popular and celebrated festival spoken word stages in the UK, the first wheelchair-using performer to do so. Penny delivered a Masterclass at the prestigious Norwich Writers Centre in November 2019.

She is signed to The Good Literary Agency, represented by Abi Fellows who is busy pitching her innovative and fresh debut novel Nancy Jones and The Show of Wonders. Penny lives in St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings with her black cat Pixie.

Praise for Pennny's work

'A wonderful memoir, this is the great untold tale of our times told with passion, humour and a compellingly visceral energy. Essential reading.'-

Jake Arnott, best selling British novelist and dramatist, author of The Long Firm and six other novels, on reviewing “First in the World Somewhere”.

'Penny Pepper's work is a virtuoso display of wit, invention and courage. It's thought-provoking and funny and moving and makes us see the world differently' - Dame Margaret Drabble

‘A force of nature and a voice like no other. Brilliantly funny, brilliantly frank and brilliantly political.’

Liz Carr, Actor; star of BBC Silent Witness

Penny Pepper has written a rebel yell of a memoir for every girl, boy, whatever who defied the labels others would put on them. First In The World Somewhere defies the narrow expectations placed on anyone deemed an outsider by gender, class or disability. It is a punk middle finger of defiance and a glorious read for anyone ever told to know their place.

Danuta Kean, Guardian Books, Literary Journalist

Praise for First in the World Somewhere Penny Pepper has written a marvellous book. It’s full of fun, music, sex and determination. She never feels sorry for herself and comes up with some ingenious ways to overcome her disabilities so that she can fulfil her ambitions. It’s very well written with some surprise twists and turns!! - Sue Tilley aka Big Sue, artist, author and iconic model for Lucian Freud.

'Everyone should read Penny's story. A beautifully-written book... funny, moving and totally unique.'

Francesca Martinez, Award-winning Comedian, Writer, Activist