Penny Pepper

Penny Pepper is an award-winning author, poet & disabled activist whose stories explore the disability narrative and sexuality through provocation, humour and wisdom. Her punky ‘80s memoir, First in The World Somewhere, was published in 2017; her poetry collection, Come Home Alive, in 2019. Her fiction appears in Hemingway Shorts 2021, Mslexia and the Elementals anthology 2024. Her poetry appears in the upcoming Where the Land Forgets Itself zine (2025), and she is the first poet featured in Poet Town: The Poets & Poetry of Hastings & Thereabouts (Sept 2025). She has just completed her latest novel, The Widow of Rock-a-Nore.

Penny has worked to develop projects for TV, has an active social media presence and writes a monthly column for Byline Times. She is a passionate voice for pushing the neglected disability narrative in fiction, and a lifelong campaigner for social justice. She lives in Hastings.