Penny Simpson is an author, researcher, creative health practitioner and lecturer. Her writing and her creative research projects have been commissioned and funded by a range of organisations, including the BBC, British Council, NHS and Arts Council Wales.
Penny’s publications include two novels, The Banquet of Esther Rosenbaum and The Deer Wedding, and DOGdays, a collection of short stories. Her short fiction has appeared in many anthologies and literary journals including Best of European Fiction, Mslexia, Short Fiction Journal and The Lonely Crowd. Recent short fiction has been long-listed for the 2024 Desperate Literature Prize for Short Fiction, Highly Commended in the 2023 Bath Short Story Award and long listed for the 2021 V.S. Pritchett Short Story Award. Awards and grants include an Arts Council of Wales New Writers Bursary and Hawthornden Fellowship. She was awarded an AHRC/CHASE-DTP scholarship for her PhD in Creative Writing.
Penny’s recent creative projects include The House of Dreams and Memories, an innovative creative writing workshop programme developed in collaboration with organisations in the cultural and public health sectors. The workshops are inspired by Gaston Bachelard’s idea of space as a ‘geography of echoes.’ In 2023-2024, Penny delivered the programme to NHS patients living with chronic pain and long-term health conditions supported by WISE (Wellness Improvement Service) in the South Wales Valleys. The programme was funded by NHS Wales and Arts Council Wales.
In 2025-2026, Penny is adapting The House of Dreams and Memories for Home Start – Essex’s Thriving Communities project, a creative and wellbeing initiative for families with children under five. Thriving Communities is funded by South East Essex Alliance Health Inequalities Fund.
