Lucy Popescu

is a writer, editor and arts critic with a background in human rights. She worked with the English Centre of PEN, the international association of writers, for over 20 years and was Director of its Writers in Prison Committee from 1991 to 2006. She compiled and edited A Country of Refuge, an anthology of writing on asylum seekers by some of Britain and Ireland’s finest writers, published by Unbound in 2016. Lucy is a volunteer writing mentor for Write to Life, the creative writing group at Freedom from Torture. She edited refugee writer Jade Jackson’s collection Moving a Country and the Write to Life anthology, Body Maps. The Good Tourist, her book about human rights and ethical travel, was published by Arcadia Books. She co-edited the PEN anthology Another Sky (Profile Books) featuring the work of writers that PEN has helped over the last 40 years. She was Granada’s youngest published author in 1982 with Pony Holiday Book. Lucy reviews books, theatre and film and contributes to various publications including The Independent, Independent on Sunday, The Financial Times, TLS, The Literary Review, New Humanist and Huffington Post. She has a particular interest in literary fiction in translation and free expression. She sat on the Spanish New Books Panel in 2013 and the 2016 judging panel for The Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation. She is the chair of the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award. Lucy currently teaches creative writing at the Working Men’s College in Camden, curates literary evenings at Waterstones Piccadilly and is a Trustee of the JMK Award for Theatre Directors. She is currently crowdfunding for her next anthology, A Country to Call Home , focusing on the experiences of young refugees and featuring the work of some of our best loved children’s authors.