Change the story, Change the world…

Hi. I'm Laurie. I'm a journalist, an essayist, a screenwriter, an author, a novelist and a game designer. I tell stories for a living. Most of them aren't about me. This one is. 

I've been a journalist for fifteen years and a writer all my life. I report and write columns and features about politics, pop culture, technology, mental health, sex and gender and social change. I’m a fellow of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, I'm a graduate of the Clarion West Writers' Programme. I've written for The Guardian, Wired, The New York Times, The Independent, The Baffler, Time Magazine and lots and lots of other places. I've been a contributing editor at New Statesman magazine and at The New Inquiry, and I've written nine books.

I'm a screenwriter, too - I've staffed on shows including HBO's The Nevers, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and Carnival Row, and I've got a lot of other secret projects in the pipeline, and one day, if I'm very good, I might even take a day off. 

I'm also a nerd, a feminist, a disgustingly wholesome frantic romantic, a neurodivergent rainbow-haired queer internet weirdo and social justice bard, and I've travelled to all sorts of places and got trying to get under the skin of the culture.

This is an anxious time time for media and the arts. Journalism is an industry in trouble at precisely the moment it most needs to be well-resourced, and editors and reporters are having to make horrible decisions about how to keep their business model going. I'm lucky enough to have a loyal community of readers who follow my work as well as holding me to account when I need it. I'm asking you to come with me for the next chapter.

And I’m asking for your support, if you can afford it. I want to make this sustainable, and to be directly answerable to my readers, not to advertisers. I previously ran this blog at Patreon, and I thought carefully about moving to Substack, weighed up the pros and cons and potential stake-filled pitfalls, and decided in the end that its was time. With this blog, I’m going back to my roots. That’s why it’s called Penny Red- after my first, beloved internet outboard brain, which I started back when I was younger and squishier and so was the world. I'm combining my public and subscriber-funded private writing for the first time, and throwing everything at the wall to see what happens.

 If you take my writing seriously and have the means, consider becoming a paid subscriber, or even a founding member. The more I can be directly funded by readers, the more exciting things I can do. You could also chip in if you don’t care about my work either way but would quite like to annoy some TERFS and right-wing trolls. Every new subscriber makes another swivel-eyed hatebot regret their life choices just a little. Woop. 

I’m telling you stories. Trust me.

-Jeanette Winterson, The Passion.

Last but not least, I believe in creating art and journalism that everyone can access, whatever their income level, and I know lots of you do, too. That's why I'm keeping most of my writing here publicly available and shareable - but if you subscribe, you'll get access to interviews, journal entries, and some super secret special projects.

This is a time for ambitious, innovative journalism and commentary and storytelling that works muscles mainstream culture has allowed to atrophy. That's what I mean to do, and it's more than anyone can do alone. Thank you.  Buckle up for the technical details:

Why subscribe?

Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and website. Never miss an update.

Stay up-to-date

You won’t have to worry about missing anything. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox.

Join the gang

Be part of a community of people who share your interests.

To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.