Lucy Popescu

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT LUCY POPESCU

Lucy Popescu is a writer, editor and arts critic with a background in human rights. She is currently chair of the Authors\' Club. Lucy 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. Her latest anthology, A Country to Call Home, focuses on the experiences of young refugees, and was selected to be part of the Empathy Collection 2020. She also compiled and edited A Country of Refuge, a collection of writing about migration and asylum seekers by some of Britain and Ireland’s finest writers, publishd by Unbound. Her other books are The Good Tourist, about human rights and ethical travel,(Arcadia Books) and the PEN anthology Another Sky (Profile Books). She was Granada\'s youngest published author in 1982 with Pony Holiday Book. Lucy reviews books for various publications including The Observer, Financial Times, TLS, and New Humanist, and has a particular interest in literary fiction in translation and free expression. She writes a regular column for Literary Review on persecuted writers and is theatre editor of Camden New Journal. She has sat on various judging panels including the Stanford Dolman Award for Travel Writing and The Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation. She currently chairs the Authors\' Club Best First Novel Award. Lucy teaches creative writing at City Lit, runs a writing group from her home, and is a volunteer mentor for Write to Life, the creative writing group at Freedom from Torture. She edited its collection, Body Maps, and refugee writer Jade Jackson\'s Moving a County. She also curates regular literary events for the Authors\' Club. Lucy is a member of the Critics Circle and a Trustee of the JMK Award for Theatre Directors.