Penwoman is a non-profit literary house built on a simple belief that writing can change the lives we lead, the stories we inherit, and the communities we make.

Penwoman traces its beginnings to 2017, when we began bringing women writers and artists together through workshops and gatherings in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Tehran and Paris. In 2025, that evolving community became Penwoman International.

Our focus is life-writing in its broadest sense: work drawn from what we have lived, witnessed, inherited and survived. We are here to support women whose lives have been shaped by conflict, displacement or trauma, and helping them find a language for those experiences and feelings on the page. We work across memoir, poetry, short essays, playwriting and screenwriting, always rooted in lived experience.

Each quarter, we select eight women to join an eight-week writing group, called 'The Circle'. Every writer brings their work to read aloud and discuss, so that over the course of two months everyone has the chance to reflect and develop their writing with thoughtful, live feedback from the same small group.

In The Circle, we look for commitment, but also generosity, curiosity and a willingness to support other writers. Access and need are taken into consideration. You do not need to be published, represented, or professionally established. What matters is that you have something you want to say, a desire to take your writing further, and the generosity to help other women in your cohort do the same.

Throughout the year, Penwoman also hosts workshops, readings, screenings, conversations and dinners, bringing together people working across literature, film, theatre, art and culture. You can find these listed in our 'Events' tab. We share other events we think our community would find useful, and our monthly public programme is open to everyone. Conversations with writers, agents, editors and publishers are published on our Substack, as well as on our website's 'The Postscript' tab.

Once a year, we travel somewhere beautiful for a week devoted to writing. In the past, we have worked with collaborators on retreats in London, Bude and Penrith in the UK; Kotor in Montenegro; and Istanbul and Izmir in Turkiye, with Dubrovnik in Croatia currently in the works. Each retreat takes its shape from the place and the people there, bringing together dedicated writing instructors with other ways of slowing down and paying attention — from yoga and breathwork to guided meditation, walking and live painting.

Applications for our retreats are open to our wider community, with funded places offered wherever our resources allow.