Staff & Officers

President: Gillian Slovo South African born Gillian Slovo is President of English PEN and the author of twelve novels and a family memoir, Every Secret Thing, which was an international best seller. Her novel, Red Dust, won the Prix RFI Temoin du Monde and became a feature film starring Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Ice Road, set in Leningrad in the 1930s, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. Her co-authored play, Guantanamo- Honor Bound to Defend Freedom played worldwide. Her verbatim interviews with women politicians were part of  the 2010 Tricycle Theatre's Women, Power and Politics season.


Director: Jonathan Heawood Jonathan joined English PEN as Director in November 2005 from the Fabian Society, where he was responsible for publishing a wide variety of political books and pamphlets, and editing the Fabian Review. He was previously Deputy Literary Editor of the Observer, and he continues to write on culture and politics for a range of publications, including the Independent on Sunday, Prospect, the New Statesman, the London Review of Books and Country Life. He wrote the introduction to Orwell: The Observer Years (Atlantic, 2003), and is now writing a book about the cultural history of the British landscape. He would love to hear from anyone interested in English PEN's work.
   



Assistant Director: Sarah Hesketh Sarah gained a BA in English Literature in 2004 from Merton College, Oxford. She joined PEN  in August 2007 after completing her MA in Creative Writing (Poetry) at the University of East Anglia. Her first collection of poetry, Napoleon's Travelling Bookshelf, was published in 2009.


Campaigns Manager: Robert Sharp Robert joined PEN in 2009, having previously worked for the Social Market Foundation, a Westminster think tank.  He was previously director of Fifty Nine Productions, a film production company and worked on box office favourites 'War Horse' and 'Black Watch' as well as work for the National Theatre and the Royal Opera House.  He designed LiberalConspiracy.org, the UK's most popular left-of-centre blog, and maintains his own eponymous website where he debates multiculturalism and political correctness.  He studied Politics & Philosophy at the University of York.


Campaigns Officer: Cat Lucas Cat graduated from University College London in 2007 with a BA in French and Spanish. She worked as an intern on the Writers in Prison Programme from August 2007, before beginning full time as Campaigns Assistant in October 2008.


Readers & Writers Programme Manager: Philip Cowell


Readers & Writers Programme Officer: Irene Garrow Irene is responsible for PEN's work with prisons in the UK. Her background is in film making and Drama and she has an MA in Life Writing from Goldmiths, University of London. She worked as a writer in residence in a male prison for 4 years.


Writers in Translation Programme Manager: Emma Cleave Emma graduated from the University of Leeds in 2007 with a BA in English Literature and French. She previously worked as an Outreach Coordinator at Bootstrap Company before joining English PEN in December 2010.


Office and Membership Manager: Amy Oliver Amy left Dartington College of Arts with a Writing BA in 2008. She began working for PEN as an intern the same year, and joined PEN as an employee in early 2009.




Vice-Presidents of English PEN:

Lady Rachel Billington; William Boyd; Dame A.S. Byatt CBE; Margaret Drabble CBE; Lady Antonia Fraser CBE; Victoria Glendinning CBE; Ronald Harwood CBE; Sir Michael Holroyd CBE; Francis King CBE; Ben Okri CBE; Josephine Pullein-Thompson MBE; Sir Tom Stoppard CBE; Claire Tomalin; Raleigh Trevelyan.


Board of Trustees of English PEN:

Raficq Abdulla; Monica Ali; Julian Evans (Chair, Writers in Translation); Rick Gekoski; Lennie Goodings; Daniel Hahn; Eva Hoffman; Amanda Hopkinson; Derek Johns; Barry Kernon (Hon. Treasurer); Charlie King; Lindsay Mackie (Chair, Readers & Writers); Bashir Qureshi; Fathieh Saudi; Ros Schwartz (Chair, Writers in Translation); Carole Seymour-Jones; Kamila Shamsie; Gillian Slovo (President); Salil Tripathi (Chair WiPC).