Daniel Gorman, Director

Daniel Gorman joined English PEN as Director in August 2019. Prior to English PEN Daniel was Executive Director of Shubbak, Europe’s largest festival of contemporary Arab culture. Daniel is also a co-founder of Highlight Arts, who have organised UK-based international arts festivals and events since 2007 including projects working with writers in Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. Daniel has written for the Guardian, Irish Times, N+1 and many others, and contributed an essay to the PEN supported volume Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline (Saqi Books, 2014).  Daniel is a National Arts Strategies ‘CEO Community and Culture’ 2015 fellow and a British Council Cultural Leadership International fellow.

Charlotte Aston, Head of Development

Charlotte joined English PEN as Head of Development in September 2023 and leads on our fundraising, working closely with our partners and supporters who help make English PEN’s work possible.

She started her career in publishing before moving into the fundraising sector, where she has experience working in a range of organisations, including Arts Council England, the Science Museum, Create London and, most recently, Shelter.  Charlotte grew up in the United Arab Emirates and studied European Social and Political Studies at UCL, with a focus on International Relations and German. She recently completed an MSc in Charity Accounting and Financial Management at Bayes Business School, City University of London.

Cat Lucas, Head of Campaigns

Cat manages the Writers at Risk Programme, running our international campaigns on behalf of literary professionals at risk around the world, and our residency programme for international writers. Cat studied French and Spanish at University College London, and her translations of work by Cuban writers Jorge Olivera Castillo and Julio Cesar Galvez have been published in Index on Censorship and PEN International’s ‘Write Against Impunity’ anthology.

Will Forrester, Head of Literature Programmes

Will leads on English PEN’s literature programmes, having previously run our translation and international literature work. Elsewhere, he is a Director of Untold Narratives CIC, an Independent Expert for Creative Europe, and a judge for the 2024 US National Translation Award. He also judged the 2023 TA First Translation Prize, and was a 2022 Clore Emerging Leader and 2023 Bookseller Rising Star. He edited All Walls Collapse: Stories of Separation in 2022, led the editorial team for My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women, and his own writing has appeared in the Guardian, Los Angeles Review of Books, London Magazine and elsewhere.

Sim Eldem, Head of Communications

Sim joined English PEN in January 2021 as Head of Communications. Previously, they worked with campaigners for gender diversity in music, Keychange, PR consultancy Bolton & Quinn, and Southbank Centre. Sim grew up in Istanbul and has an MA in History of Art from the University of East Anglia. They are a volunteer with trans-led charity for young people, Gendered Intelligence.

Joe Bibby, Head of Operations

Joe joined English PEN in 2024 as Head of Operations. He has held a wide range of positions over 15 years in the arts and charity sectors, including Head of Learning at the national creative writing charity Arvon and interim Executive Director at the young people’s theatre charity Company Three. He studied Geography and Development Studies at the University of Sussex, and he has an interest in speculative fiction, visual storytelling and children’s literature.

Zoe Sadler, Events and Prizes Manager

Zoe joined English PEN as Events and Prizes Manager in June 2022 where she works with a range of partners to deliver events and prizes celebrating authors from around the world. After studying English and Theatre at the University of Bristol, she worked in arts PR and marketing with two month-long stints at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and then as a Campaign Officer at The Reading Agency, promoting books to library users, schools, reading groups and people in prison.

Nadia Saeed, Translation and International Manager

Nadia joined English PEN in October 2020, and works across the translation programme, administering both PEN Translates and PEN Presents, and co-editing PEN Transmissions. She sits on the advisory board of independent publisher And Other Stories, and was a 2024 UK Creative Community Fellow. She is based in Yorkshire and credits her previous work in publishing and theatre for her passion for bringing people together through writing and storytelling.

Eleanor Antoniou, Communications and Membership Officer

Eleanor joined English PEN as Administration Assistant in September 2022, after graduating from the University of Cambridge with a BA in Classics. At university, she was Editor of a feminist magazine and wrote for a range of publications on a diverse selection of topics. She also took part in and led campaigns for breast cancer awareness, the environment and women’s rights.

Krysta McKenzie, Administration Officer

Krysta joined English PEN as Administration Assistant in August 2023. They grew up in Jamaica and moved to the UK just before secondary school. Always having had a deep interest in books, Krysta went on to study English Literature at the University of East Anglia, specialising in postcolonial studies. A few months after completing their degree, they started working as an Editorial Assistant at DIVA Magazine – spending most of their time writing about being Black and queer, and sharing culturally relevant news.