It’s been a rollercoaster twelve months at Penned in the Margins, with our books winning and being shortlisted for accolades including the Ted Hughes Award, the TS Eliot Prize, the Costa Poetry Prize, the Rathbones Folio Award and the Sunday Times/University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award. But for me it has been inspiring simply to work with such passionate and skilled writers on books which feel crucial, which have an important place in the world they are entering, which are personal, political and individually beautiful.

This year we continue our mission to produce innovative and thought-provoking work — from Abi Palmer’s fragmented memoir, Sanatorium, to the eviscerating poetics of Inua Ellams’ The Actual. Our authors do not hold back in their interrogation of challenging subject matter, whether that’s disability, the queer body, Islam and spiritual redemption, ocean plastics, Brexit, family and loss, or racial injustice.

Last spring we launched Edgelandia, a laboratory for artists to test out ideas about landscape and the topographical fringe. This year’s commissions include a short film set in Blackpool and collaborative walking performances in Yorkshire and the North West.

I hope the following pages fill you with as much joyful anticipation as I have felt watching all these projects come together. If you feel inspired to contact us please do: find us on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Roisin Dunnett

Publishing Coordinator