Joanna Penn
Joanna Penn shares the craft and business of independent publishing through The Creative Penn, and writes thrillers, dark fantasy, horror and memoir as J.F. Penn.
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Latest
Joanna’s happenings, collected from public sources, plus her backstory and Starbook, where fans write.
Known for
- Stone of Fire2011 · First ARKANE thriller, originally Pentecost
- Pilgrimage: Lessons Learned from Solo Walking Three Ancient Ways2023 · Travel memoir as J.F. Penn
- How to Make a Living with Your WritingNon-fiction · Author
- The Buried and the Drowned2025 · Short story collection as J.F. Penn
- Bones of the Deep2026 · Ocean folk-horror thriller as J.F. Penn
Overview
- Based
- Bath, England
- Creates
- Books, podcasts and resources for independent authors
- Also writes as
- J.F. Penn, for fiction and memoir
- Started
- The Creative Penn in 2008; full-time author since September 2011
- Breakthrough
- New York Times and USA Today bestseller with the Deadly Dozen box set in 2014
Mini bio
How it started.
Joanna’s writing life grew out of wanting a different working life. While living in Brisbane and working as an IT business consultant, she began a book about changing careers. Publishing it herself taught her some expensive lessons about production and marketing. She started The Creative Penn in 2008 to share what she was learning with other writers.
Finding her fiction.
NaNoWriMo in 2009 helped her begin the idea that became Pentecost, her first thriller, published in February 2011 and later renamed Stone of Fire. She left consulting that September. A broader breakthrough came in March 2014, when the collaborative Deadly Dozen box set reached the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists.
Two sides of one creative life.
As Joanna Penn, she writes practical books for authors and hosts The Creative Penn Podcast. As J.F. Penn, she follows her fascination with history, myth and unsettling places into fiction and memoir. Pilgrimage follows three solo walking routes, including the Portuguese Camino de Santiago. Her more recent books include the dark story collection The Buried and the Drowned and the ocean thriller Bones of the Deep.
Creditschronological, newest first
- 2026Bones of the DeepAuthor as J.F. Penn
- 2025The Buried and the DrownedAuthor and audiobook narrator
- 2025Death ValleyAuthor as J.F. Penn
- 2023PilgrimageAuthor as J.F. Penn
- 2011Pentecost, later Stone of FireAuthor; first ARKANE thriller
Awards
Quotes
I love books, and since you’re here, I guess you do too!Joanna Penn, The Creative Penn About page
Her welcome to readers at https://www.thecreativepenn.com/about/
Trivia
- Her two British shorthair cats are called Cashew and Noisette.
- Her fiftieth-birthday visit to the Black Church at Búðir in Iceland inspired her short story The Black Church.
- A tall-ship journey from Fiji to Vanuatu in 1999 helped inspire Bones of the Deep.
Find Joanna
Follow her books, writing life and conversations with fellow authors.
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