Untold Narratives, Founder & Director

Untold Narratives is a development programme for writers structurally marginalised by community or conflict. Writers, who are currently unable to tell their stories beyond their immediate communities, have the opportunity to develop their writing; share their stories with wider communities in their own languages; and reach new global audiences in translation.

Lucy established Untold in 2020, in response to the needs of a group of Afghan women writers who had little or no opportunity to develop their writing with literary editors or translators, or to have their work published locally, or globally in translation. Since then, this group has produced My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird, New Fiction by Afghan Women (MacLehose Press, 2022), Rising After the Fall (Scholastic, 2023) and My Dear Kabul, A Year in the Life of an Afghan Women’s Writing Group (Coronet, 2024).

These Afghan women writers now form the core of the Paranda network, Untold’s initiative for women writers in Afghanistan and those in the diaspora.

In 2022, Untold partnered with BEE Books in Kolkata to replicate the editorial model used for writers in Afghanistan, which resulted in the anthology A Fistful of Moonlight: New Fiction from Assam (MacLehose Press, 2023).

Commonwealth Writers, Founder and Programme Director

Lucy transformed the 25-year-old prize Commonwealth Writer’s Prize into a vibrant new development programme for creative writers delivered in parallel with the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. The programme works with local and global partners to support writer’s craft development, new creative infrastructures, publications, cultural policy, and advocacy through storytelling in its broadest sense.

Out Of the Gate, Founder and Creative Director

Out Of The Gate was the UK's first online audio soap opera created, written and produced by young ex-offenders. The scripts, lyrics and beats for the drama were created inside prison, while the production takes place on the outside. Young offenders joined the production team post-release. A new series of Out of the Gate is planned.