Open Pen is a publisher specialising in short fiction. We have a free print magazine available and will be publishing other stories by our print authors online. We also publish our series of ‘novelettes’: a little book somewhere between a short story and a novella.

We publish our short fiction magazine three times a year. You’ll find copies of the latest issues in independent bookshops, libraries, university campuses, writers’ centres, coffee shops and bars across the country. We are proud to champion the ethics of independent publishing and bookselling. With every issue we grow stronger, and so do our stockists. You can now pick up Open Pen in as far-reaching places as Havana.

Our Team

Founder & Comrade of Eternal Shining Light

Sean Preston

Editor & Publisher

Joseph Johnston

‘Team’

Anna Harvey, Xanthi Barker, Ian Green, Piers Pereira, Josh Hollwey, Ayse Irmak sen, Martin Hutchinson.

More About Us

Open Pen launched in 2011, as London’s first ‘Open Literature’ magazine. What this really meant, to us at least, was that we wanted to encourage writing from anywhere and anyone, and we wanted to give it to you for free. In 2016 we published our first anthology, a collection of published and unpublished stories from our authors.

In 2018 we started publishing our signature novelettes which will continue to expand.

Our aim remains to publish work that is both interesting and relevant, and encourages growth within our talented, fertile, literary underbelly.