About Me

Hello and welcome to my world,

I am a multi award-winning writer in the crime genre. My story Birthing The Demons won the 2001 Scarlet Stiletto Award for Sisters in Crime.

Josephine Pennicott Winner of The Scarlet Stiletto for Birthing the Demons (2001)

In 2012 I became one of only five writers to win a second Scarlet Stiletto with my story Shadows. I’ve also won the Kerry Greenwood Domestic Malice Prize twice, with Hail Mary (2003) and Tadpole (2004).

Winner of The Scarlet Stiletto Award for Shadows (2012)

A full list of my awards can be found here: https://josephinepennicott.com/about/awards/

In November, 2011, Poet’s Cottage and Currawong Manor sold in a bidding war to prestigious publishing house, Ullstein in Germany. Poet’s Cottage was published in Europe in 2012. Poet’s Cottage was published in Australia by Pan Macmillan in April 2012. Poet’s Cottage also sold to Holland and Spain in 2012.

DORNENTÖCHTER (Poet’s Cottage) makes the Spiegel Bestseller list in Germany. DORNENTÖCHTER is published by Ullstein.

My previous novels were in the dark fantasy genre: Circle Of Nine (2001), Bride Of The Stone (2003) and A Fire In The Shell (2004). Circle Of Nine was named as one of 2001’s best debut novels in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror (Terri Windling & Ellen Datlow, editors). A Fire In The Shell was shortlisted for Best Horror Novel in the 2005 Aurealis Awards.

Although born in Tasmania, my early years were in Papua New Guinea.

Josephine Pennicott in Lae Papua New Guinea

My teenage years were in Oatlands, a beautiful historic village in the midlands of Tasmania. Here I spent my time exploring caves around Lake Dulverton, listening to the stories my grandfather and my father told me and unwittingly gathering an abundance of material on life in a small community. Material which would prove invaluable when I came to write Poet’s Cottage.

Shortly after leaving Oatlands District High School, I enjoyed a gypsy lifestyle where I travelled around Australia working in a range of jobs and having adventures. All of which provided a valuable apprenticeship for my writing.

I’ve worked in a range of jobs (including nurse, housemaid, life-drawing model, hospitality and sales assistant) and I have aBachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New South Wales where I majored in painting. My journal post on my art school years Art School Pining is HERE https://josephinepennicott.com/2022/01/14/art-school-pining/

Josephine Pennicott Art School years at COFA Sydney

A career highlight for me was being a featured speaker at a FSF convention in Sydney in 2003 where I met actors Tom Lenk (Andrew) and Danny Strong (Jonathan) who played the Super Villians (Geeks) in one of my favourite television shows Buffy.

Josephine Pennicott with Danny Strong (Jonathan)

Josephine Pennicott with Tom Lenk (Andrew)

I live above the clouds in the Blue Mountains, Australia, in a 1920s mountain home with my writer/musician partner David Levell and our daughter Daisy. I am always yearning to return home to Tasmania and live in my dream seaside home calling me in the land of my ancestors.

I enjoy reading a variety of books across all genres, poetry, classic movies, art and being in nature. I love travelling and have been to many countries around the world. I am the founder of The Mystic Rose Energetic Healing which was operating from a clinic space in Blackheath. I host monthly moon circles for women in Blackheath: The Sisters of the Moon. I have a long time interest in occultism and ritualism sparked by my New Guinean childhood. I am currently studying with the Southern Temple of the Mother in Sydney. My mantra I live by is Albert Einstein’s – There are only two ways to live your life. One as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. I choose the latter.

I have a professional certificate in Energetic Health from Nature Care College, Sydney.

I have achieved Level 1 (Shoden), Level 2 (Okuden) & Level 3A (Shinpiden) in Reiki – The Usui System of Natural Healing with Nourished Energy. I have my Master Teacher Degree in Reiki – The Usui System of Natural Healing with Nourished Energy

I have studied Australian Bushflower Essences Level One and Two, and and White Light Essences in the Australian Bush Flower Essences. I have also done many courses in Aromatherapy and Massage through Nature Care College.

Praise for Poet’s Cottage (Please see Poet’s Cottage section for more reviews.)

‘It’s testimony to Pennicott’s exquisite prose that just as you think you understand where the characters and stories are heading, your expectations are overturned. I loved this about the novel. What I also loved is that I could see these characters; what they wore, ate, how they walked. I could feel the wind on my face, walk through the misty streets of Pencubitt, and feel the cold embrace of Poet’s Cottage. Pennicott evokes time and place with a light and meaningful touch: a word, a mood, a gesture all bring the past and present lives of those dwelling in the village into acute focus. This is a gorgeous, sometimes harrowing but always moving and deep story that remains with you long after the last page. Simply lovely. A triumph.’

Thank you, Karen Brooks, Australian Author, columnist, journalist, corporate and educational speaker, academic and social commentator.