PENNY MICKELBURY is a trailblazing journalist, author, and award-winning playwright. She is a two-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, was a writer in residence at Hedgebrook Women Writers Retreat, and a recipient of the Audre Lorde Estate Grant. In 2020 she was awarded the Alice B. Medal for her body of work. Before focusing on literary pursuits, Penny was a pioneering newspaper, radio, and television reporter based primarily in Washington, D.C. In 2019 she joined other Washington Post Metro Seven members as an inductee into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame.