Author’s Pen was set up in 2020 by Lesley Hart, a creative writing teacher, line and developmental editor specialising in fiction and narrative non-fiction. With her MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and membership of CIEP (the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading) since 2018, Lesley has helped writers to improve their craft and then publish or self-publish their work.

Since setting up Author’s Pen in 2020, Lesley has continued to develop her editing skills and in addition to (amongst others) proofreading, copy-editing, fiction editing courses with CIEP, Lesley has also taken developmental editing courses with Sophie Playle and many other courses including those by: Louise Harnby, Curtis Brown, Jericho Writers and Cheshire Novel Prize.

For several years, Lesley has worked closely with Helen Hart at SilverWood Books. In 2023 and 2025, Lesley was a long-listing judge in the Jericho Prize competition for unpublished and self-published Black-British children’s writers. In 2025 and 2026 she also judged the flash fiction competition for Billingshurst Literary Festival (BilliLit).