Ian Penman is a British writer, music journalist, and critic. He began his career at the NME in 1977, later contributing to various publications including The FaceArenaTatlerUncutSight & SoundThe Wire, the Guardian, the London Review of Books, and City Journal. He is the author of the collections Vital Signs: Music, Movies, and Other Manias (Serpent’s Tail, 1998) and It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2019). Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors is his first original book.