Simon Sylvester is a storyteller, writer, screenwriter, filmmaker and teacher.

A writer of everything from pub quizzes to prize-winning poems, his short stories appear in journals including Smoke, Gutter, Dark Mountain and New Writing Scotland. His debut novel, The Visitors, was published by Quercus in 2014, won the Guardian Not The Booker prize and the Book Box prize, was Book Of The Month for Waterstones Scotland and reached the annual round-ups for The List and The Independent. He has appeared at Edinburgh International Book Festival, Bloody Scotland and Kendal Calling; headlined spoken word events for Bad Language, Verbalise and Spotlight; he’s written and performed site-specific work everywhere from Chetham’s Library to a shed in the Lakes; his flash fiction has been read on BBC6 Music by Cerys Matthews.

Simon works freelance as a documentary video editor and contributes across production as a screenwriter, script editor and producer. As a screenwriter Simon studied the John Yorke Advanced Story Structure course, placing or winning multiple script competitions before his short horror Maggie (directed by James Kennedy) won festival awards worldwide.

Simon is also a storyteller, having found a home in traditional stories. He believes fiercely in the wild and fleeting energy conjured between a story space and a community.

He lives in Cumbria with the painter Monica Metsers, their two children and a demented dog.