Simon Sylvester is a writer, screenwriter, video editor, filmmaker and film teacher.
Simon has been writing in various forms since 2008, when his first short stories were published 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 end of year lists for The Independent. He attended Edinburgh International Book Festival in conversation with Chigozie Obioma, headlined spoken word events at Bad Language and Verbalise, and was commissioned by Verbose to write and perform site-specific work at Chetham’s Library, Manchester.
Simon has also studied screenwriting in depth, receiving a ScreenSkills bursary to complete the John Yorke Advanced Story Structure course, as well as placing or winning several small competitions. He came second in £35,000 film fund The Pitch, and used the runner-up prize to produce a short film called The Potter’s Field. A second film, Maggie, was produced by award-winning director James Kennedy, and a third is currently in development with BFI FilmHub North. As well as working freelance as a video editor, Simon wrote and edited several Kendal Mountain Festival trailers, which are internationally renowned in the outdoor industry.
Simon lives in Cumbria with the painter Monica Metsers and their children, Indy and Dora. His literary work is represented by Sue Armstrong, Senior Agent at Conville & Walsh.
Simon Sylvester 