Simon Jackson is a playwright, filmmaker, musician and poet from Edale and Edinburgh. He was director of Living Arts Space Theatre Company, Manchester and a features writer for gossip magazines in the 1990s. He worked as a musician in Serbia, a journalist in Poland, a history teacher in Egypt and was Head of Drama at Newton International College, Lima, Peru before returning to Scotland. He now teaches Film and Visual Art in an International School in Shanghai.
His new poetry collection, The Birth Revolution, can be bought here from Amazon. 'Humane, life-affirming and full of joy and wonder, this is a collection the world needs right now.” Tom Brodie, The British Council.
His poetry has featured in many magazines and collections in English and translation including (in the UK) Acumen, Agenda, Ambit, Envoi, Gutter, HQ Poetry, iota, The Journal, Magma, Orbis, Poetry Nottingham, Rialto and Poetry Scotland, and collections for Medicins Sans Frontieres, Ragged Raven Press, BeWrite Books, Caparison Press, Ain't Got No Press, Early Works Press, Raynard Press, Rose Garden Press, Roynetree Press and Creative New Zealand.
Overseas publications include, in the USA, Bogg, Chiron Review, Feile-Festa, Kudzo, New Verse News, Pearl and Raintown Review; ASPZ (China), brief (New Zealand), The Brown Critique (India), Cadences (Cyprus), Horizon (Belgium), The Irish Examiner (Ireland), Loop (South Africa), Mainichi Daily News (Japan), The Reading Hour (India), Redoubt (Australia), Saltzberg Review (Austria), Southward Journal (Ireland), The SHoP (Ireland), Vallum (Canada) and Westerly Magazine (Australia).
Awards for poetry include winning the Poetry Hut Prize 2013, Grace Dieux Writers' Prize 2009 and 2012, Encounters Slipstream Poetry Competition 2012, Onward Writing Competition 2012 (1st and 3rd in poetry section), Malton Lit Fest Open Poetry Competition 2011, Ware Poets Sonnet Prize 2011, Segora Poetry Prize 2010/11, The Writers Bureau Poetry Competition 2010, Tyne Valley Writer Open Poetry Competition 1996 and runner up for The English Association Fellows' Poetry Prize 2007. His first collection, Fragile Cargo, is published by BeWrite Books, and sold out the first two print runs in the first six months. The Birth Revolution (Rose Garden Press) is about having and raising children in Cairo during the Arab Spring and the subsequent years of unrest and revolt. Both are available from Amazon and all good (and extremely specialised poetry) booksellers.
Over twenty of his plays have been produced including Reflections of Moonlight on Moving Water (Contact Theatre, Manchester) winner of the Mobil/British Gas Young Playwright of the Year Award; The Lift, winner of Understanding Magazine's Edinburgh Fringe Best New Play, and The Algebra of Attraction (Teatro Peruano-Britanico, Lima, Peru). Frankenstein - the Monster's Story, a pyrotechnical musical for Theatre of Fire, was the headline theatre act for the Glastonbury Festival, then toured Britain, Ireland, Belgium and The Netherlands. Turning to the Camera was The Guardian's Pick of the Week for Scottish Theatre for November 2011 (click here for review). Love in Freefall was part of the Best of Bare Essentials show from 8th to 22nd July in London’s West End, receiving 5 star reviews and playing to full houses.
In 2009 he was commissioned to write a feature film for Jason Statham’s production company (still unproduced) and is currently writing a drama documentary film for a French producer. His animated work with school children won the first ever Children’s Oscars by a unanimous vote at the British Film Institute. His short films with Billy Bragg, Franz Nicolay, Chemical Underground and with Scottish poets have been shown by the BBC, Rolling Stone Magazine website and in film festivals around the world.
He has composed the music for theatre and radio plays, and several short films, winning Best Original Score in the Edinburgh 48 Hour Film Festival 2011. He has released several EPs and albums under the name Torpedo Buoy. I Don't Give a F'ck What You Did on Your Gap Year, was nominated for Scottish Album of the Year 2015 and is available as a free download click here for more details). His current band, Hogchoker, have been described as 'extraordinary, creative, original and fearless,' (Habibi Records), 'a macabre treat' (Scotland on Sunday) and 'dirty punk jazz oozing from Shanghai's sweaty armpit'. They have played over 200 shows and festivals across Asia, Europe and South America and were invited to play the Glastonbury Festival in 2019. Click here for their Facebook. Click here for their website.
In 2016 Jackson wrote the English script (with Julien de Saint-Jores) to accompany Jean Luc Besson’s promotional film for the successful French 2024 Olympic bid which premiered in a screening to the Olympic Committee in Rio, Summer 2016.
His new poetry collection, The Birth Revolution, can be bought here from Amazon. 'Humane, life-affirming and full of joy and wonder, this is a collection the world needs right now.” Tom Brodie, The British Council.
His poetry has featured in many magazines and collections in English and translation including (in the UK) Acumen, Agenda, Ambit, Envoi, Gutter, HQ Poetry, iota, The Journal, Magma, Orbis, Poetry Nottingham, Rialto and Poetry Scotland, and collections for Medicins Sans Frontieres, Ragged Raven Press, BeWrite Books, Caparison Press, Ain't Got No Press, Early Works Press, Raynard Press, Rose Garden Press, Roynetree Press and Creative New Zealand.
Overseas publications include, in the USA, Bogg, Chiron Review, Feile-Festa, Kudzo, New Verse News, Pearl and Raintown Review; ASPZ (China), brief (New Zealand), The Brown Critique (India), Cadences (Cyprus), Horizon (Belgium), The Irish Examiner (Ireland), Loop (South Africa), Mainichi Daily News (Japan), The Reading Hour (India), Redoubt (Australia), Saltzberg Review (Austria), Southward Journal (Ireland), The SHoP (Ireland), Vallum (Canada) and Westerly Magazine (Australia).
Awards for poetry include winning the Poetry Hut Prize 2013, Grace Dieux Writers' Prize 2009 and 2012, Encounters Slipstream Poetry Competition 2012, Onward Writing Competition 2012 (1st and 3rd in poetry section), Malton Lit Fest Open Poetry Competition 2011, Ware Poets Sonnet Prize 2011, Segora Poetry Prize 2010/11, The Writers Bureau Poetry Competition 2010, Tyne Valley Writer Open Poetry Competition 1996 and runner up for The English Association Fellows' Poetry Prize 2007. His first collection, Fragile Cargo, is published by BeWrite Books, and sold out the first two print runs in the first six months. The Birth Revolution (Rose Garden Press) is about having and raising children in Cairo during the Arab Spring and the subsequent years of unrest and revolt. Both are available from Amazon and all good (and extremely specialised poetry) booksellers.
Over twenty of his plays have been produced including Reflections of Moonlight on Moving Water (Contact Theatre, Manchester) winner of the Mobil/British Gas Young Playwright of the Year Award; The Lift, winner of Understanding Magazine's Edinburgh Fringe Best New Play, and The Algebra of Attraction (Teatro Peruano-Britanico, Lima, Peru). Frankenstein - the Monster's Story, a pyrotechnical musical for Theatre of Fire, was the headline theatre act for the Glastonbury Festival, then toured Britain, Ireland, Belgium and The Netherlands. Turning to the Camera was The Guardian's Pick of the Week for Scottish Theatre for November 2011 (click here for review). Love in Freefall was part of the Best of Bare Essentials show from 8th to 22nd July in London’s West End, receiving 5 star reviews and playing to full houses.
In 2009 he was commissioned to write a feature film for Jason Statham’s production company (still unproduced) and is currently writing a drama documentary film for a French producer. His animated work with school children won the first ever Children’s Oscars by a unanimous vote at the British Film Institute. His short films with Billy Bragg, Franz Nicolay, Chemical Underground and with Scottish poets have been shown by the BBC, Rolling Stone Magazine website and in film festivals around the world.
He has composed the music for theatre and radio plays, and several short films, winning Best Original Score in the Edinburgh 48 Hour Film Festival 2011. He has released several EPs and albums under the name Torpedo Buoy. I Don't Give a F'ck What You Did on Your Gap Year, was nominated for Scottish Album of the Year 2015 and is available as a free download click here for more details). His current band, Hogchoker, have been described as 'extraordinary, creative, original and fearless,' (Habibi Records), 'a macabre treat' (Scotland on Sunday) and 'dirty punk jazz oozing from Shanghai's sweaty armpit'. They have played over 200 shows and festivals across Asia, Europe and South America and were invited to play the Glastonbury Festival in 2019. Click here for their Facebook. Click here for their website.
In 2016 Jackson wrote the English script (with Julien de Saint-Jores) to accompany Jean Luc Besson’s promotional film for the successful French 2024 Olympic bid which premiered in a screening to the Olympic Committee in Rio, Summer 2016.