Simon Barraclough
Poet
About
Simon Barraclough is a prize-winning working-class poet, editor and tutor whose first book, Los Alamos Mon Amour (Salt Publishing, 2008) was shortlisted for Best First Collection in the Forward prizes. His work often reflects an interest in literary history, astronomy, physics, and a lifelong love of cinema, alongside the classic themes of lyric poetry. But the dynamic possibilities of language form the core of his work.
Collections like Neptune Blue (Salt Publishing, 2011) and Sunspots (Penned in the Margins, 2015) experiment with form, persona and sequences, and his work has often expanded into live-literature events that incorporate songwriting, experimental film and theatre (Sunspots, Psycho Poetica, Vertiginous). His most recent book, Divine Hours (Broken Sleep Books, 2024), tussles with faith, politics, the environment and conflict. While wary of introspection, Simon continues to work through his Anglo-Irish upbringing and relocation from the north of England to London, where he has lived since 1997.
Since 2008, Simon has been a reader for The Literary Consultancy – among other agencies – assessing and developing poetry manuscripts, short fiction, novels of every genre, and memoirs. He also teaches at various institutions, covering topics like Milton’s Paradise Lost, Samuel Beckett, the Solar System, lateral thinking, film genre, long poems, and the poetry of the periodic table.
Simon is currently working on short stories set in London and he co-edits Project Abeona, a Substack devoted to speculative poetry and prose about humanity in deep space. As well as his devotion to the English language, Simon studies Italian and Japanese.