User:S C Kerr/sandbox

Simon C. Kerr is the Scots-Irish author of three acclaimed literary novels. His debut novel, The Rainbow Singer, was published in the US by Hyperion Books as the lead title on their Theia list, and in the UK and Commonwealth by the Orion Publishing Group on their W&N and Phoenix lists. It was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award in 2002, and for the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers and acclaimed in Ireland and America.

'Young Wil Carson is full of mischief and fun and an absolute delight to go on holiday with - if you are not a lazy feckless Fenian rat from Belfast, that is - in which case he will happily blow away your duplicitous Taig soul, and without so much as a murmur, go back to polishing his Magnum as he turns Eddie Van Halen all the way up to eleven. The struggle for peace in Northern Ireland - via Milwaukee - has never been presented like this before. It is like The Katzenjammer Kids meets Wee Hughie - warm, tender, and full of yearning for the world to be right, where The Beast has been banished and the rainbow's colours bathe the garden place. This is the song Wil Carson sings, and if its music is sad it is also uplifting. The Rainbow Singer is a fine debut  - buy it.' Patrick McCabe

As Seen on TV, Simon's second novel, and has been published twice, once by Orion in 2005, and the second time in 2015 by Alma Books.

'As Seen on TV is such a realistic depiction of a struggling screenwriter's life. Perfect for any film or TV fan.' Matt Thorne

​His third novel, White Sand, was published in 2016 by Black Flag.

'White Sand is powerful, dramatic and intensely engaging. I've read it with much admiration for Kerr's adroit and, in its own way original, employment of the tight narrative structure of Black Water. Kerr's writerly gifts are impressive and I hope this unusual, sure-to-be-controversial novel about shimmering layers of unreality will meet with deserved acclaim.' Joyce Carol Oates

Simon has lectured in Creative Writing at all levels in Higher Education for 20 years from 1997 at Bath Spa University, Reading University, the University of Leeds and the University of Hull. He was the founder and director of the Lightship International Literary Prizes from 2010-2014, and the founder and director of the Huddersfield Literature Festival 2006-2007.