{{Short description|British horror writer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Simon Bestwick''' (born 1974) is an English author of British contemporary horror.
== Biography == Bestwick attended the University of Salford which he graduated from in 1996 with a 2:1 degree in Media and Performance.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bestwick|first=Simon|date=|title=Simon Bestwick|url=http://simon-bestwick.blogspot.com/p/about.html|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=4 June 2020|website=Simon Bestwick}}</ref>
Writer Ramsey Campbell has described Bestwick, along with Gary McMahon, Alison Littlewood and Joel Lane, as part of a class of contemporary British writers developing a “consciously political form of horror fiction, using the genre to examine and symbolise Thatcher’s Britain and the country’s subsequent decades”.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Walter|first=Damien|date=29 Jan 2016|title=The ominous ordinary: horror writers finding scares in the everyday|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/jan/29/the-ominous-ordinary-horror-writers-finding-scares-in-the-everyday|access-date=4 June 2020}}</ref>
His short stories have been reprinted in Best Horror of the Year #1 'The Narrows', Best Horror of the Year #4 'Dermot' and 'The Moraine', Best British Fantasy 2013 'Dermot',<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=20 August 2014|title=TIH 020: Simon Bestwick on Writing Serials, Joel Lane and Plotting|url=https://www.thisishorror.co.uk/this-is-horror-podcast-episode-020-simon-bestwick-interview/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=4 June 2020|website=This Is Horror}}</ref> and his short story ‘Below’ is due to be reprinted in Best Horror of the Year # 12 (September 2020).{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}}
== Awards and honours ==
* 2009 – British Fantasy Award nomination for best novella for “The Narrows”<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=30 March 2009|title=British Fantasy Awards 2009: the Shortlist!|url=https://www.britishfantasysociety.org/british-fantasy-awards/british-fantasy-awards-longlist/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=4 June 2020|website=British Fantasy Society}}</ref> * 2012 – British Fantasy Award nomination for best short story for “Dermot”<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=5 July 2012|title=British Fantasy Awards shortlist announced|url=https://www.britishfantasysociety.org/news/bfs-awards-shortlist-announced/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=4 June 2020|website=British Fantasy Society}}</ref> * 2019 – British Fantasy Award nomination for best horror novel for “Wolf's Hill”<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=23 September 2019|title=British Fantasy Awards 2019|url=https://www.britishfantasysociety.org/news/british-fantasy-awards-2019/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=4 June 2020|website=British Fantasy Society}}</ref> * 2019 – British Fantasy Award nomination for best novella for “Breakwater”<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=23 July 2019|title=British Fantasy Awards 2019|url=https://www.britishfantasysociety.org/news/british-fantasy-awards-2019/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=4 June 2020|website=British Fantasy Society}}</ref>
== Selected works ==
=== Books ===
* ''Power of the Dog:'' Precinct 13 Publications, 1998. * ''Tide of Souls:'' Abaddon Books, 2009. {{ISBN|978-1906735142}} * ''The Faceless:'' Solaris, 2012. {{ISBN|978-1907992742}} * ''Let's Drink to the Dead'': Solaris, 2012. {{ASIN|B00AIM7PTE}} * ''The Condemned:'' Gray Friar Press, 2013. {{ISBN|978-1906331412}} * ''Hell's Ditch:'' Snowbooks, 2015. {{ISBN|978-1909679696}} * ''Devil's Highway:'' Snowbooks, 2016. {{ISBN|978-1909679900}} * ''The Feast of All Souls'': Solaris, 2016. {{ISBN|978-1781084618}} * ''Angels of the Silences'': Omnium Gatherum Media, 2016. {{ISBN|978-0692619384}} * ''Wolf's Hill'': Snowbooks, 2018. {{ISBN|978-1911390503}} * ''Breakwater'': Tor, 2018. {{ASIN|B079Y41MRR}}
=== Collections ===
* ''A Hazy Shade of Winter'': Ash-Tree Press, 2004. {{ASIN|B006WBJ4IK}} * ''Pictures of the Dark'': Gray Friar Press, 2009. {{ISBN|978-1906331085}} * ''And Cannot Come Again: Tales of Childhood, Regret, and Innocence Lost'': ChiZine, 2019. {{ISBN|978-1771485227}} (Out of Print), and reprinted by Horrific Tales, 2020. {{ISBN|978-1910283264}}
=== As editor ===
* ''Oktobyr '98:'': Precinct 13 Publications, 1998.
== References == {{reflist}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bestwick, Simon}} Category:1974 births Category:Living people Category:English horror writers Category:21st-century British novelists Category:21st-century British short story writers Category:British male novelists Category:British male short story writers Category:21st-century English novelists Category:Alumni of the University of Salford