Simon Van der Velde

Simon Van der Velde was born and educated in Newcastle upon Tyne where he trained and practiced as a lawyer. Writing, however, was always the real passion, and Simon has now left the legal profession in order to concentrate on his writing.

Since completing a creative writing M.A. (with distinction) at University of Northumbria in 2011, Simon’s work has won and been short-listed for numerous awards including; The Yeovil Literary Prize, (twice), The Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal, The Wasafiri New Writing Prize, The Luke Bitmead Bursary, The Frome Short Story Prize, The Writers’ and Artists’ Short Story Prize, The Harry Bowling Prize, The Henshaw Press Short Story Competition and The National Association of Writers’ Groups Open Competition.

Simon is the founder and chair of Gosforth Writers Group and author of the widely acclaimed, Amazon bestseller, Backstories, ‘the stand -out most original book of the year’ in 2021. His literary crime novel, The Silent Brother was published on 16th June, 2022 by Northodox Press. Simon is currently working on both Backstories II and his follow-up crime novel, Dogwood.

Having travelled throughout Europe and South America, Simon now lives in Newcastle upon Tyne with his wife, labradoodle and two tyrannical children.

Other Awards

The Yeovil Literary Prize, (twice),
The Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal,
The Wasafiri New Writing Prize,
The Luke Bitmead Bursary,
The Frome Short Story Prize,
The Writers’ and Artists’ Short Story Prize,
The Harry Bowling Prize,
The Henshaw Press Short Story Competition
The National Association of Writers’ Groups Open Competition.