About

CHRIS SIMPSON grew up in Bracknell and Slough. He has worked as a waiter, a cinema projectionist, a shoe salesman, an attendant in an amusement arcade, hiring out construction and demolition tools, a pasty seller, a caretaker for a primary school, a teaching assistant and a tutor. He was a collaborator on a sketch show and has performed as a stand-up comedian. 

He received a First in Creative Writing at BA level from Birkbeck University.

In 2016 he was nominated for the Royal Academy and Pin Drop Short Story Award 2016.

While living in Moscow he completed his first novel, "The Infinite Ache". He now lives in London and is at work on his second, "What it Was to Have a Family: A Novel".
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"Part-Time Happiness" is his first collection comprising of seven short stories bookended by two novellas (currently unpublished). 

He is also the writer of several plays.

Influences mutate depending on the work but often include Andre Dubus, Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, Richard Yates, Philip Roth, Harold Pinter, Sarah Kane, Tessa Hadley, Andre Dubus III, William McIlvanney, Alice Munro, Stephen King, Raymond Carver and Gwendoline Riley.

You can find him on Twitter: @wcasimpson

You can find him on Instagram: @writerblokewrites