Simon Okotie is a fiction writer and essayist. He is the author of Whatever Happened to Harold Absalon?, In the Absence of Absalon and After Absalon, an acclaimed trilogy of novels published by Salt. In the Absence of Absalon was longlisted for the 2017 Republic of Consciousness Prize. His work has appeared in FT Weekend, Firmament and gorse, and at The London Magazine, 3:AM Magazine and The White Review. “Two Degrees of Freedom,” a short story, is published by Nightjar Press as a signed limited-edition chapbook. “Bindings” was selected for the Best British Short Stories 2021 anthology. Simon was a judge for the 2022 Manchester Fiction Prize, is a Creative Fellow at the Samuel Beckett Research Centre at the University of Reading for 2022-23 and a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at City, University of London, for 2023-24. He is at work on a book-length essay on the future of the novel, for Melville House, and on a novel. He lives in London.