Simon Jackson has had more than twenty plays performed, and was British Gas Young Playwright of the Year when he was still a young playwright. His poetry is published internationally, and he has won several awards. His short films with Scottish poets Billy Bragg and Franz Nicolay have been screened by the BBC, Rolling Stone and at film festivals around the world, and his play, Turning to the Camera was the Guardian’s Pick of the Week for Scottish theatre. He’s never come close to making a living through the arts; he teaches Film in Shanghai, where he lives with his wife and two children and plays sax in the jazz-punk band Hogchoker.