Ken W. Simpson was born in 1932 at South Camberwell, a Melbourne suburb in the state of Victoria, Australia. After Primary school, he spent two wasted years at Scotch College, leaving at age fifteen to become an audit clerk in his father’s accountancy firm. Showing no aptitude as for accountancy, he worked as a despatch clerk in a furniture store for about two years before being laid off.

He began a four-year diploma of art course at Swinburne. Unable to find work as an artist he found employment as a temporary art teacher with the technical schools division of the Victorian Education Department. After three years teaching in the countryside, he booked a cabin on a cargo ship and sailed to England; he painted at The Heatherley School of Art in London, toured parts of England Wales and Scotland, then travelled to Florence in Italy, before returning home to begin a year of teacher training. Two more schools and ten years later he was superannuated, suffering from stress.

He dabbled unsuccessfully with watercolours and then began writing short stories. The stress from teaching evolved into a lifelong depression. He began writing poetry in about 2000. His first collection was published by SBPRA in 2010, followed by five or six more collections from SBPRA and Hemkunt (New Delhi).

He lives with his daughter, her husband and four grandchildren at Lysterfield, another Melbourne suburb.

Two new collections of Ken are to be published this year by Augur Press (UK) and Poetry Space (UK). Moreover, Ken has accepted warmly the request of Ashvamegh Team to work as a member of the advisory board. He often provides inputs to the team and that prove valuable! Ken can be reached at [email protected]