From delightfully macabre, to Oh my God! Poet Simon Warwick Beresford’s work brings up images of Edward Gorey, HP Lovecraft, and thee Edgar Allan Poe himself, but does so in a unique and engaging way. With three books of poetry and one poetic novel, Simon Warwick Beresford continues to work on new material in the dynamic realm of modern poetry.

In the guise of Cadence. Or maybe Alice. Or maybe…?

Tell us about yourself. Where are you from and what do you do?

Hi I’m Simon Warwick Beresford but my friends call me Cadence or Alice, both characters of mine. Cadence is a Zombie Queen, Alice is a murderous Elf Mage. I grew up in Loughborough, England. I work in my day job as a Care Team Leader for my little brother who has quadriplegic cerebral palsy.

Have you written about Cadence and Alice? Or are they personal personas?

Yes they both appear in my books more than once. Alice first shows up in FASCINATE Twisted Poems For The Depraved in the poem ‘Alice’ and then again in Extinction Imminent in ‘Alice Plays’ and I think she’s going to be in Maw too. Cadence first shows up in My Little Black Distress under the poems ‘Queen Cadence’, ‘The Lake Boys’, ‘The Queendom of Cadence’ and ‘The Mission’ then again in Extinction Imminent under ‘Cadence Whispers’ and again she might make another appearance in Maw. Alice was also my Shadowrun character that I played for over a decade. Shadowrun is a bit like D&D but set in a near dystopian future for those who don’t know.

Tell us about your four books of poetry.

They’re mostly horror poetry.

Fascinate: Twisted Poems For The Depraved was my first collection. Along with later books My Little Black Distress and Extinction Imminent it makes up the loose series of Poetry Is Twisted, Don’t Trust Her.

Fascinate was written over 20 years so really it’s just my best poems between the ages of 17 and 37. A lot of them are edgy and/or horror but not all of them. My Little Black Distress is probably the one that is most focused on horror poetry but it still has other stuff in there. Extinction Imminent is perhaps a bit more grown up, less of the shock for shock’s sake poetry and it has an Environmental theme running through a number of the poems within it.

Ghost City is a free (in some places) eBook that I originally wrote as a bit of fun for my DeviantArt (which I don’t post on any more). It’s all one horror story, set in an abandoned city, told over 15 poems. I wrote it at the same time as My Little Black Distress and published it shortly after.

You can find all of Simon Warwick Beresford’s books here at this link!

If someone was to buy just one of your books, which one would you recommend and why?

My Little Black Distress because it contains the most poems of my current works. It’s also one of my favourites along with Fascinate, and what is currently only publicly known as WIP1.

What are you working on now? What’s in progress?

WIP1 is a book of romantic poems (some of them erotic) and will be my biggest book to date.

WIP2 is called Maw (that’s the first time I’ve revealed that) and will be the 4th book in my Poetry Is Twisted, Don’t Trust Her series. It’s probably closest in style to My Little Black Distress but the plan is for it to be more animalistic, so Werewolves and Bears more than Mermaids and Ghosts but who knows.

Tell us about your favorite writers. You mentioned Dr Suess and Emily Jane Bronte on your Amazon profile. Who are some of your other inspirations?

In terms of Poetry T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats was definitely something I loved growing up. Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett definitely had an influence on my writing style in my teens. Horror Writer Richard Laymon is probably responsible for some of the subject matter of my poems.

How about some of your non-writing inspirations such as movies, music, and other media?

Well I’ve already mentioned Pink Floyd and they were my favourite band for a long time though I eventually got bored. La Femme, The Pretty Reckless and ABBA are what I currently seem to be listening to most. Heathers is my favourite film. I do love movies but since the pandemic started I’ve been reading more.

Thee Simon Warwick Beresford

The tones of your poems seem to go to extremes. Such as the difference between The Lost Poem, which you can read to your grandma, and then the poem Impregnating which can make even the most hardcore squirm. What kind of reactions have you gotten to your work?

Alas I can’t read it to my Gran, she died recently and my Nan died years ago now but I take your point. I do like to shock but I also like to keep people guessing and often there’s just something I want to write about. If I could organise my collections after my death they’d probably look a bit different but as it is I’m busy writing and in most cases it’s like okay I’ve got enough good poems for a collection now, publish and start work on the next. So yeah you get what you get.

I’ve said I’ve seen elements in your work that remind me of Poe, Gorey, and Lovecraft. Is there another writer or poet whose work you can strongly identify with? Any writer who has really inspired your current work?

I think I’ve found a fairly unique niche. A. A. Milne might be one of the closest to my poetic writing style for example but I ain’t writing Winnie the Pooh. I mean I can write Pooh fanfiction I’ve read those books enough and love those characters but obviously my usual content is very dark and edgy. I read and watch a lot of horror and just have a disturbing mind. So yeah mostly I take fucked up adult themes and set them in rhyming poetry which is often but not exclusively a thing we see in children’s literature. I like the contrast and thankfully I’m not the only one.

Some writers I know have expressed concerns about putting themselves out there with hot topics. Are you ever worried (or hoping) that your writing could stir up controversy?

I like to stand out and I don’t mind being outspoken but I don’t want too much of a backlash either, obviously I don’t want to be “cancelled” but I think as long as I make it clear that my poems are edgy and full of things like erotic horror… Those who don’t want that sort of thing can just steer clear. I abhor censorship so anyone who is against my or similar work existing is as disgusting to me as I’m sure I am to them.

Are you ever going to go outside of poetry and try other forms of writing?

I would like to write a novel probably in the horror genre but I’m too busy with poetry just now plus I think reading more will improve my ability to write prose as right now I feel a bit inadequate in that department. Whereas I’ve always felt very confident with my poetry. So hopefully I’ll start my novel within the next few years. I wrote a very silly, humourous, sci-fi / fantasy novel called And You Think I’m Mad when I was 15 but obviously I have no plans to publish that.

What kind of advice would you give to poets looking to share their work and get published?

I published my first book at 37 and I gather 36 is the average, so if you’re very young I think you should focus more on creating a body of good work that you can select from rather than rushing to publication. In the meanwhile there are various websites you can post some of your poems on in order to get feedback and build a following. Keep some poems secret though until you can put them in a book so that even your biggest fans are getting some new stuff when they buy your work. Traditional or self-publishing is entirely up to you, they both have their pros and cons.

Do you have any advice for writers in general?

Read a lot, write a lot (when you can), listen to music, go for walks in nature. Decide what you want your life to be about and do everything you can to make that happen!