Luke Icarus Simon

Luke Icarus Simon was born in Cyprus and immigrated to Australia in the 1970s. He graduated with an Honours degree in Literature & Drama from Australia's oldest university, Sydney University. He holds two other postgraduate university qualifications including a Master's degree.

He worked in education for 30 years including as a principal in the tertiary sector.

He started his acting career at sixteen and went on to work in theatre, television and films most notably in lead roles in the plays Urban Tales of Utter Devotion, Fish Wednesday, Sir, Breaking The Code, Antigone and A House on an Island in the Aegean. His theatre plays have been produced in Sydney and Melbourne. Two of his plays are now published and available for digital purchase from the Australian Plays Transform website.

He has written screenplays for SBS TV, AFTRS, ABC TV. and Event Cinemas TV. He created, wrote, co-produced, directed and starred in his film MY STAMP COLLECTION. The film was broadcast on ABC TV and screened at The Chauvel Cinema, Paddington.

He is the author of two non-fiction books, including the academic text MICHAEL GOW:A THEMATIC APPROACH. Since 1982, his short stories and poems have been published in major literary journals, magazines and anthologies in Australia, USA, Canada and Greece including in: Southerly, Antipodes, Akti, Hobo, Famous Reporter, Overland, Outrider, Penguin's Australian Writing Now, Good Reading Magazine, Social Alternatives, Outrage Magazine, Campaign Magazine, Mattoid, The Poetry of Men's Lives, (Uni of Georgia Press), Neighbours: Multicultural Writing of the 1980s (UQP) and Westerly.

His first book of poetry, LATIN was published by Picaro Press. He documented his cancer experience in his second book of poetry,THE TRANSIT OF CANCER. His short story collection, LOST IN THE LAST DIVIDED CAPITAL brought together many of his previously published stories, including ORIGIN which appeared in The Weekend Australian, Australia's only national newspaper.

His 3rd poetry collection, THE GOSPEL OF THE FALLEN: SELECTED POEMS 1996- 2016 was published in 2017. In 2024, his book SWIMMING IN WORDS NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, was released worldwide. It includes the eponymous, 4000-word prose poem that presents an unflinching representation of the life of a creative, diverse LGBTQIA+ artist over the past four decades.

Luke currently lives in a Murray River town in regional New South Wales and makes appearances all over Australia to share his love of words and books.