Jon Platten

‍ ‍

Jon Platten thinks there is enough misery in the world, so he tries to counter it with humour. His writing addresses some of the complex and controversial issues of the day, such as whether men can multitask or how to deter an aggressive chaffinch with a life-sized cardboard cutout. He also addresses more serious subject matter in a way that has been described as reflective and poignant.

In 2019, he won the Orwell Society Prize for Dystopian Fiction where judges remarked on his ‘impressive wit’. He has been short-listed for the Telegraph Magazine Short Story Prize and has also been a finalist in international scriptwriting competitions. He is occasionally Poet in Residence at Norwich Arts Centre’s True Stories Live.    

He performs his poems in a range of venues, including pubs, theatres and bookshops. In most cases, everyone stays to the end. Despite recurring nightmares about coastal erosion, he lives within earshot of the beach in beautiful North Norfolk.

‍ ‍