SIMON ARMITAGE, POET & WRITER

“With his acute eye for modern life, Armitage is an updated version of Wordsworth's "man talking to men" . . . . But his seemingly off-the-cuff style masks a sophisticated craftsmen indebted to Auden, Muldoon and MacNeice as much as popular culture.” —Poetry Archive, England

Simon Armitage was born in 1963 in West Yorkshire, England. He burst onto the poetry scene with Zoom! in 1989 and quickly established himself as the most high-profile poet in the group dubbed 'The New Generation'. After studying Geography at Portsmouth Polytechnic, he worked with young offenders before gaining a postgraduate qualification in social work at Manchester University.  He began working as a probation officer in 1988 before becoming a full-time writer, a job that provided a particularly rich source of anecdote and vocabulary for his early poetry.  His northern roots and ear for street-wise language gave his work a young, urban appeal and, combined with a comedian's sense of timing, have made Armitage a genuinely popular poet.

Zoom! was published Bloodaxe Books, followed in 1992 by Xanadu, also by Bloodaxe, and Kid, by Faber & Faber.  Further collections by Faber & Faber were quickly forthcoming: Book of Matches (1993), The Dead Sea Poems (1995), CloudCuckooLand (1997), Killing Time (1999), Selected Poems (2001), Travelling Songs (2002), The Universal Home Doctor (2002). His latest collection is Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus the Corduroy Kid (2006) which will be published in the U.S. by Knopf in 2008.  The Shout, a book of new and selected poems was published in the US by Harcourt (2005), and was short-listed for the National Book Critic’s Circle Award.  With Robert Crawford he edited The Penguin Anthology of Poetry from Britain and Ireland Since 1945.  Other anthologies include Short and Sweet – 101 Very Short Poems, and a selection of Ted Hughes’ poetry, both published by Faber & Faber.

He is the recipient of nearly all the top awards for poetry in the UK, including the Sunday Times Young Author of the Year, a Gregory Award and a Forward Prize. In the US he has received a major Lannan Award.  Zoom! was a Poetry Society Book Choice.  Kid was short-listed for the Whitbread Poetry Prize. The Dead Sea Poems was short-listed for the Whitbread Poetry Prize, the Forward Prize and the T.S Eliot Prize. CloudCuckooLand was short-listed for the Whitbread Poetry Prize. The Universal Home Doctor was short-listed for the T.S. Eliot Prize.

Armitage has also served as a judge for the Forward Prize, the T.S Eliot Prize, the Whitbread Prize, the Griffin Prize, and was a judge for the 2006 Man Booker Prize.

As a prose writer, Armitage is the author of two novels.  His first, Little Green Man (Penguin 2001)—the story of 30-something divorcee Barney and his attempt to relive childhood experiences—explores the darker side of male friendship.  His second, The White Stuff, (2004), by turns comic and moving, examines issues of childlessness and identity. Other prose work includes the best-selling memoir All Points North, (Penguin 1998), a collection of essays about the north of England, which won the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year. His new dramatised adaptation of Homer’s epic, Homer’s Odyssey – A Retelling, was published in 2006 by Faber and Faber in the UK and published by WW Norton in the US.  His translation of the Middle English classic poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, has been commissioned by Faber & Faber and Norton published it in 2007.

Armitage has worked extensively in film, radio, television, and theater. He wrote and presented Xanadu (1992), a 'poem film for television', broadcast by BBC television as part of the 'Words on Film' series, and his film about the American poet Weldon Kees was broadcast by the BBC in 1993.  With director Brian Hill, he pioneered the docu-musical format which lead to such cult films as Drinking for England and Song Birds. Both were broadcast by the BBC as part of the 'Modern Times' series, and Song Birds was screened at the Sun Dance Film Festival in 2006. His television film Feltham Sings won a BAFTA in 2005, and for his song-writing on that film Armitage received the prestigious Ivor Novella Award.  Moon Country (1996), written with Glynn Maxwell, retraced a visit to Iceland in 1936 by the poets W. H. Auden and Louis MacNeice, and was adapted as a six-part series, Second Draft from Saga Land, broadcast by BBC Radio 3. He wrote the libretto for the opera The Assassin Tree, composed by Stuart McRae, which premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2006. His recent dramatisation of The Odyssey, commissioned by the BBC, was broadcast in 2004 and released on CD through BBC Worldwide. It received the Gold Award at the 2005 Spoken Word Awards. He is the author of four stage plays, including Mister Heracles, a version of the Euripides play The Madness of Heracles, and Jerusalem, commissioned by West Yorkshire Playhouse.

Simon Armitage has taught at the University of Leeds and the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, and is currently a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. 

Streamed Audio:
britishcouncil.org/arts-literature-publications-poetryquartets-armitage.htm

Simon Armitage website

NEW RELEASES PAGE