Simon Armitage is a British poet, playwright, novelist, and musician whose poetry primarily focuses on relationships and the environment. Armitage's work has been characterized as "formally assured" and often "darkly comic," qualities that distinguish the voices in his poems while also situating them within a poetic tradition. Armitage originally studied geography and social work, and for years worked as a probation officer before quitting to focus full-time on his writing. This background of study and work greatly influenced Armitage's perspective as a poet; British landscapes and human relationships (including the darker aspects of relationships) are prominent in his work.
A prolific writer, Armitage is the author of over twenty poetry collections, beginning with Zoom! in 1989. Many of these collections were critically lauded. The 1992 collection Kid was awarded the Forward Prize and Zoom! won the Poetry Society Book Choice. Armitage has also produced several distinguished translations from Middle English into accessible verse, including Sir Gawain and the Green Night (2007), The Death of King Arthur (2011), and Pearl (2016). Apart from his writing, Armitage has also worked as Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford and the University of Leeds, and has served as UK Poet Laureate since 2019.
Simon Armitage is a poet, playwright, and translator whose work often centers on relationships and a strong sense of place. His poem "Mother, Any Distance Greater Than a Single Span," originally published in the 1993 collection Book of Matches, ...
Simon Armitage: Poems is a collection of a few of Simon Armitage’s works. Armitage is an English writer who specializes in poetry, plays, and novels. In addition to the poems that are included in this work, Armitage has written additional poetry,...
