Simon Armitage

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Simon Armitage
Born 26 May 1963 (1963-05-26) (age 46)
Huddersfield,
Occupation Poet / Playwright / Novelist
Nationality United Kingdom British

Simon Armitage (born in Huddersfield, UK on 26 May 1963) is a British poet, playwright, and novelist. Before finding success with his poetry he worked as a probation officer, an undertaker's assistant and a supermarket shelf stacker.[1] He has received numerous awards for his poetry, including The Sunday Times Author of the Year, a Forward Prize, a Lannan Award, and an Ivor Novello Award for his song lyrics in the Channel 4 film Feltham Sings. In 2000, he was made the UK's official Millennium Poet during which time he wrote his 1,000 line poem "Killing Time" about news events of the previous year.[1] He was one of the judges for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize and in 2006 was one of the judges for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. His writing is characterised by a dry, native Yorkshire wit combined with "an accessible, realist style and critical seriousness." [1]

Contents

[edit] Academic history

Armitage first studied at Colne Valley High School, Linthwaite, Huddersfield, UK. Studying under widely known Samuel Curnow and Jonathan Pearson, renowned for their contributions in creative writing. He then went on to study geography at Portsmouth Polytechnic, UK, before lecturing on creative writing at both the University of Leeds, UK and at the University of Iowa, USA, writers' workshop. For a very brief time he lectured at University of Hayle. He is currently a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom.

[edit] Notable works

[edit] Published works

Armitage has published several volumes of poetry, including Book of Matches (1993) and The Dead Sea Poems (1995). He has written two novels, Little Green Man (2001) and The White Stuff (2004), as well as All Points North (1999), a collection of essays on the north of England. He produced a dramatised version of Homer's Odyssey and a collection of poetry entitled Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus The Corduroy Kid (which was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize), both of which were published in July 2006.

[edit] Performance works

Armitage also writes for radio, television, film and the stage. He is the author of four stage plays, including Mister Heracles, a version of Euripides' The Madness of Heracles. He was commissioned in 2004 by the National Theatre in London to write Eclipse for the Connections series, a play based on the disappearance of a girl in Hebden Bridge at the time of the 1999 solar eclipse in Cornwall.[2] Most recently he wrote the libretto for an opera scored by Scottish composer Stuart MacRae, The Assassin Tree, based on a Greek myth recounted in The Golden Bough. The opera premiered at the 2006 Edinburgh International Festival, Scotland on 25 August, before moving to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 6 September.Saturday Night (Century Films, BBC2, 1996) - wrote and narrated a fifty minute poetic commentary to a documentary about night-life in Leeds. Directed by Brian Hill.

[edit] Published works

[edit] Poetry

  • Zoom! (1989)
  • Xanadu (1992)
  • Kid (1992)
  • Book Of Matches (1993)
  • The Dead Sea Poems (1995)
  • CloudCuckooLand (1997)
  • Killing Time. (1999)
  • Selected Poems (2001)
  • Universal Home Doctor (2002)
  • Travelling Songs (2002)
  • The Shout: Selected Poems (2005)
  • Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus The Corduroy Kid (2006)
  • The Not Dead (2008)
  • Out Of The Blue (2008)

Many of Armitage's poems now appear in the AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance) GCSE syllabus for English Literature in the United Kingdom. Some of these include: "Homecoming", "November", "Kid", "Hitcher", and a selection of poems from Book of Matches, most notably of these "Mother any distance...".

[edit] Novels

  • Little Green Man (2001)
  • The White Stuff (2004)

[edit] Edited

  • Penguin Modern Poets 5 (With Sean O'Brien and Tony Harrison,1995)
  • The Penguin Book of Poetry from Britain and Ireland since 1945 (With Robert Crawford,1998)
  • Short and Sweet: 101 Very Short Poems (1999)
  • Ted Hughes Poems: Selected by Simon Armitage (2000)
  • The Poetry of Birds ( With Tim Dee, 2009)

[edit] Translation

  • Homer's Odyssey (2006) [3]
  • Sir Gawain and The Green Knight (2007)

[edit] Other writing

  • Moon Country (with Glyn Maxwell,1996)
  • Eclipse (1997)
  • All Points North (1998)
  • Jerusalem (2005)
  • The Twilight Readings (2008)
  • Gig:The Life and Times of a Rock-star Fantasist (2008)

[edit] Radio works

  • Second Draft from Saga Land - Six programmes for BBC Radio 3 retracing the footsteps of W. H. Auden and Louis MacNeice during their visit to Iceland in 1936.
  • Eyes of a Demigod - A programme on politician Victor Grayson in prose and verse commissioned by BBC Radio 3.
  • The Amherst Myth - A documentary feature on Emily Dickinson for BBC Radio 4.
  • Points of Reference - A programme, in verse, on the history of navigation and orientation for BBC Radio 4.
  • From Salford to Jericho - A verse drama for BBC Radio 4.
  • To Bahia and Beyond - Five travelogue features in verse with Glyn Maxwell from Brazil and the Amazon for BBC Radio 3.
  • The Bayeux Tapestry - A six part dramatisation, with Geoff Young, for BBC Radio 3.
  • A Tree Full of Monkeys (2002) - A work commissioned by BBC Radio 3, created in collaboration with music group :zoviet*france:, to celebrate the opening of Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK.
  • The Odyssey (2004) - A three-part dramatisation for BBC Radio 4.
  • Writing the City (2005) - Five poems, recorded live at the West Yorkshire Playhouse with other northern English writers, commissioned by BBC Radio 3.

[edit] Anthologies

Armitage is featured in numerous anthologies including:

  • The Reater Issue 3 (Wrecking Ball Press)
  • AQA GCSE English/English Literature Anthology - Simon Armitage's poems and short stories are included throughout the anthology for GCSE students to study and then be examined at the end of their courses.

[edit] Interests

Armitage is a supporter of Huddersfield Town F.C. as discussed in All Points North.[4] He is also a Manchester United fan as mentioned in Gig. He is known to own a joint season ticket for Huddersfield Town and Huddersfield Giants rugby league team and can often be seen at the Galpharm Stadium on match days.

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c Ogden, Rachael (June 2001). "Preview: Simon Armitage". The North Guide (UK: North Guide): 27. ISSN 1470-4153. 
  2. ^ "Shell Connections at the National". Peter Lathan. 2004. http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/news/RNTshellc04.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-03. 
  3. ^ Mad, Wild, Hurling Tales of Odysseus’ Journey
  4. ^ "All Points North", Simon Armitage

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Armitage"