DURHAM LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2000

 

SIMON ARMITAGE

Simon Armitage was born in Huddersfield in 1963. He read geography at Portsmouth Polytechnic and social work and psychology at Manchester University. For a time he worked in Manchester as a probation officer.

Simon Armitage’s first book Zoom! (Bloodaxe) was a Poetry Society Book Choice and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. His second collection, Kid, was published by Faber in 1992 to instant and wide acclaim. It was was also shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and he was voted Most Promising Poet for the Forward Poetry Prize. In 1993 he was The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year and his third collection, Book of Matches, was published by Faber and Faber to great critical acclaim. In May 1994 he was selected as one of the twenty young poets included in the Poetry Society’s high-profile New Generation Poets promotion.

In September 1995 Faber and Faber published The Dead Sea Poems. The collection was a Poetry Book Society Choice and was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize, the T S Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award.

Simon Armitage has written poetry extensively for radio and television. He is an experienced broadcaster, having presented Stanza on BBC Radio 4 and contributed regularly to the Mark Radcliffe Show on BBC 1FM.