Simon Armitage | |
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Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom | |
Assumed office 10 May 2019 | |
Monarchs | Elizabeth II Charles III |
Preceded by | Carol Ann Duffy |
Personal details | |
Born | Simon Robert Armitage 26 May 1963 Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
Spouse(s) | Alison Tootell (div.) Sue Roberts |
Children | 1 |
Residence(s) | Holme Valley, West Yorkshire, England |
Education | Colne Valley High School |
Alma mater | Portsmouth Polytechnic University of Manchester |
Occupation | Poet, playwright, novelist, singer |
Website | simonarmitage |
Simon Robert Armitage CBE, FRSL (born 26 May 1963)[1] is an English poet, playwright, musician and novelist. He was appointed Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds.
He has published over 20 collections of poetry, starting with Zoom! in 1989. Many of his poems concern his home town in West Yorkshire; these are collected in Magnetic Field: The Marsden Poems. He has translated classic poems including the Odyssey, the Alliterative Morte Arthure, Pearl, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. He has written several travel books including Moon Country and Walking Home: Travels with a Troubadour on the Pennine Way. He has edited poetry anthologies including one on the work of Ted Hughes. He has participated in numerous television and radio documentaries, dramatisations, and travelogues.