Poet Laureate Simon Armitage was born and grew up in West Yorkshire. He is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and the PEN Prize for Translation.
He has published over a dozen poetry collections, including Magnetic Field, and acclaimed medieval translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Owl and the Nightingale.
He is the author of two novels and three non-fiction bestsellers: All Points North, Walking Home and Walking Away.
A regular broadcaster, Armitage presents the popular BBC Radio 4’s series The Poet Laureate has Gone to his Shed. He writes extensively for television and radio, most recently for BBC 2’s Where Did The World Go, A Pandemic Poem.
An award-winning dramatist, his play The Last Days of Troy was performed at Shakespeare’s Globe.
He writes, records and performs with the band LYR and has received an Ivor Novello Award for his song-writing.
Armitage is Professor of Poetry at the University of Leeds.
His critical book A Vertical Art brings together the vibrant and engaging lectures from his tenure as Oxford Professor of Poetry (2015-2019).