Simon Armitage
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Simon Armitage (born in Huddersfield on May 26, 1963) is a British poet, playwright, and novelist.
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[edit] Academic work
Armitage studied at the University of Plymouth, and has lectured on creative writing at the University of Leeds in West Yorkshire, where he lives, and at the University of Iowa's writers' workshop. He currently teaches at Newcastle University.
[edit] Notable works
He has published nine volumes of poetry, including All Points North (1999), a collection of essays on the north of England, and two novels, Little Green Man and The Dead Sea Poems (2001) and White Stuff (2004). He has also produced a dramatised version of Homer's Odyssey and a collection of poetry called Tyrannosaurus Rex vs The Corduroy Kid (which is shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize, both of which were published in July 2006. 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 on the 25th of August, before moving to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden on the 6th of September.
[edit] Literary work
Armitage also writes for radio, television, and film. He is the author of four stage plays, including Mister Heracles, a version of Euripides' The Madness of Heracles.
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.
Armitage was one of the judges for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize.
On March 10, 2006, Armitage was named as one of the judges for the 2006 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
