Armitage, Simon (1963– )

English poet. He uses the honest, no-nonsense language and rhythms of the village where he lives, Marsden, near Huddersfield, England. He explores themes of belief, trust, creation, sacrifice, and identity in everyday life, with subjects as wide-ranging as cricket matches, love affairs, and astronomy. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 1988 for his anthology Zoom!; a Forward Poetry Prize for Most Promising Young Poet in 1992 for Kid; and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award in 1993 for Xanadu and Kid. Other collections Book of Matches (1993), The Dead Sea Poems (1995), and CloudCuckooLand (1997).

Armitage was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, and grew up in West Yorkshire. After taking a degree in geography, he worked with young offenders for two years. He then went to Manchester University where he qualified as a social worker. In 1989 his work was featured on New Voices, a radio series. He has also published novels which include Little Green Man (2001), a dark tale about male friendship, and The White Stuff (2004), about the search for family and identity.