UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has received numerous prizes and awards, including an Ivor Novello Award for his song writing and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry.
Simon returns to Krankenhaus to read from two new poetry books this year: his recent Sunday Times bestseller Dwell, inspired by the Lost Gardens of Heligan, and his major new poetry collection New Cemetery, hot off the press in September.
Gorgeously illustrated by Cornish print-maker Beth Munro, Dwell uses elements of riddle and folklore to reimagine the ingenious, fragile dwellings of living creatures around us. In New Cemetery, the Poet Laureate makes peace with the dead in a highly imaginative and wide-ranging new collection. These luminous and wry poems are as surprising as they are life-enhancing.
Simon Armitage grew up in West Yorkshire and is Professor of Poetry at Leeds University. His collections of poetry, which have received numerous awards, include Seeing Stars, The Unaccompanied, Magnetic Field and his acclaimed translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. His bestseller last year, Blossomise, is a glorious collaboration with the well-known illustrator Angela Harding. Armitage also writes and performs with the band LYR, most recently for The Proms: 100 years of the Shipping Forecast. He has explored where poetry and song lyric converge for various film and theatre productions including Songbirds and the BAFTA-winning Feltham Sings. Never Good with Horses is the first-ever collection of the Poet Laureate’s lyric output.
A regular broadcaster, Armitage wrote and presented the popular BBC Radio 4’s series The Poet Laureate has Gone to his Shed and this year’s My Poetry and Other Animals. Over the years, he has been a regular guest on The Mark Radcliffe Show, first on BBC Radio 1, then BBC Radio 2 and more recently on the Radcliffe and Maconie Show on BBC Radio 6 Music. He also contributes to Guy Garvey’s Finest Hour (BBC Radio 6 Music).
An award-winning dramatist, Armitage’s contemporary spin on Hansel and Gretel was performed at Shakespeare’s Globe last winter. He is also the author of two novels and three non-fiction bestsellers.