Simon Armitage Books

Exploring the multifaceted nature of poetry, Simon Armitage presents a blend of personal insights and critical analysis, drawing from his experiences as Oxford's Professor of Poetry. He examines a diverse range of poets, including Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, with a playful yet thoughtful approach. Armitage tackles topics from Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize to the challenges of contemporary poetic life, culminating in his "Ninety-Five Theses" on poetry. This engaging work highlights the evolving definitions and significance of poetry in modern times.

Blending a history of the Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) bacterium with auto-ethnographic writing, Autobiography of a Disease documents, in experimental form, the experience of extended life-threatening illness in contemporary US hospitals and clinics.

Who were the victims of Jack the Ripper? And what was the impact of his killings on women at the time, and over the last 150 years?

The current UK Poet Laureate's popular series of lectures examining what poetry is and who it might be for.

Losing none of the exuberance which has become a hallmark of Simon Armitage's poetry, these poems are more personal. The book is divided into three sections - the Book of Matches which are sonnets, Becoming of Age and Reading the Bans, a series of poems about Armitage's marriage.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE DEREK WALCOTT PRIZE FOR POETRYIt is the current Poet Laureate who has done the most to bring medieval poetry to contemporary audiences . The disputed issues still resonate - concerning identity, cultural habits, class distinctions and the right to be heard.

Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate, brings new perspectives and energy to a timeless poetic subject. Blossomise celebrates the ecstatic arrival of spring blossom just as it acknowledges, too, its melancholy disappearance.

20 years after the Trojan war, the Gods have decided it is time for Odysseus to return to Ithaca, before his wife Penelope is forced to marry again. Angry Poseidon is seeking revenge for the murder of his son, and Odysseus has many perilous storms and treacherous landfalls ahead of him if he is to be reunited with Penelope.

A collection of commissioned, collaborative and occasional poems, demonstrating the range of Armitage's writing outside of his mainstream volumes.