Editing Simon Armitage (section)

=== Writing ===
[[File:Simon Armitage in 2015.jpg|thumb|Armitage in 2015]]

Armitage's first book-length poetry collection ''[[Zoom! (poetry book)|Zoom!]]'' was published in 1989.<ref name=Guardian/> As well as some new poems, it contained works published in three pamphlets in 1986 and 1987.<ref>{{cite book |last=Armitage |first=Simon |title=Zoom! |publisher=[[Bloodaxe Books]] |publication-place=Newcastle upon Tyne |year=1989 |isbn=978-1-85224-078-3 |oclc=21872787 |page=6}}</ref>
His poetry collections include ''[[Book of Matches]]'' (1993) and ''The Dead Sea Poems'' (1995). He has written two novels, ''Little Green Man'' (2001) and ''The White Stuff'' (2004), as well as ''All Points North'' (1998), a collection of essays on [[Northern England]]. He produced a dramatised version of [[Homer]]'s ''[[Odyssey]]'' and a collection of poetry entitled ''Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus The Corduroy Kid'' (shortlisted for the [[T. S. Eliot Prize]]), both published in 2006. Armitage's poems feature in multiple British [[GCSE]] syllabuses for English Literature.<ref name="Childs 2012">{{cite book |last=Childs |first=Tony |title=The poetry of Simon Armitage: a study guide for GCSE students |publisher=[[Faber and Faber]] |publication-place=London |date=2012 |isbn=978-0-571-27825-1 |oclc=779244544 |chapter=Introduction |quote=Simon Armitage has become one of the most popular and widely studied poets for school students ... studying any of his poems for GCSE ... poems set for study by either OCR or AQA or Edexcel}}</ref> He is characterised by a dry Yorkshire wit combined with "an accessible, realist style and critical seriousness."<ref name="North Guide"/> His translation of ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]'' (2007) was adopted for the ninth edition of ''[[The Norton Anthology of English Literature]]'', and he was the narrator of a 2010 BBC documentary about the poem and its use of landscape.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kvbny |title=Sir Gawain and the Green Knight |publisher=BBC Four |date=17 August 2010 |work=[[BBC Online]] |access-date=6 February 2013}}</ref>

For the [[Stanza Stones Trail]], which runs through {{convert|47|mile|km}} of the Pennine region, Armitage composed six new poems on his walks. With the help of local expert Tom Lonsdale and letter-carver Pip Hall, the poems were carved into stones at secluded sites. A book, containing the poems and the accounts of Lonsdale and Hall, has been produced as a record of that journey<ref>[http://www.stanzastones.co.uk Profile], stanzastones.co.uk; accessed 11 May 2015.</ref> and has been published by [[Enitharmon Press]]. The poems, complemented with commissioned wood engravings by Hilary Paynter, were also published in several limited editions under the title 'In Memory of Water' by Fine Press Poetry.<ref name="water-finepress">{{cite web |title=In Memory of Water |url=http://www.finepresspoetry.com/in-memory-of-water---simon-armitage.html |publisher=Fine Press Poetry |access-date=12 January 2020}}</ref> For [[National Poetry Day]] in 2020, [[BT Group|BT]] commissioned him to write "Something clicked", a reflection on lockdown during the [[COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom|COVID-19 pandemic]].<ref name="bt">{{cite web |title=Something Clicked |url=https://www.bt.com/broadband/something-clicked |website=www.bt.com |publisher=BT |access-date=1 October 2020}}</ref> In 2023 [[The National Trust]] commissioned a poem by Armitage for [[Brimham Rocks]] in North Yorkshire. Artist [[Adrian Riley]] collaborated with Armitage and stone carver Richard Dawson to create 'Balancing Act' – a gateway-like public artwork carrying Armitage's poem where the rocks meet moorland.<ref>{{cite web |title=Poet Laureate Simon Armitage at Brimham Rocks |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/yorkshire/brimham-rocks/simon-armitage-at-brimham-rocks |website=National Trust |access-date=12 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230730224126/https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/yorkshire/brimham-rocks/simon-armitage-at-brimham-rocks |archive-date=30 July 2023 |language=en |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Audsley |first1=Natasha |title='Mythical or pieces of an alien landscape'- Yorkshire's Simon Armitage poem carved into stone at Brimham Rocks |url=https://www.harrogateadvertiser.co.uk/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/mythical-or-pieces-of-an-alien-landscape-yorkshires-simon-armitage-poem-carved-into-stone-at-brimham-rocks-4193145 |access-date=12 February 2024 |work=Harrogate Advertiser |date=22 June 2023}}</ref>