“one of the best poets around.”
The Observer
Introduced and chaired by Enda Wyley Few poets can count a BAFTA, a CBE and an Ivor Novello among their awards, but Simon Armitage is one. In the 25 years since he published his first collection, Zoom!, he has established himself as the face of modern British poetry, earning both critical and popular acclaim. His astonishingly varied body of work includes ten collections of poetry, two novels, a bestselling memoir (All Points North), translations from the classics and plays for radio, TV and stage. Now Professor of Poetry at Sheffield University, he remains as prolific as ever. In 2011 he walked the 256-mile Pennine Way as a kind of modern troubadour, giving poetry readings in return for bed and board, a feat described in the bestseller Walking Home. In 2012, to celebrate the London Olympics, he conceived and organised Poetry Parnassus, the largest international gathering of poets in history. Now, following celebrated translations of The Odyssey and The Death of King Arthur, Armitage comes to Dublin Writers Festival to talk about The Last Days of Troy, his new dramatisation of Homer’s Iliad, currently on stage at the Royal Exchange in London, and to read from a selection of his work over the last 25 years.