New Poetry prize announced by Simon Armitage

Image result for all points north armitage"I’ve always written poems about the area where I live, and my interests in things like the Antarctic and the Arctic and geography generally, all those subject matters are shaded now by the environmental situation." 


Simon Armitage is a geographer, and the Poet Laureate. He grew up near Huddersfield, where I studied for my degree.
His job carries a salary of £5000, and he has announced a new Poetry prize called the Laurel Prize for works on the theme of the environment and climate change.

He has a lot of geographical credentials.

  • He produced an excellent book around a visit to Iceland with Glyn Maxwell, following an early journey by W H Auden.
  • He created some excellent radio programmes with a geographical theme, including one on the volcanic island of Surtsey
  • His book 'All Points North' explored conceptions of the north.
  • He has produced two books describing long distance footpaths and his experiences of the Pennine Way and the SW Coastal Path.
  • He recently published a poem 'Ark' for the launch of the research ship Sir David Attenborough

The first prize, which will be awarded on 23 May 2020 at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, somewhere I know well, will be judged by Armitage, nature writer Robert Macfarlane and the poet Moniza Alvi.

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