Monday, June 22, 2015

Simon Armitage wins Oxford professor of poetry election

Popular British poet selected for prestigious post ahead of strong field including Wole Soyinka

Simon Armitage: keen to discuss ‘poetry’s relationship with the civilian world’.
Simon Armitage: keen to discuss ‘poetry’s relationship with the civilian world’. Photograph: Gareth Phillips for the Guardian
The British poet Simon Armitage has seen off an international field to be chosen as Oxford’s latest professor of poetry.

Speaking to the Guardian after the announcement, Armitage said he was “delighted and very excited and suitably daunted as well”.
“It’s been such a long process,” he said. “In the time it’s taken we’ve had a general election, Sepp Blatter has come and gone and come again, and we’ve nearly got a new leader of the Labour party.”

The award-winning author of more than 12 collections of poetry, Armitage has been hailed by fellow poet Sean O’Brien as “the first poet of serious artistic intent since Philip Larkin to have achieved popularity”.

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