Simon Armitage was born in Huddersfield in 1963. After reading Geography at Portsmouth Polytechnic he went on to do a course in Social Work and Psychology at Manchester University. For a time he worked in Manchester as a Probation Officer.Simon Armitage's first book of poetry, Zoom! (Bloodaxe), was a Poetry Book Society Choice and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. His second collection, Kid, was published by Faber in 1992 to instant and wide acclaim. It was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and Simon Armitage was voted 'Most Promising New Poet' for the Forward Poetry Prize. In 1993 he was the Sunday Times 'Young Writer of the Year'. His third collection, Book of Matches, was published in the Autumn of that year to great acclaim. In May 1994 he was selected as one of the twenty young poets included in the Poetry Society's high profile 'New Generation Poets' promotion.In September 1995 Faber published The Dead Sea Poem