Poet Laureate Simon Armitage Brings Ancient Gilgamesh to New Readers
Britain's poet laureate has given a 4,000-year-old epic a new life in English verse.
Simon Armitage's Gilgamesh: A New Verse Translation was published on 8 October 2026 by Faber & Faber Ltd in the United Kingdom, according to The Bookseller. A United States edition comes from Liveright in 2026. The Guardian published a review under the headline 'Gilgamesh by Simon Armitage review - an ancient epic is brilliantly translated for our times' on 20 October 2026.
Armitage holds the post of poet laureate, the official poet appointed to write verse for national and royal occasions. The pay is modest. The role carries a salary of £5,750 a year plus a barrel of sherry. Armitage wrote 'Floral Tribute' after the death of Elizabeth II and a poem to mark the coronation of Charles and Camilla in 2023.
The story he has taken on began in ancient Mesopotamia, in what is now Iraq, at least 4,000 years ago. Sumerian sources date to 2000BC. Fragments in a later Akkadian form survive on cuneiform tablets, clay slabs pressed with wedge-shaped script, found by archaeologists in the 19th century. A verse translation, meaning a retelling shaped into poetic lines rather than literal prose, must bridge that distance.
Armitage has done this kind of work before. He has previously translated Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. His Gilgamesh carries the ISBN 9780571357246, the 13-digit number that identifies a book for shops and libraries. The Liveright edition runs to 224 pages, according to Los Angeles Review of Books.
Faber plans a second, very different object in November 2026. A special limited edition, meaning a small numbered print run, will feature drawings by Antony Gormley. The deluxe issue is signed, includes an exclusive Gormley print and is listed at £1,000.00.
Review coverage is under way. The Los Angeles Review of Books published an essay titled 'The Epic of the Fear of Death' about the translation in May 2026.
What makes this stand out for general readers is access. A tale once read from broken clay is now on the shelf in two forms. One is a standard edition for everyday sale. The other is a signed collector's edition at a much higher price.
