R. M. Francis is a lecturer in Creative and Professional Writing at the University of Wolverhampton. He's the author of two novels, Bella and The Wrenna, published with Wild Pressed Books, and a poetry collection, Subsidence, with Smokestack Books. In 2019 he was the inaugural David Bradshaw Writer in Residence at the University of Oxford and is currently Poet in Residence for The Black Country Geological Society. His academic research focuses on place-identity in the Black Country and has been published in a number of edited collections; he co-edited the book, Smell, Memory and Literature in the Black Country (Palgrave McMillan).

"R. M. Francis drills down into the bedrock of the Black Country in a part academic, part poetic exploration of this region so fundamentally influenced by its geology, where the earth truly is the centre of the lived experience. Francis’s voice is earthy, sexual, guttural, coarse, and intent upon unleashing the spirit of the stones. The heady mix of the language of rocks and Black Country dialect is shamanic, unsettling and delicious. In the half-remembered phrases, half-known places, the reader hivvy-hovers between what is, what was and indeed what might be." -- Emma Purshouse

"I can think of no better companion for a deep time wander through the Black Country than R.M. Francis. Infinitely curious, poetic and tender towards the landscape he loves, he re- imagines the region’s geology and history in fascinating new ways." -- Liz Berry