Francis, Matthew

(1956- )

   Born in Gosport, Hampshire, he was educated at the City of London School and graduated B.A. and M.A. from Magdalene College, Cambridge University. From 1994 he studied the work of William Sydney Graham (see entry) at Southampton University and gained his Ph.D. in English in 1998. He received a Hawthornden Fellowship in 1998. In 1999 he moved to Cardiff to take up a post as lecturer in creative writing at the University of Glamorgan. He is now reader in creative writing at the University of Aberystwyth and teaches creative writing at undergraduate, M.A. and Ph.D. levels. His poem "The Ornamental Hermit" won the 2000 TLS/Blackwell's Prize. "City Autumn" won the national Gathering Swallows prize for the best poem by a published poet in response to John Keats' "To Autumn." He edited New Collected Poems of W S Graham in 2005. Some of his other poetry publications: Blizzard, 1996. Dragons, 2001. Whereabouts, 2005. Some of his other poems: "Interior Designers in the Forest," "Margin," "Museum of the Forest," "Nest of Devils," "Surface."

   Sources: Aberystwyth University, Department of English (http://www.aber.ac.uk/english/staffinfo/mwf.html). Biography and Works of Matthew Francis (http://www.7greenhill.freeserve.co.uk/). Biography of Matthew Francis, Poetry Book Society (http://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/ PBS/pbs_francis_matthew.asp). Links to Poets (http://www.pmpoetry.com/linkspb.shtml). Personal correspondence.