He lives in Kirkcudbrightshire after returning to the area in 2012 following 14 years of working in north-west England. An Ayrshireman of long descent, he founded and edited the international poetry and prose review ‘Spectrum’ from 1989 to 1996. He was given an Eric Gregory Award in 1992 from the Society of Authors, recognising the UK’s finest poets under the age of 30, and a Scottish Arts Council Writer’s Bursary in 1993 to spend time travelling and writing in France and Greece. Most recently, he was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship from the Scottish Book Trust, enabling him to spend November 2014 working and writing in the Hôtel Chevillon International Arts Centre at Grez-sur-Loing in France. He was appointed the Scots Language Society’s Virtual Poet-In-Residence for 2015-16.