Richard Brown has presented his work at the Off the Shelf Festival of literature in Sheffield and has been recorded for an archive of Sheffield writers. In 2010 he was invited to perform his work at Harare International Festival of the Arts, for which he was sponsored by the British Council and the British Embassy, Harare. His work was scheduled alongside the poets Chirikure Chirikure, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, TJ Dema, Ignatious Mabasa and Togara Muzanenhamo. He is presently writing his first novel and working on a play for theatre.

Much of the poetry draws on his native surroundings, post-industrial Yorkshire and the juxtaposition of its unique rural landscape. He is a poet deeply concerned with the environment of the poem and the environment of the poet. History and place are a ‘phenomenal experience’ and the landmarks and geographical references that fuel his poems have a deep symbolic, even metaphorical significance. People of the region have a shared importance and their presence in the poems is remarkably sincere. At the end of RECLAMATION we are informed that, ‘reluctance profits from ne'er-do-wells / the landscape bestows such genius'. But among his deep-felt regionality there are poems that surprise and arrest, poems of ideas and elsewhere. There is a strong association with Eastern and Central Europe, and this forms an on-going discourse in the poems that shows a wide interest in literature and travel. The fall-out of history and new-world-discord are a presence in the poems, and in the poem MIXED LANDS we learn that, 'in Kazimiez the taxi-man debates: no one knows who is who.' Aside from detectable central themes, the topics of love and relationships are discussed with lyrical ease and often striking imagery: 'We have always exchanged the mind's image, / remember Warwickshire's mistletoe orbs / hung like cancer-scans in a winter landscape.'

Richard Brown has developed varied life interests. In 1990 he competed in the triathlon national championships and then went on to take up rock climbing and mountaineering. He considers himself an amateur naturalist and has published articles on a wide range of rural interests. His passion is fly-fishing and has fished widely in Britain and Europe. He also plays classical and flamenco guitar.

Unknown Region (forthcoming, 2010)