Winner of the Edinburgh Poetry Slam 2003 and a regular on the Scottish performance poetry circuit Richard is also Secretary of the School of Poets at the Scottish Poetry Library. A puppeteer since 1984, he has performed at venues all over Britain including the National Theatre and 12 Edinburgh Fringes. In 2003 he was shortlisted for the Creative Scotland Awards, and he has been shortlisted for the Callum Macdonald Award for poetry pamphlets. He is married to the Edinburgh poet Elspeth Murray.

Pamphlets include Wild Star Flight, What it's About, Bumping into God, An Absird Book of Burds and The Word of Dog. His essay on Edward Thomas’s poem 'Adlestrop' is included in Common Ground: Around Britain With Thirty Writers published in 2006 by Cyan Books.