Dr Paul Ferguson grew up next to what was then a working quarry in the north-eastern Lake District. He is a Senior Lecturer in literature and culture at the University of Cumbria and is the programme lead for the MA in Creative Practice. He also teaches modules on ‘Literature and the Environment’ and ‘Contemporary Cumbrian Fiction’ for the MA Literature, Romanticism and the Lake District. He has published on literary connections with the Anthropocene and is currently working on material relating ‘local’ Cumbrian experiences to global events'.