Born in Montreal to an Italian father and a Franco-Quebecois mother, Francis writes in French. He published his first poems in specialized magazines at the age of 18. Author of about ten books of poetry, including Index (2001), Panoptikon (2005) and Qu’une lueur des lieux (2010, winner of the Prix Québecor at the 26th Festival international de Poésie de Trois-Rivières and finalist for the Governor General’s Award), his poems have been translated into English, Spanish, Italian, German, Occitan, Romanian, Mandarin and Portuguese. He has also published a novel, a collection of short stories and an essay. Also a translator, he won the John-Glassco Award from the Literay Translators Association of Canada for Didascalie per la lettura di un giornale/Instructions pour la lecture d’un journal by the Italian poet Valerio Magrelli. He is the editor of the poetry journal Exit, and directs a translation collection for the publishing house Mains libres.