Background

Terry Dowling was born on March 21, 1947 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Education

Terry Dowling was educated at Boronia Park Public School in Sydney from 1952 to 1959, then at Hunters Hill High School in Sydney from 1960 to 1964, and at Sydney Teachers' College (now it is a part of the University of Sydney) during 1965-1966, following which he was conscripted for national service as an infantryman and admin clerk during the Vietnam War.

During these years Dowling wrote poetry and songs and some fiction. Dowling began buying science fiction magazines in the early 1960s and was influenced early by writers such as J. G. Ballard, Jack Vance, Ray Bradbury, Cordwainer Smith and the Horwitz horror anthologies edited by Charles Higham. He was also highly influenced by the Surrealist painters, particularly Salvador Dalí, Paul Delvaux, Max Ernst and Giorgio de Chirico.

After teaching for a year at Horsley Park Primary School in Sydney, Dowling matriculated to the University of Sydney, where he won a scholarship to complete his Bachelor of Arts (with honours) in English Literature and Archaeology in 1974, then won a research award via which he completed his Master of Arts (first class honours) in English Literature in 1982.

Dowling was also awarded a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the University of Western Australia in 2006 - the first such degree to be granted and completed at that university.

Career

At the beginning of his career, Terry Dowling taught for a year at Horsley Park Primary School in Sydney.

Then, during his nine-year stint at university, he wrote songs and performed with rock band The Many Moods of Albert in 1966-1967. In addition, he worked as an actor and songwriter with Sydney's Pact Theatre from 1972 to 1978, made appearances on Australia's national broadcaster ABC television on some children's programs in the late 1970s and then appeared in an eight-year stint as a musician and songwriter in regular guest appearances on the long-running Australian Broadcasting Corporation children's television program Mr. Squiggle and Friends during 1979-1982.

Terry Dowling began writing in the mid-1970s. Dowling's earliest published stories were "Illusion of Motion" and "Oriental on the Murder Express", both published in Enigma, the magazine of SUSFA, the Sydney University SF Society, and "Shade of Encounter" in the second issue of Science Fiction: A Review of Speculative Literature, on which Dowling became assistant editor and short-notice book-reviewer and eventually co-editor with Van Ikin.

In the 1980s Dowling wrote a science fiction play called "The Tunnel", and eventually sold his first professional story to Omega Science Digest ("The Man Who Walks Away Behind the Eyes"). He also began to publish short stories prolifically in the 1980s.

Terry Dowling gained prominence in the 1990s for his first collection "Rynosseros" which was issued in 1990. Further stories of Tyson were written in the early 1990s, with two further volumes of Tyson's adventures appearing in 1992 and 1993. The 'Rynosseros Cycle' would not conclude until publication of the fourth volume in 2007, but stands amongst Dowling's most important work.

During the same decade, Dowling published the collection "An Intimate Knowledge of the Night" and the collection of linked science fiction stories "Wormwood".

Besides, Terry Dowling spent the first several years of the 2000s authoring the scenarios for several PC adventure games published by the Polish firm Detalion.

He retired in 2013 from his position as lecturer at the June Dally Watkins Finishing School. He continues to run writing courses at the University of Sydney - the introductory "Magic Highways" workshops and the more advanced "Dream Castles" workshops.

Achievements

• Terry Dowling has won many national and international awards, including Ditmar Awards (including in 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 (twice), 1990, 1991, 1992, 2001), Readercon Award for Best Collection in 1991, four Aurealis Awards (two of them Convenors' Awards for Excellence), among others.
  
  Dowling also won the 1983 William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism for his essay "Kirth Gersen: The Other Demon Prince". Besides, he has received three World Fantasy Award nominations.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Cemetery Dance Select

    (The Cemetery Dance Select series invites some of our favo...)

    2015
  • The Night Shop: Tales for the Lonely Hours 2017
  • Antique Futures 1999
  • Rynosseros 1990
  • Clowns at Midnight 2010
  • Amberjack: Tales of Fear and Wonder 2010
  • Make Believe 2009
  • Twilight Beach 1993
  • Basic Black: Tales of Appropriate Fear 2006
  • The Jack Vance Treasury 2008
  • Wormwood 1992
  • An intimate knowledge of the night 1995
  • Blue Tyson 1992
  • The Man Who Lost Red 1995

Membership

Terry Dowling has been a member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Australia.

Interests

• Writers

  J.G. Ballard, Jack Vance, Ray Bradbury, Cordwainer Smith

• Artists

  Salvador Dalí, Paul Delvaux, Max Ernst and Giorgio de Chirico

Connections

colleague:

Van Ikin

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series