David Rowbotham - Biography

Biography

Rowbotham was born in the Darling Downs of Queensland, in the city of Toowoomba. He attended Toowoomba Grammar School and studied at the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney. He served in the Second World War on the Pacific front, and later worked as a journalist for the Brisbane Courier-Mail (1955–64). He lectured in English at the University of Queensland (1965–1969), and became the literary critic of the Brisbane Courier-Mail (1969–1980), and its literary editor (1980–1987). A friend and mentor to many other Australian writers, Rowbotham also maintained extensive international connections, travelling frequently to the United States. Though lyrical in form, Rowbotham's poems are often concerned with history. After the publication of his Selected Poems by Penguin in 1994, covering a period of fifty years, Rowbotham entered a startling late period of productivity which culminated in the publication of the much-lauded Poems for America in 2002. In 2005 the Wagtail series from Picaro Press published a chapbook of Rowbotham's called The Brown Island. In 2007 Rowbotham received the Patrick White Award; the presentation was made 9 November 2007, in Brisbane. Rowbotham died in 2010