David Rowbotham

Rowbotham was born in the Darling Downs of Queensland, in the city of Toowoomba.[http://www.brisbanewritersfestival.com.au/2005/content/standard.asp?name=RowbothamD David Rowbotham] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061004195716/http://www.brisbanewritersfestival.com.au/2005/content/standard.asp?name=RowbothamD |date=4 October 2006 }} (Brisbane Writers' Festival) Accessed: 30 January 2007. He attended Toowoomba Grammar School and later studied at the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney.Australian Verse: An Illustrated Treasury, edited by Beatrice Davis, State Library of New South Wales Press, 1996 During the Second World War, he served on the Pacific front.

Rowbotham worked as a journalist for the Toowoomba Chronicle and Brisbane Courier-Mail from 1955 to 1964.{{cite web|title=David Rowbotham|url=http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/rowbotham-david|publisher=Australian Poetry Library|accessdate=17 January 2014}} He lectured in English at the University of Queensland between 1965 and 1969, then became the literary critic for the Brisbane Courier-Mail from 1969 to 1980, and later its literary editor from 1980 to 1987.

Though lyrical in form, Rowbotham's poems often focus on history. After Penguin published his Selected Poems in 1994, which covered fifty years of work, Rowbotham entered a productive late period that culminated in the well-received Poems for America in 2002. In 2005, Picaro Press's Wagtail series published a chapbook of Rowbotham's titled The Brown Island.{{cite web|title= David Rowbotham - Bibliography |publisher= Austlit|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A35832?mainTabTemplate=agentWorksAbout|access-date= 18 June 2025}}

A friend and mentor to many Australian writers, Rowbotham also maintained wide international connections.

He died on 6 October 2010.{{cite web|title="Poet's late flowering crowned a life's work" |publisher= The Australian, 8 October 2010, p14|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/756814860|access-date= 18 June 2025|id= {{ProQuest|756814860}}}}

Rowbotham was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1991 for his service to literature.{{Cite web|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/869897|title=David Harold Rowbotham|last=|first=|date=|website=honours.pmc.gov.au|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191211205751/https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/869897 |archive-date=11 December 2019 |access-date=2019-12-11}}

In 2007, he received the Patrick White Award, which was presented to him on 9 November 2007 in Brisbane.{{cite web|title= Austlit — Patrick White Award - Past Winners |publisher= Austlit|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/v617?mainTabTemplate=awardWorksAndAgents|access-date= 18 June 2025}}

• Ploughman and Poet (1954)
• Inland (1958)
• All the Room (1964)
• Bungalow and Hurricane (1967)
• The Makers of the Ark (1970)
• The Pen of Feathers (1971)
• Maydays (1980)
• Selected Poems (1994)
• The Ebony Gates (1996)
• Poems for America (2002)
• The Brown Island (2005)
• The Cave in the Sky (2005)
• The Star of Engelmeer (2006)
• Rogue Moons (2007)

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.qct.com.au/rowbotham/ David Rowbotham: A Chronicle]
• [http://www.ipoz.biz/Titles/PA.htm Reviews of Poems for America]
• {{cite web|title=David Rowbotham|url=http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/rowbotham-david|publisher=Australian Poetry Library}}

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Category:1924 births

Category:2010 deaths

Category:Australian journalists

Category:People from Toowoomba

Category:Writers from Queensland

Category:Patrick White Award winners

Category:20th-century Australian poets

Category:Australian male poets

Category:People educated at Toowoomba Grammar School

Category:20th-century Australian male writers

Category:Members of the Order of Australia

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