David Malouf was born in Brisbane in 1934. Since 'Interiors' in Four Poets, 1962, he has published poetry, novels and short stories, essays, opera librettos and a play, and is widely translated.

His most recent poetry volumes include Typewriter Music (UQP, 2007) and his selected poems, Revolving Days, (UQP, 2008). Earth Hour (UQP, 2014), won both the Judith Wright Calanthe Award, the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards.

Malouf was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1987 and elected an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1989. In 1997 he was declared an Australian National Living Treasure, while he received the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2000.