David Terelinck is notorious for holding words hostage on a page until they agree to become a poem. A lover of gin & tonic, along with long beach and rainforest walks, David feels we need more poetry less politics, and firmly believes dolphins should be running the planet.

In a previous Sydney-based lifetime, David was a post-graduate clinical registered nurse and was also involved in academic writing. Many of his articles were published in peer-reviewed nursing journals. Now retired from paid employment, he lives and writes in warmer climes on the lands of the Yugambeh peoples in south-east Queensland.

David has published two tanka collections (Casting Shadows, 2011 and Slow Growing Ivy, 2014), and co-authored A Shared Umbrella with Beverley George in 2016. He has judged many tanka competitions and edited international journals and anthologies. David’s tanka and haiku have won awards internationally, and have been published widely in journals and anthologies.

Since a return to free verse poetry in 2019, David has co-judged free verse poetry competitions and has been shortlisted, placed, and won awards in Australia and overseas. His poems have been anthologised regularly.

Small Epiphanies, published by Calanthe Press in 2024, is David’s first free verse collection.