Born and raised in Launceston, Tasmania, Rohan Wilson holds degrees and diplomas from the universities of Tasmania, Southern Queensland and Melbourne. He worked in the hospitality industry before moving to Japan in 2003 where he taught English for several years. For his masters thesis, Wilson focused on the conflicts between white settlers and Indigenous Australians in Tasmania. This in turn led to his writing of the Vogel award-winning novel
The Roving Party.
Wilson has undertaken studies towards a PhD in creative
writing at the University of Melbourne. His thesis concentrates on the friction between history and fiction.