Nicholas Jose was born in London, and grew up in Australia. He was educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide, and the Australian National University. Winning a Rhodes Scholarship in 1974, he completed a PhD on seventeenth century English literature at Oxford University. He taught for several years at the Australian National University before spending eighteen months teaching and writing in China. In 1987 he was appointed Cultural Counsellor at the Australian Embassy in Beijing, an appointment he held until 1990.
Jose's first book of fiction is the short story collection The Possession of Amber (1980). During the 1980s he published another collection and several novels, including the widely-admired Avenue of Eternal Peace (1989), the first of Jose's novels to exhibit his interest in Chinese language and culture. Since 1990, Jose has written more novels based on his experience and knowledge of China, and a novel, The Custodians (1996), that explores the concept of custodianship in Australia. He has also written reviews, short stories, essays, poetry and travel articles, many of which deal with aspects of Chinese art and culture. His novel The Red Thread (2000) interweaves his translation of the Chinese story Six Chapters of a Floating Life with a contemporary narrative by using a red ink for the former story. Jose's writing has been supported by fellowships from the Australia-China Council, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Australia Council.
Since 2005 he has been Chair of Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide and then Chair of Writing at the University of Western Sydney. Jose has been appointed to the Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University for 2009.
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