Michael Dugan has written fiction, non fiction and verse for children and adapted stories for radio. He grew up in Bundoora which at the time was largely open country on the outskirts of Melbourne, where Latrobe University now stands. Dugan recalled writing stories and poems as a child of eight or nine. After leaving school he worked in children's bookselling and developed an interest in writing himself. Dugan co-founded Contempa Publications with Phillip Edmonds and Robert Kenny (qq.v.).
Dugan published a series of short factual books for children in Macmillan's Australian Fact Finder series. In 1984 he co-authored a social history of Australian immigration called There Goes the Neighbourhood!.