Cirrus@Austlit

Brian Dibble received his high school education in Indianapolis and completed a PhD at Chicago University. He arrived in Western Australia in 1972 from the United States to take up the position as Foundation Head of the School of Communication and Cultural Studies at the Western Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University). He was a key figure in beginning the Creative Writing course at that institution. Dibble is Professor of Comparative Literature as well as Head of the School of Communication and Cultural Studies.

Dibble was president of the Perth PEN Centre and the Fellowship of Australian Writers (WA). He also served on the committee of the Australian Society of Authors. Published in Australian and American journals and anthologies, Dibble's work included poetry and short stories. He was editor of the Beloit Poetry Journal, a founding editor of the Australian Journal of Cultural Studies, wrote or edited more than a dozen books and was known for his critical/biographical work on William Hart-Smith and Elizabeth Jolley. In 2001 Curtin University awarded its Ethics, Equity and Social Justice Award to him and Kim Collard of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies, and in 2005 Curtin's Guild of Students named him the university's best graduate supervisor.