Terence William (Terry) Dowling (born 21 March 1947), is an Australian writer and journalist. He writes primarily speculative fiction and dark fantasy though he considers himself an "imagier" – one who imagines, a term which liberates his writing from the constraints of specific genres. He has been called "among the best-loved local writers and most-awarded in and out of Australia, a writer who stubbornly hews his own path (one mapped ahead, it is true, by Cordwainer Smith, J.G. Ballard and Jack Vance)."