Finuala Dowling was born in Cape Town, a city she has recorded in both her fiction and her poetry. She has taught English at the University of South Africa and the University of Cape Town as well as other institutions, but now works as a freelance writer and creative writing teacher. Her five collections of poetry include Pretend you Don’t Know Me, a new and selected volume that brings together many of her most popular poems. Her sixth novel, The Man Who Loved Crocodile Tamers, is due out in 2022.