Dorian Mode is a multi-award-winning jazz musician and writer. Upon leaving the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, he was signed to EMI Records and later ABC Jazz. Over the years he has released numerous albums and performed at leading jazz festivals and venues including the Sydney Opera House and the Spiegel Tent at Adelaide Fringe. He holds Hons, Masters and Doctorate degrees and has been awarded several university scholarships.

However, he is mostly known for his travel writing and laugh-out-loud books. His first novel, A Café in Venice, and Mozart Maulers is published by Penguin and sold in translation in Europe. He’s written plays and musicals (published by Origin Theatrical) and written several short stories, featured in bestselling Penguin anthologies such as Big Night Out 3, Heatwave and Penguin Summer Stories.

He’s been a guest speaker at several writers festivals – including the Sydney Writer’s Festival – and read an abridged version of his last novel on ABC’s Radio National. His first novel was also released internationally as an audiobook.

His first and only screenplay was nominated for Best Unproduced Screenplay at the Australian Writer’s Guild Awards, and he was an IF Awards finalist again for Best Unproduced Screenplay.

He’s penned features for The Age, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times and wrote an absurdist column for the Telegraph, called Beachcomber. He was a columnist for Australian Traveller Magazine and also the back page columnist for Storyline, The Australian Writer’s Guild Magazine. He currently writes for NRMA’s Open Road Magazine and several leading travel magazines.

He’s been awarded an ABC Music Award for Best Jazz Composition and Best Instrumental. He was awarded an ABC Music Award for Best Theatrical Score for the play, The Good German (Seymour Centre). The same year he was awarded a Varuna Writing Fellowship.
He was head of the jazz dept at the Central Coast Conservatorium of Music for nine years and lectured in creative writing at Newcastle University (Ourimbah Campus) for three years. He also taught indigenous students at NAISDA Aboriginal College for four years.

He is currently a regular guest, riffing on his monthly essay, on ABC 702’s Weekend Program.