Doug Rawlings was born on December 8th, 1946, in Rochester, New York. In 1968, Rawlings graduated with a degree in economics from John Carroll University. While he was accepted into the Peace Corps after graduation, Rawlings opted instead to attend graduate school at Ohio State University. He was later drafted into the US Army, and on January 9th, 1969, he began basic training in Buffalo, New York, and then went on to complete advanced individual artillery training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In the spring of 1969, he was deployed to Vietnam. As a soldier in the 7th Battalion, 15th Field Artillery regiment, Rawlings served in the central highlands of Vietnam from 1969-1970.

Rawlings returned to the US in August of 1970 and began writing political poetry and participating in anti-war activism around Boston, Massachusetts. Later, he and his wife moved to a farmstead in Chesterville, Maine, and Rawlings began teaching at the University of Maine, Farmington. In 1985, Rawlings co-founded the organization, Veterans For Peace. Now mostly retired from teaching, Rawlings serves as the president of the Maine chapter of the Veterans For Peace.

Rawlings published works include: Cầu Tre (Bamboo Bridge), A Baker’s Dozen, In the Shadow of the Annamese Mountains, A G.I. in America, and Orion Rising. He was an editor of the Letters to the Wall book series and served as an editor for Peace and Planet News.