His plays, which include Messalina and Delirium Palace (both Garland Playwriting Award winners), have been performed in New York and Los Angeles.
[2] Dahlquist's debut novel The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, a hybrid of fantasy and science fiction set in a period similar to the Victorian era, was published on August 1, 2006, to notable critical acclaim.
Dahlquist was reportedly paid an advance of $2,000,000 for The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, the first of a two-book deal.
[4] The sequel to The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, The Dark Volume, was published in the UK by Penguin on May 1, 2008, and on March 24, 2009, in the United States.
In 2015 he received the James Tait Black Prize for his play Tomorrow Come Today.