These essays are forays into what Wordsworth called the "hiding places" of the creative impulse. Sometimes in aphoristic form, this selection of meditations on the arts of poetry and teaching functions as an indirect self-portrait and probes the poet’s Irish heritage. For Brownlow, there is a fruitful tension between scholarship and poetry; too often divorced, these activities are not for him mutually exclusive. This book asserts the autonomy of the literary imagination. His aim is to be, as in Whitman’s great line, "aplomb in the midst of irrational things."

Tim Brownlow was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was co-editor of a major Irish literary journal before coming to Canada in 1970. After teaching at several universities in Nova Scotia, he came to B.C. in 1991, taking up a position at Malaspina University-College in 1992, from which he retired in 2006. He is now an Honorary Research Associate of the college. As well as scholarly publications, he has published three volumes of verse; the most recent, Climbing Croagh Patrick (Oolichan, 1998), was praised by W. J. Keith for its “civilised sincerity.” His work appears in a number of anthologies, both scholarly and literary, including The Penguin Book of Irish Verse; The Critical Perspective (Chelsea House, New York); Poems for Clare (UK); In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry (Raincoast Books); and Apples Under the Bed (Hedgerow Press). His work is featured in the June 2007 edition of Poetry Ireland Review.

Timothy Brownlow's profile page