Canada’s former poet laureate looks back at a life lived in literature and hockey fandom

Hockey forms the backdrop of our lives. For many Canadians, the big moments — births, deaths, marriages, moves — are all mixed up with the wins and losses of our teams. The voices of Hockey Night in Canada sportscasters are our soundtrack, and visions of skates scraping across the ice lull us to sleep.

George Bowering, Canada’s former poet laureate, is no different. Growing up in Oliver, B.C., Bowering was entranced by the kids from Saskatchewan who skated and handled pucks as easily as breathing. His fascination with hockey followed him into adult life, from B.C. to Quebec and back again. Bowering followed his teams with a critical eye and a fan’s passion, and his stories bring us on a cross-country hockey-themed road trip, with occasional forays into boxing, poetry, and sports fashion.

Bowering has an encyclopedic knowledge of his subject. He has been an avid and attentive hockey fan since boyhood, and has an extensive catalogue of thoughts and opinions on the personalities and events that populate Canadian hockey history. In The Hockey Scribbler, Bowering brings us along on his richly detailed look back at hockey in Canada since the 1950s.

George Bowering, Canada’s first Poet Laureate, was born in the Okanagan Valley.After serving as an aerial photographer in the Royal Canadian Air Force, Bowering earned a BA in English and an MA in history at the University of British Columbia, where he became one of the co-founders of the avant-garde poetry magazine TISH. He has taught literature at the University of Calgary, the University of Western Ontario, and Simon Fraser University, and he continues to act as a Canadian literary ambassador at international conferences and readings.A distinguished novelist, poet, editor, professor, historian, and tireless supporter of fellow writers, Bowering has authored more than eighty books, including works of poetry, fiction, autobiography, biography, and youth fiction. His writing has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese, and Romanian.Bowering has twice won the Governor General’s Award, Canada’s top literary prize. In 2019 he received the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia.

George Bowering's profile page

“Its structure is dictated by [Bowering’s] episodic yet abiding fascination with displays of puck skills. So it’s not an all-encompassing account of Bowering’s life; rather, it’s a nicely crafted rummage sale of select hockey memories . . . The Hockey Scribbler is a literate yet plain-spoken homage to the game Bowering has loved and followed since childhood.” — Winnipeg Free Press

“The Hockey Scribbler is a must read for every Canadian who grew up loving the game.” — Owen Sound Sun Times

“It is a pleasure to experience such a gifted author sharing his thoughts on hockey as only he can. I couldn't put the book down, which is a rare thing to say for most hockey books.” — GreatestHockeyLegends.com