The Duende of Tetherball fearlessly ransacks the scrutinizing role of the past on the present; the interactions and accountabilities of ourselves and other species; the challenges and pleasures of getting older and forever striving to balance our most cherished and often incomprehensible relationships both with the world and each other.

Bowling strives to account for and address our human need to resolve the tension between personal freedom and a world burdened by increasing homogenization and centralized control by adopting an industry of personal fortitude and thoughtful redress. He seeks to remember and to remember again the lessons polished over a lifetime: "Fifteen, scared but still apt / to toss "damn thee black / thou cream-faced loon" / in PE class at the rippling back / of some hoop or net-bound jock, / I was learning - too soon - / the only lesson that counts: / how to be alone."

Tim Bowling has published numerous poetry collections, including Low Water Slack; Dying Scarlet (winner of the 1998 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for poetry); Darkness and Silence (winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry); The Witness Ghost; and The Memory Orchard (both nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award). He is also the author of three novels, Downriver Drift (Harbour), The Paperboy's Winter (Penguin) and The Bone Sharps (Gaspereau Press). His first book of non-fiction, The Lost Coast: Salmon, Memory and the Death of Wild Culture (Nightwood Editions), was shortlisted for three literary awards: The Writers' Trust Nereus Non-Fiction Award, the BC Book Prizes' Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize and the Alberta Literary Awards' Wilfred Eggleston Award for Non-Fiction. The Lost Coast was also chosen as a 2008 Kiriyama Prize "Notable Book." Bowling is the recipient of the Petra Kenney International Poetry Prize, the National Poetry Award and the Orillia International Poetry Prize. Bowling was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008. A native of the West Coast, he now lives in Edmonton Alberta. His latest collection of poetry is Tenderman (Nightwood), due out in fall 2011.

Tim Bowling's profile page

“Using his lush poetic voice, Bowling plays with the tension between generations and species. He brings together vast experiences and distant moments in a single poem as if time were as pliable as the rope on a tetherball pole. As he reflects on his own relationships with his family and his responsibility to the environment through sensitive language, he leads the reader in a remembrance of lessons lost. A seasoned poet, Bowling’s lyrical skills are clearly exhibited in his latest collection, which will be appreciated by anyone who wishes to have a scrutinizing reflection on their place in the world.”

Where Edmonton

"...My expectations of the poet, however, are substantial. Nothing short of meaning will do. Bonus points for a gasp of recognition, followed by a good weep. As you can imagine, I am often disappointed. Not so with Tim Bowling's latest slim volume, The Duende of Tetherball."
~Liane Faulder, Edmonton Journal, October 2016

"Using his lush poetic voice, Bowling plays with the tension between generations and species. He brings together vast experiences and distant moments in a single poem as if time were as pliable as the rope on a tetherball pole. As he reflects on his own relationships with his family and his responsibility to the environment through sensitive language, he leads the reader in a remembrance of lessons lost. A seasoned poet, Bowling's lyrical skills are clearly exhibited in his latest collection, which will be appreciated by anyone who wishes to have a scrutinizing reflection on their place in the world."
~ Matthew Stepanic, Where Edmonton, January/February 2017