George Bowering

George Harry Bowering, OC, OBC (born December 1, 1935) is a prolific Canadian novelist, poet, historian, and biographer. He has served as Canada's Parliamentary Poet Laureate.

He was born in Penticton, British Columbia, and raised in the nearby town of Oliver, where his father was a high-school chemistry teacher. Bowering is author of more than 100 books.

Bowering is the best-known of a group of young poets including Frank Davey, Fred Wah, Jamie Reid, and David Dawson who studied together at the University of British Columbia in the 1950s. There they founded the journal TISH. Bowering lives in Vancouver, British Columbia and is Professor Emeritus at Simon Fraser University, where he worked for 30 years. Never having written as an adherent of organized religion, he has in the past wryly described himself as a Baptist agnostic. In 2002, Bowering was appointed the first ever Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. That same year, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was awarded the Order of British Columbia in 2004.

When the Indian Hungryalist, also known as Hungry generation, poet Malay Roy Choudhury, was arrested at Kolkata, India, Bowering brought out a special issue of Imago for helping the Indian poet in his trial.

Bowering was one of the judges for the 2008 Griffin Poetry Prize.

Bibliography

Fiction

• Mirror on the Floor - 1967
• A Short Sad Book - 1977
• Burning Water - 1980 (winner of the 1980 Governor General's Award for Fiction), 2007
• Caprice - 1988, 2010
• Harry's Fragments - 1990
• Shoot! - 1994, 2008
• Parents from Space - 1994
• Piccolo Mondo - 1998 (with Angela Bowering, Michael Matthews & David Bromige)
• Diamondback Dog - 1998
• Attack of the Toga Gang Toronto, Dancing Cat Books, 2015.
• Writing the Okanagan Vancouver, Talonbooks, 2015.

Short Fiction

• Autobiology - 1972
• Fiddler's Night - 1973
• Flycatcher and Other Stories - 1974
• Concentric Circles - 1977
• Protective Footwear - 1978
• A Place to Die - 1983
• The Rain Barrel - 1994
• Standing on Richards - 2004
• "The Box" - 2009
• Ten Women Vancouver, Anvil Press, 2015

Booklength Poems

• "Baseball" Toronto, Coach House Press, 1967, 2003.
• "Sitting in Mexico" Calgary, Beaver Kosmos, 1970.
• "George,Vancouver" Kitchener, Weed/Flower, 1970.
• "Geneve" Toronto, Coach House, 1971.
• "Autobiology" Vancouver, New Star, 1972. Vancouver, Pooka, 2006.
• "Curious" Toronto, Coach House, 1973.
• "At War With the U.S." Vancouver, Talon, 1974.
• "Allophanes" Toronto, Coach House, 1976.
• "Ear Reach" Vancouver, Alcuin, 1982,
• "Kerrisdale Elegies" Toronto, Coach House, 1984. Vancouver, Pooka Press, 2008.
  • Vancouver, Talonbooks, 2008.
• "Elegie di Kerrisdale" Rome, Edizioni Empiria. Transl. Annalisa Goldoni. 1996.
• "His Life: a poem" Toronto, ECW Press, 2000.
• My Darling Nellie Grey, Vancouver, Talonbooks, 2010.

Collections of Poems (including gathered long poems

• "Sticks & Stones" Vancouver, Tishbooks, 1963.
• "Points on the Grid" Toronto, Contact Press, 1964.
• "The Man in Yellow Boots/ El hombre de las botas amarillas" Mexico,
  • Ediciones El Corno, 1965.
• "The Silver Wire" Kingston, Quarry Press, 1966.
• "Rocky Mountain Foot" Toronto, M&S, 1969.
• "The Gangs of Kosmos" Toronto, House of Anansi, 1969.
• "Touch: selected poems 1960-1969" Toronto, M&S, 1971.
• "In the Flesh" Toronto, M&S, 1974.
• "The Catch" Toronto, M&S, 1976.
• "Poem & Other Baseballs" Windsor, Black Moss, 1976.
• "The Concrete Island" Montreal, Vehicle Press, 1977.
• "Another Mouth" Toronto, M&S, 1979.
• "Particular Accidents: selected poems" Vancouver, Talon, 1981.
• "West Window: selected poetry" Toronto, General, 1982.
• "Smoking Mirror" Edmonton, Longspoon, 1982.
• "Seventy-One Poems for People" Red Deer, RDC Press, 1985.
• "Delayed Mercy & other poems" Toronto, Coach House, 1986.
• "Sticks & Stones" Vancouver, Talonbooks, 1989.
• "Urban Snow" Vancouver, Talonbooks, 1992.
• "George Bowering Selected: Poems 1961-1992" Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1993.
• "Blonds on Bikes" Vancouver, Talonbooks, 1997.
• "Poémes et autres baseballs" Montreal. Tryptique, 1999 (collaboration).
• "Changing on the Fly" Vancouver, Polestar, 2004.
• "Vermeer’s Light: Poems 1996-2006" Vancouver, Talonbooks, 2006, 2007.
• "Kerrisdale Elegies" 2nd Edition; Vancouver, Talonbooks, 2008.
• The World, I Guess Vancouver, New Star Books, 2015.

Criticism

• "Al Purdy" Toronto, Copp Clark, 1970.
• "Robert Duncan: an Interview" Toronto, Coach House/Beaver Kosmos, 1971.
• "Three Vancouver Writers" Toronto, Open Letter/Coach House, 1979.
• "A Way With Words" Ottawa, Oberon, 1982.
• "The Mask in Place" Winnipeg, Turnstone Press, 1983.
• "Craft Slices" Ottawa, Oberon, 1985.
• "Errata" Red Deer, RDC Press, 1988.
• "Imaginary Hand" Edmonton, NeWest Press, 1988.
• "Left Hook" Vancouver, Raincoast Books, 2005.
• Horizontal Surfaces, Toronto, BookThug, 2010.

Chapbooks

• "How I Hear Howl" Montreal, Beaver Kosmos, 1967.
• "Two Police Poems" Vancouver, Talon, 1969.
• "The Sensible" Toronto, Massasauga, 1972.
• "Layers 1-13" Kitchener, Weed/Flower, 1973.
• "In Answer" Vancouver, William Hoffer, 1977.
• "Uncle Louis" Toronto, Coach House, 1980.
• "Spencer & Groulx" Vancouver, William Hoffer, 1985.
• "Quarters" Prince George, Gorse Press, 1991. (Winner, bp Nichol chapbook award 1991)
• "Do Sink" Vancouver, Pomflit, 1992. (Winner, bp Nichol chapbook award, 1992).
• "Sweetly" Vancouver, Wuz, 1992.
• "Blondes on Bikes" Ottawa, Above Ground, 1997.
• "A, You're Adorable" Ottawa, Above Ground, 1998, 2004.
• "6 Little Poems in Alphabetical Order" Calgary, House Press, 2000.
• "Some Writers" Calgary, House Press, 2001.
• "Joining the Lost Generation" Calgary, House Press, 2002.
• "Lost in the Library" Ellsworth, ME, Backwoods Broadsides, 2004.
• "Rewriting my Grandfather" Vancouver, Nomados, 2005.
• "Crows in the Wind" Toronto, BookThug, 2006.
• "A Knot of Light" Calgary, No Press. 2006.
• "Montenegro 1966" Calgary, No Press, 2007.
• "U.S. Sonnets" Vancouver, Pooka, 2007.
• "Eggs in There" Edmonton, Rubicon, 2007.
• "Some Answers" Mt. Pleasant, ON, LaurelReed Books, 2007.
• "Horizontal Surfaces" Edmonton, Olive Collective, 2007.
• "Tocking Heads" Edmonton, above/ground, 2007.
• "There Then" Prince George, Gorse Press, 2008.
• "Animals, Beasts, Critters" Vancouver, JB Objects, 2008.
• "Valley" Calgary, No Press, 2008
• "Fulgencio" Vancouver, Nomados, 2008.
• "According to Brueghel" North Vancouver, Capilano, 2008.
• "Shall I Compare" Penticton, Beaver Kosmos, 2008.
• "A Little Black Strap" St. Paul, Unarmed, 2009.

Memoirs

• "The Moustache: Memories of Greg Curnoe" Toronto, Coach House, 1993.
• "A Magpie Life" Toronto, Key Porter, 2001.
• "Cars" Toronto, Coach House Books, 2002.
• "Baseball Love" Vancouver, Talonbooks, 2006.
• "Pinboy" Toronto, Cormorant, 2012

History

• "Bowering's B.C." Toronto, Viking, 1996. Penguin, 1997.
• Bowering, George (1999). Egotists and Autocrats: The Prime Ministers of Canada. Toronto, New York City: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-88081-2. OCLC 45066615. Also published in 2000 by Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-027550-6. OCLC 44545832.
• "Stone Country" Toronto, Viking, 2003. Penguin, 2004.

Plays

• "The Home for Heroes" Vancouver, Prism, 1962.
• "What Does Eddie Williams Want?" Montreal, CBC-TV, 1966.
• "George Vancouver" Vancouver, CBC radio network, 1972.
• "Sitting in Mexico" Vancouver, CBC radio network, 1973.
• "Music in the Park" Vancouver, CBC radio network, 1986.
• "The Great Grandchildren of Bill Bissett's Mice" Vancouver, CBC radio network,1989.

Editions

• "The 1962 Poems of R.S. Lane" Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1965.
• "Vibrations: poems of youth" Toronto, Gage, 1970.
• "The Story so Far" Toronto, Coach House, 1972.
• "The City in her Eyes" by David Cull, Vancouver, Vancouver Community Press, 1972.
• "Imago Twenty" Vancouver, Talon, 1974.
• "Cityflowers" by Artie Gold, Montreal, Delta Canada, 1974.
• "Letters from Geeksville: letters from Red Lane 1960-64" Prince George, Caledonia Writing Series, 1976.
• "Great Canadian Sports Stories" Ottawa, Oberon, 1979.
• "Fiction of Contemporary Canada" Toronto, Coach House, 1980.
• "Loki is Buried at Smoky Creek: selected poems of Fred Wah" Vancouver, Talon,1981.
• "My Body was Eaten by Dogs: selected poems of David McFadden" Toronto, M&S, New York, CrossCountry, 1981.
• "1945-1980," in Introduction to Poetry: British, American, Canadian, David and Lecker, Toronto, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1981.
• "The Contemporary Canadian Poem Anthology" Toronto, Coach House, 1983.
• "Sheila Watson and The Double Hook: the artist and her critics" Ottawa, Golden Dog Press, 1984.
• "Taking the Field:the best of baseball fiction" Red Deer, RDC Press, 1990.
• "Likely Stories: a postmodern sampler" Toronto, Coach House Press, 1992. WithLinda Hutcheon.
• "An H in the Heart: Selected works of bpNichol" Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1994. With Michael Ondaatje.
• "And Other Stories" Vancouver, Talonbooks, 2001.
• "The 2008 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology" Toronto, House of Anansi, 2008.
• "The Heart Does Break" Toronto, Random House, 2009. With Jean Baird.

Editor

• "Tish" Vancouver, 1961-63.
• "Imago" Calgary, London, Montreal, Vancouver, 1964-1974.
• "Beaver Kosmos Folios" Calgary, London, Montreal, Vancouver, 1966-75.

About

• "A Record of Writing: an annotated and Illustrated Bibliography of GeorgeBowering" by Roy Miki, Vancouver, Talonbooks, 1989, 401 pp.
• "Essays on Canadian Writing, George Bowering issue" ed. Ken Norris, 1989, 127 pp.
• "George Bowering: Bright Circles of Colour" by Eva-Marie Kroller,Vancouver, Talonbooks, 1992, 128 pp.
• "George Bowering and His Works" by John Harris, Toronto, ECW Press, 1992, 62 pp.
• "71 (+) for GB" ed. Jean Baird, David McFadden and George Stanley, Vancouver/Toronto, (printed at) Coach House Books, 2005.

External links

• Author's website
• George Bowering at the Parliament of Canada website
• George Bowering's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Griffin Poetry Prize biography
• Griffin Poetry Prize reading, including video clip
• The Holy Life of the Intellect link provides transcription & audio for an essay Bowering first read on National Public Radio (NPR) "Weekend Edition" on August 19, 2007
• Canadian Poetry Online: George Bowering - Biography and 6 poems (Van. Can., Hillside Sun, Musing on Some Poets, Wolf Between the Trees, There is, How Odd Men Are Really)
• Judith Fitzgerald and George Bowering in an Excellent Conversation on Poetry & Poetics