George Harry Bowering, (born December 1, 1935) is a prolific Canadian novelist, poet, historian, and biographer. He was the first Canadian 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 Lionel Kearns, Frank Davey, Fred Wah, Jamie Reid, and David Dawson who studied together at the University of British Columbia in the 1960s. 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
Novels
1967: Mirror on the Floor, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart; Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2014 1973: Fiddler's Night, Vancouver: Dos Equis 1977: A Short Sad Book, Vancouver: Talonbooks; Vancouver: New Star Books, 2017 1980: Burning Water, Toronto: Musson Book Company; Vancouver: New Star Books, 2007 French edition: En eaux troubles, translated by L.-Philippe Hébert, Montreal: Quinze, 1982 1988: Caprice, Toronto/New York: Penguin; Vancouver: New Star Books, 2010 1990: Harry's Fragments, Vancouver: Talonbooks 1994: Shoot!, Toronto: Key Porter Books; Vancouver: New Star Books, 2008 1998: Piccolo Mondo (with Angela Bowering, Michael Matthews & David Bromige), Toronto: Couch House Books 2012: Pinboy, Toronto: Cormorant Books 2015: Writing the Okanagan, Vancouver: Talonbooks 2018: No One, Toronto: ECW Press
Short fiction
1974: Flycatcher and Other Stories, Ottawa: Oberon Press
1977: Concentric Circles, Windsor: Black Moss Press
1978: Protective Footwear, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart
1983: A Place to Die, Ottawa: Oberon Press
1994: The Rain Barrel, Vancouver: Talonbooks
2004: Standing on Richards, Toronto: Viking
2009: The Box, Vancouver: New Star Books
2015: Ten Women, Vancouver: Anvil Press
Young adult fiction
1994: Parents from Space, Montreal: Roussan
1998: Diamondback Dog, Montreal: Roussan
2015: Attack of the Toga Gang, Toronto: Dancing Cat Books
Book-length poems
1967: Baseball, Toronto: Coach House Books
1970: George,Vancouver, Kitchener, Weed/Flower
1971: Geneve, Toronto: Coach House Books
1972: Autobiology, Vancouver: New Star Books, 1972; Vancouver, Pooka Press, 2006
1972: Curious, Toronto: Coach House Books
1974: At War With the U.S., Vancouver: Talonbooks
1976: Allophanes, Toronto: Coach House Books
1982: Ear Reach, Vancouver: Alcuin
1984: Kerrisdale Elegies, Toronto: Coach House Books; Vancouver, Pooka Press, 2008; Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2008 Italian edition: Elegie di Kerrisdale, translated by Annalisa Goldoni, Rome: Edizioni Empiria, 1996 2000: His Life: a poem, Toronto: ECW Press 2010: My Darling Nellie Grey, Vancouver: Talonbooks 2019: Taking Measures, Vancouver: Talonbooks
Collections of poems (including gathered long poems)