Timothy Brownlow

TIMOTHY BROWNLOW has a B.A. (Hons) in English and French, an M.A. and a Higher Diploma in Education from Trinity College, Dublin; and a Ph.D. from York University, Toronto. As part of the completion of the doctorate on John Clare, Tim spent two years as a Migrant Graduate at Pembroke College, Oxford. As a Post-Doctoral Fellow of Dalhousie University, he re-wrote his thesis, which was published by Oxford University Press (Clarendon Press) in 1983. 

Tim was assistant editor of a literary quarterly, The Dublin Magazine, from 1963 to 1969; he attended the inaugural Bloomsday at the Sandycove Martello Tower in 1962, when Sylvia Beach raised the flag. The Dublin Magazine encouraged new writing (we published early poems by Seamus Heaney) as well as extensive coverage of classic Irish writers, such as Joyce and Yeats. 

Tim is Emeritus Professor of Vancouver Island University, where his main teaching and research areas were Modern Irish Literature and the Romantic Period. Both before and after his retirement, he was invited to give lectures to different faculties: one such lecture was on Joyce’s choice of exile as opposed to Yeats’s pursuit of Celtic and occult lore closer to home. This talk was published in Hiding Places, a collection of essays, published by Oolichan Books, B. C. in 2008. Tim has recently taught three courses for Continuing Education at Simon Fraser’s downtown campus in Vancouver, and gave a sponsored public lecture in Vancouver on “Apologies for Poetry”, which attracted 75 people. Tim has also given two series of lectures to Lifelong Learners in Duncan: the first series was called “The Allure of Paris: the influence of French culture on six major Irish writers: George Moore, Oscar Wilde, Yeats, Synge, Joyce and Beckett.” The second series was entitled “Writers in their Habitat”, examining places associated with great talents.

Tim has published poetry since 1960. He was editor of Icarus at Trinity, and went on to write for and co-edit The Dublin Magazine, as well as contributing to many other journals and newspapers. In 1998, Oolichan Books. B.C. published Climbing Croagh Patrick, a collection of sonnets and other work. Tim has completed a Memoir in blank verse, which is forthcoming from Rock’s Mills Press, Oakville, Ontario. 

Tim’s work is represented in several anthologies, including The Penguin Book of Irish Verse, Poems for Clare, and The Critical Perspective, ed. Harold Bloom, New York, Chelsea House. His writing is featured in an article by David Quin in Poetry Ireland, 2007.