About the author

TJ McGowan was first introduced to the joy of poetry by his Primary School librarian, who read poetry to the class with an infectious enthusiasm. It was here that the story telling abilities and humour, of Paterson and Lawson in particular, began to take root. In high school TJ was exposed to a variety of different poetry styles, including contemporary poetry forms about modern issues. TJ recalls being short of time in an English exam and being forced to choose between writing another essay or a poem. Always one to sieze an opportunity, he knew that a poem would need less words and was his only real hope. Talk about poetry under pressure! As it turned out his English language teacher was supportive enough of the poem to praise the effort in front of the class. Spurred on by this surprising success TJ began to write poetry for recreational expression. Only one or two a year , but a hobby had begun.

Several years later TJ moved to Bathurst, in Central West NSW, to continue his formal education. Here TJ learned what it was to live the rural lifestyle in a large country town. However, it was upon graduation that TJ was posted to a small country town to work at the school. This turned out to have a profound influence on TJ's poetry development for four reasons. During the seven years that TJ lived in Yeoval he not only observed, but indeed was immersed in the lifestyle of the small country town. Yeoval was an ordinary town in many ways, but as it happened it was the home for the first seven years of the iconic bush poet, 'Banjo' Paterson. The town held festivals celebrating the famous poet, and as a teacher TJ was keen to share and keep alive the enjoyment that he had developed of story telling and bush poetry. It was during this time living in rural NSW that Tim was first introduced to the sublime theatrics of the performance poet Milton Taylor. Milton's passion and talent inspired TJ to resume writing and particularly to try his hand at bush-poetry-style verse. The themes of TJ's work are limitless and mostly of a contemporary nature. Often they are laced with humour, and sometimes sprinkled with references to other famous or favourite poets works. Occasionally TJ's serious side is revealed in a few rare poems.

TJ is available for performances, workshops, corporate functions  (Including commisioning poetry specially for the occasion), school visits, parties, and club dinners or meetings. To make enquiries about bookings, please contact ; Boomerang Entertainment on     040 23 11 527 or leave a message in the guestbook.