Tingle, Tim

PERSONAL: Male. Education: University of Texas, earned degree; currently attending graduate school at the University of Oklahoma.

ADDRESSES: Office—StoryTribe Publishing, 4417 Morningside Way, Canyon Lake, TX 78133. E-mail—timtingle@hotmail.com.

CAREER: Writer, entrepreneur, performer, musician, public speaker, and storyteller. New Canaan Farms (gourmet food manufacturer), San Marcos, TX, co-owner and operator, 1979–97; StoryTribe Publishing, Canyon Lake, TX, founder and publisher. Has worked as a marketing workshop presenter for the Texas Department of Agriculture, a touring storyteller in Germany for the U.S. Department of Defense, and as a performer at the Six Flags over Texas theme park. Has been a featured storyteller at numerous festivals, including the National Storytelling Festival, Minnesota Storytelling Festival, Keepers of the Word at Amherst College, Texas Storytelling Festival, Pete Seeger's Clearwater Revival Festival, and the Mississippi Storytelling Festival; teller-in-residence, International Storytelling Center, 2004.

AWARDS, HONORS: Named Contemporary Storyteller of the Year, Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and Storytellers, 2001; Storytelling World selection for year's best anthology, for Texas Ghost Stories.

WRITINGS:

Children of the Tracks and Other San Antonio Ghost Stories (sound recording), StoryTribe (Canyon Lake, TX) 1994.

Walking the Choctaw Road, Cinco Puntos Press (El Paso, TX), 2003.

(With Doc Moore) Texas Ghost Stories: Fifty Favorites for the Telling, Texas Tech University Press (Lubbock, TX), 2004.

(With Doc Moore) Spooky Texas Tales, illustrated by Gina Miller, Texas Tech University Press (Lubbock, TX), 2005.

Crossing Bok Chitto, illustrated by Jeane Rorex Bridges, Cinco Puntos Press (El Paso, TX), 2006.

Also author of Grandma Spider Brings the Fire, a collection of short stories on audiocassette. Contributor to periodicals, including Storytelling World.

ADAPTATIONS: Stories from Walking the Choctaw Road were adapted as the ballet Trail of Tears: Walking the Choctaw Road by Ballet Austin and the Polyanna Theatre Company.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Riding the Red Dirt Road, a collection of short stories, expected 2007.

SIDELIGHTS: Tim Tingle is best known as a professional storyteller and musician who has appeared at conferences and festivals throughout the United States and abroad. In 2003 he completed his tenth tour of Germany under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Defense. While there, he traveled to schools and performed for children of U.S. military personnel stationed in Germany. He is a frequent performer at schools and libraries, where he tells stories and promotes literacy. A member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Tingle tells stories that reflect his Native American heritage, combining personal tales with historical events and traditional lore. His works have attracted the attention of Choctaw chief Gregory Pyle, who for four consecutive years requested a story from Tingle at the Annual State of the Nation Address at the Choctaw Labor Day Gathering. Tingle often complements his sessions with performances on the Native American flute, and frequently accompanies himself on a variety of gourd rattles and drums, thus "adding a haunting dimension to a concert," noted a biographer on the Tim Tingle Home Page.

Tingle's Walking the Choctaw Road consists of twelve stories, ranging from accounts of his father's experiences on the infamous Trail of Tears to traditional Choctaw folk tales and personal accounts of Tingle's modern-day experiences. In the story "Trail of Tears," a child carries along his mother's bones during the tragic days of the Native Americans' forced migration by U.S. troops. Other stories cover topics such as slave escapes, the morality of paying the price for one's own crimes, and Tingle's own experiences as an adolescent during the Vietnam War. Many of the stories provide lessons in traditional Choctaw culture, folk practices, and social values. The book also includes a glossary of Choctaw words, a bibliography of further readings on Choctaw history and tradition, and Tingle's lengthy introduction, which discusses Choctaw story sources, motifs, and historical events. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Tingle a "superb storyteller," and noted that his "poetic language and a compelling but quiet voice honor the Native American traditions" present in the book. John Peters, writing in Booklist, commented that Tingle's "evocative language, expert pacing, and absorbing subject matter will rivet readers and listeners both."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 2003, John Peters, review of Walking the Choctaw Road, p. 1758.

Childhood Education, winter, 2003, Irene A. Allen, review of Walking the Choctaw Road, p. 92.

Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2003, review of Walking the Choctaw Road, p. 812.

Publishers Weekly, April 21, 2003, "Native American Connections," review of Walking the Choctaw Road, p. 65.

School Library Journal, March, 2005, Francisca Goldsmith, review of Walking the Choctaw Road, p. 89.

ONLINE

2 Young 2 Retire Web site, http://www.2young2retire.com/ (March 13, 2006), biography of Tim Tingle.

Educational Paperback Association Web site, http://www.edupaperback.org/ (March 13, 2006), biography of Tim Tingle.

Tim Tingle Home Page, http://www.choctawstoryteller.com (March 13, 2006).