Tim Thorne was a poet, critic, teacher of modern languages, journalist, editor and publisher. Born in Launceston, Tasmania, Thorne moved to Sydney and became involved with the new poetry movement and the journal Poetry Magazine (later New Poetry). After winning a writing scholarship he studied at Stanford University in California from 1971 to 1972. Back in Tasmania, Thorne founded the annual Tasmanian Poetry Festival in 1985, directing it for 17 years. He also started the Launceston Poetry Cup.
Thorne published 16 collections of poetry, and his poems have been included in numerous anthologies and literary journals. He also edited collections and anthologies featuring fellow Tasmanian poets. Thorne presented at poetry readings across Australia and abroad, and organised workshops on poetry and writing classes in Tasmania, mainland Australia and the United Kingdom.
Thorne wrote for journals and newspapers, with a regular column on contemporary affairs for The Mercury. A handful of his published works include Head and Shin (2004), Running Out of Entropy (2018), and Little Pataphysics (2021). In 2024, a selection of his writing and poetry collated by his daughter Lucie Thorne was published in Greatest Hits: Selected Poems 1968-2021.
