Tim Metcalf graduated in medicine from Melbourne University in 1984, and in literature from Deakin University in 1995. A general practitioner with experience in rural Australia, the UK and British Columbia, who gave up medical practice to become a full-time poet and writer in 1999, Metcalf has also been involved in the Australian Rural Medicine Oral Project in History for the National Library of Australia. He has published poetry since 1988 and promoted it weekly on community radio. Metcalf was commended for his poem 'The Trapped Bird' in the International Yellow Moon Literary Competition and was commended for 'Reaching Past' in the 2000 ACT Beyond the Margin Prize. Other articles and poems appear in medical journals and are listed in the Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database maintained by the New York University School of Medicine.