A picture book that highlights rarely discussed intersections between Native Americans in the South and African Americans in bondage. Tingle premiered the piece at the 2006 International Symposium of Artists of Conscience in Victoria, British Columbia. Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom Picture book. He currently teaches an onsite summer storytelling course through the university, “Oral Literature of the Southwest.” Recentemperformances include “Rolling Way the Rock,” based on the story of Choctaw Clarence Carnes, who at age nineteen became the youngest inmate ever sentenced to Alcatraz Federal Prison. Department of Defense, performing for children and military personnel in Germany.

Tingle has also completed eleven speaking tours for the U.S. “The Lady Who Changed,” from Spirits Dark and Light (August House) won 2007 Best Short Story from Storytelling World magazine. Tim has co-authored three books with Doc Moore, Spooky Texas Tales and Texas Ghost Stories: Fifty Favorites for the Telling, both from Texas Tech Press, with More Spooky Texas Tales scheduled for a 2010 release. Tingle’s first children’s book, Crossing Bok Chitto, was an Editor’s Choice in the New York Times Book Review and won the 2008 American Indian Youth Literature Award. At the 2008 American Library Association Conference in Anaheim, California, he performed on the multi-ethnic concert, “Many Voices, One Nation.” His first book, Walking the Choctaw Road, is a fictional depiction of tribal history covering two centuries, and his upcoming children’s book, Saltypie, is a family tale of 20th century Indian struggles and triumphs. Author of six books, Tingle was a featured speaker at the Native American wing of the Smithsonian Institute in 20.

His great-great grandfather, John Carnes, walked the Trail of Tears in 1835, and memories of this family epic fuel his writing and telling. Tim Tingle is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and a frequent speaker at tribal events.

Crossing Bok Chitto by Tim Tingle