Timber Hawkeye (born Tomer Gal July 19, 1977), is an Israeli-born American author, best known for writing ''Buddhist Boot Camp'' and his self-published memoir, ''Faithfully Religionless''.

Biography

Hawkeye, born Tomer Gal in Bat Yam, was raised in Katzrin, a town in the Golan Heights of Israel. He moved with his parents and older sister to San Francisco at the age of 13. Hawkeye held various jobs during his teenage years and early twenties. He started as a paperboy at 14, delivering the ''San Francisco Examiner'' in the Sunset District. During his senior year of high school, he worked for the State Compensation Insurance Fund. He then attended

California State University, Stanislaus California State University, Stanislaus (Stanislaus State, Stan State) is a public university in Turlock, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. It was established in 1957 and offers 45 bachelor's deg ...

for college and worked at the California State University, Stanislaus Foundation Department, and as a

paralegal A paralegal, also known as a legal assistant or paralegal specialist, is a legal professional who performs tasks that require knowledge of legal concepts but not the full expertise of a lawyer with an admission to practice law. The market for p ...

in the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

and

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Washington, focusing mainly on commercial real estate. Hawkeye stated that he found living in Seattle more rewarding than living in California, despite earning less money. After living in Seattle, Hawkeye sold his belongings and moved to

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, intending to lead a simpler life. He worked odd jobs on the island to cover expenses and spent his time engaging in leisure activities and studying. In 2013, Hawkeye published his first book, ''Buddhist Boot Camp.'', a collection of emails he sent to his friends from Hawaii over approximately eight years. It was initially self-published and later published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

. After touring for ''Buddhist Boot Camp'', Hawkeye moved to the Eastern Sierras to write and publish his second book. In early 2016, he founded a publishing company, Hawkeye Publishers, to publish his and others' work. ''Faithfully Religion less'' is a self-published memoir aimed at audiences who consider themselves spiritual but not religious. It was launched at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and the book tour included appearances at several churches across the U.S. ''The Opposite of Namaste'' was self-published on August 8, 2022, and contains 84 transcripts of Hawkeye's podcast.

References

External links

*
Faithfully Religionless at TEDxHonolulu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkeye, Timber Living people American writers Israeli emigrants to the United States 1977 births