George McWhirter

Photo:McWhirter the Man by Mark Van Mannen

Biography

George McWhirter was born in Belfast on September 26, 1939, and growing up, he spent his winters in a brick kitchen house on the Shankill Road and his summers at an asbestos bungalow in Carnalea on the shores of the Belfast Lough. He attended the Belfast Boy’s Model School (1947-1950), Grosvenor High School (1950-1957) and received his BA & DipEd from Queen's University Belfast (1957-62), where he was a classmate of the poets, Seamus Heaney and Seamus Deane, and the Irish literary critic, Robert Dunbar.

The Mourne Mountains in South Down— where he lived with his wife, Angela, in Annalong and taught school at Kilkeel Secondary (1962-1964)— was his source for the mythical kingdom of Sarne in Bodyworks. In 1964 he moved to North Down and Bangor Grammar for a year. His inspiration for Catalan Poems came when he was an EFL instructor at the University of Barcelona's Escuela de Idiomas (1965-1966). He came to Canada in 1966 and lived in a cabin at Sproat Lake on Vancouver Island, teaching at Alberni District Secondary School. Since 1968, he has been in Vancouver, where he received an M.A. from UBC in 1970.

For thirty-five years, he stayed on at UBC, becoming a Full Professor in 1982 and Head of the UBC Creative Writing Department from 1983 until 1993. He was Advisory Editor for PRISM international magazine from 1977 until 2005, and prior to that Managing Editor (1968-1969), Poetry Editor (1970-1976), then Co-Editor (1976-77). In 1975, he went to Mexico to work with José Emilio Pacheco on translations of his work, living in the town of Cuautla, Morelos, and travelling up to Mexico City to do so. Four of his books are set in H. Cuautla, Morelos, the garrison town for Emiliano Zapata, where the “H” stands for “heroic.”

In 1974 and 1975 he edited Words from the Inside (a Canadian Prison Arts magazine) and was involved with Vancouver Pacific Swim Club (now the Vancouver Pacific Dolphins) for nine years, acting as Treasurer for 1992-93. He is also an honorary member of CIVA (Canada-India Village Aid).

Anthologies:

Poetry

His poems have been previously anthologized in:

· Contemporary Poetry of British Columbia (Ed. J. Michael Yates, Sono Nis Press, 1970),

· Soundings 72 (Ed. Seamus Heaney, Blackstaff Press, 1972),

· The Wearing of the Black, Ed. Padraic Fiacc, Blackstaff Press, 1974

· The Penguin Book of Canadian Verse (Ed. Ralph Gustafson, 1975, 1984 revised editions)

· Irish Writing in the Twentieth Century: A Reader (Ed. David Pierce, Cork University Press, 2002)

among others, and most recently

· In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry (Eds. Kate Braid & Sandy Shreve, Raincoast Books, 2005)

· A Long Journey: Contemporary Northwest Poets (Ed. David Biespiel, Oregon State University Press & Ooligan Press, 2006)

· The Blackbird’s Nest (Ed. Frank Ormsby, Blackstaff Press, 2006).

· Jailbreak: 99 Canadian Sonnets. (Ed. Zachariah Wells, Biblioasis, 2008).

At the launch of A Long Journey: contemporary northwest poets,

Vancouver Public Library, November 13, 2006,

left to right: David Biespiel, George McWhirter, Kevin Craft, Miranda Pearson and Micheal Kenyon:

Fiction

Stories of Pacific & Arctic Canada (ed. Rudy Wiebe & Andreas Schroeder, Macmillan)
The Second Blackstaff Book of Short Stories ( Blackstaff Press, 1991)
The Oberon Press Best Canadian Short Stories (Ed. David Helwig, 1971; Maggie & David Helwig,1991)
When We Were Young (ed. Madeline Sonik & Eric Henderson, Oberon Press, 2005) among others

Literary Translation

Volvox (Ed. J. Michael Yates, Sono Nis Press)
Twentieth Century Latin American Verse (Ed. Stephen Tapscott, University of Texas Press, 1996);
Poetry Comes Up Where it Can: Poems from The Amicus Journal, ed. Brian Swann, University of Utah Press, 2000);
CV2, Fall 2005 Special Translation issue, interview with Madeline Sonik plus commentary on background and process for rendering Homero Aridjis and Gabriel Zaid into English
international WORLD BEAT poetry now (ed. Eliot Weinberger, New Directions, 2006).

Books:

Poetry

McWhirter's books of poetry include

· Catalan Poems (Oberon, 1971)

· Queen of the Sea (Oberon Press, 1976)

· Twenty-Five (Fiddlehead, 1978)

· The Island Man (Oberon, 1981)

· Fire Before Dark, Oberon, 1983)

· A Staircase For All Souls (Oolichan Books, 1996)

· Incubus: The Dark Side of the Light (Oberon, 1997)

· The Book of Contradictions (Oolichan Books, 2002)

· The Incorrection, Oolichan Books, September 2007

· The Anachronicles, Ronsdale Press, Spring 2008

Short Story

He has five collections:

· Bodyworks (Oberon Press, 1974)

· God’s Eye (Oberon Press, 1981)

· Coming to Grips with Lucy (Oberon Press, 1982)

· A Bad Day To Be Winning (Oberon Press, 1984)

· Musical Dogs (Oberon Press, 1996)

Novels

McWhirter's novel, Cage (Oberon Press), about an Canadian Irish priest in Mexico, won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize at the B.C. Book Awards in 1988. He has published two others: one that borrows its setting from the Alberni Valley entitled Paula Lake (Oberon Press, 1985) about the kidnapping of Japanese boy from a summer English program in Vancouver by a young B.C. jock who wishes to teach the boy and his ex, an older woman from Ontario and director of the program, a real Canadian lesson; in the other, The Listeners (Oberon Press 1991), which is set on the 12^th day of July, he recalls his Belfast roots through the story of a flute player who quits the classical orchestra in Europe to return home, marry and take up the tuba in a brass band led by his father-in-law—to the chagrin of his father, a staunch flautist.

Literary Translation

He has maintained ongoing literary associations in Mexico with writers such as José Emilio Pacheco, Homero Aridjis and Gabriel Zaid. He was editor and principal translator for the award-winning Selected Poems of José Emilio Pacheco (New Directions, 1987) and was editor as well as major translator for an anthology of Mexican poets, Where Words Like Monarchs Fly (Anvil Press, 1999). Its title refers to the annual migration of monarch butterflies between Mexico and Canada and is a tribute to the poet-environmentalist, Homero Aridjis, who hails from Contepec in Michuacan, one of the destinations for the migrating monarchs. With Betty Ferber, Aridjis’s wife, McWhirter co-edited and was principal translator for Eyes to See Otherwise: The Selected Poems of Homero Aridjis (Carcanet/New Directions, 2002.) His translation of Gabriel Zaid’s complete works, Questionnaire, is under consideration by Oolichan Books. A version of Euripides’ Hecuba which he did for Blackbird Theatre, Vancouver will be produced in 2007 or early 2008. His current project for City Lights in San Francisco is a translation of Homero Aridjis' Poemas solares/Solar Poems. Poemas solares was published by Fondo de Cultura Economica in Mexico,2005.

Radio Plays

Suspension (CBC);
Don’t Go Walking on the Water (CBC);
The Listeners (CBC)

Awards & Honours

As well as the Ethel Wilson Prize, he has won the League of Canadian Poets Canadian Chapbook Prize (for Ovid in Saskatchewan, 1998), the F.R. Scott Prize for Translation (1988), the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (shared with Chinua Achebe, 1972) and the Macmillan Prize for Poetry (1969). At UBC, he received a Killam Prize for Teaching in 1998 and the first Killam Award for Mentoring in 2004; in 2005, he was presented with the Sam Black Award for his contribution to the Creative & Performing Arts and was made a Lifetime Member of the League of Canadian Poets in the same year for his contribution to the League and poetry. He was Poet-in-Residence at Poet’s Corner for the zine, Educational Insights, from 2004-2005, where his essays, poems, interviews are to be accessed, some with audio visual accompaniment: (www.ccfi.educ.ubc.ca/publication/insights/v09n02/poet/poetmainset.html)

At Vancouver City Hall on March 13^th, 2007, George McWhirter was presented to Mayor Sam Sullivan and Vancouver City Council and inaugurated as Vancouver’s first Poet Laureate. The selection committee represented a broad spectrum of literary culture in the city, chaired by the Chief Librarian, Paul Whitney, and comprised of Marnie Rice from Vancouver City Cultural Affairs, Hal Wake from Vancouver International Writers Festival, Marjorie Reynolds from the BC Publishers Association, Carla Funk, the Poet Laureate of Victoria, and the writer-poet, Gary Geddes. The laureateship is made possible by the generous gift from Yosef Wosk to the City of Vancouver. Mr. Wosk also sat in on the selection process.

New Work

His recently completed projects are a long novel, Too Tall for You, spanning the period 1913 to 1987 and set in Belfast, Munich and Vancouver. It is a Bildungsroman whose hero, CT Paul, traces her small stature, powerful temper and way of talking to her Northern Irish grandmother, and her way of thinking and planning to her Bavarian Jewish grandfather, founder of Paul’s Merchant Bank in Vancouver. A gentleman thief haunts the Paul’s history by stealing the grandmother’s heart and precious Claddagh ring heirloom that she wears on her breast. The thief lives on with it in his portrait, which Clodagh Teresa Paul inherits along with his relentless love and larceny. Or so she thinks.

He has completed a sequel to Paula Lake, “Lanusina,” which finds Hutchie (Hutchi-san), and Nao Goto in Western Samoa, Hutchison running a surf camp and Nao Goto an agent for Department of Japan South Pacific Relations and the Manager of a hotel, the Sa’tusimoa Boitano Poetry projects are a series of Vertical Emblem poems. He is working on a novel, “The Great Swimming Races of Las Vegas” and a book of micro-stories, one of which, “The Dark Barber,” The Antigonish Review has made available on-line. His translation of Marco Denevi’s Falsifications, a volume of revolutionary and irreverent microcuentos, is still seeking a publisher.

Memberships:

League of Canadian Poets

The Writers’ Union of Canada

PEN

The Literary Translators’ Association of Canada

BC Book Prize Committee

League of Canadian Poets Adjudication Committee

The Poetry Dogs, a group of Vancouver poets who share a rabid love of poetry.

Skagit River Poetry Festival 2008, La Conner, Washington, May 16^th & 17^th,. http://www.skagitriverpoetry.org/.

Left to right: poets, Chris Dombrowski, David Mason & George McWhirter.

The Flat Lake Festival, Clones, Co. Monaghan, Ireland. August 23 -24. http://www.theflatlakefestival.com/.

Seamus Heaney, George McWhirter & Paul Muldoon in the X-Tractor Tent, The Flat Lake Festival 2008

Contact Information:

Website address: www3.telus.net/GeorgeMcWhirter

Email address: mcwhirte@unixg.ubc.ca

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