George McWhirter

George McWhirter ( born September 26, 1939 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a native of Northern Ireland, Canadian writer, poet, translator, editor, high school teacher and Vancouver's first Poet Laureate.

Life

Born the son of a shipyard worker in 1939 in Belfast, George McWhirter grew up in Belfast in a big family in the Shankhill Road. In 1957 he started with a combined degree in English and Spanish at Queen's University Belfast, as well as education at Stranmillis College, Belfast. His tutor at Queen 's University was the poet Laurence Lerner, his fellow student who later became a literary critic Robert Dunbar and the poet Seamus Heaney and Seamus Deane.

After graduating taught McWhirter in Kilkeel and Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland, as well as in Barcelona, Spain, before it to Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada, pulled him. After completing his Master of Arts degree from the University of British Columbia, where he studied with Michael Bullock and J. Michael Yates, he remained at the University to obtain in 1982 a full professorship. From 1983 to 1993 he headed the University's Department of Creative Writing. He retired in 2005.

From 1968 to 2005 he worked for the PRISM international magazine. George McWhirter is the author and editor of several books and winner of several awards.

His first collection of poems, Catalan Poems, won Chinua Achebe along with Beware, Soul Brother, the first Commonwealth Poetry Prize. In 1987, he won the BC Book Prizes to the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize belonging. McWhirter is an honorary member of the League of Canadian Poets since 2005 and member of the Canadian Writers' Association, PEN International, the Federation of BC Writers and Literary Translators ' Association of Canada.

In March 2007 he was appointed for two years to Vancouver's Poet Laureate. In preparation, he cited the motives for his commitment to poetry: "One of the first things I try to make clear to anybody is did every day, in every way, they're Involved in poetry Because they're at wordplay, ( ... ) adding did gossip is the best poetry. People always work at Their Gossip Because theywant of the most memorable lines. " During his tenure McWhirter planned even public reading, the invitation of local and regional colleagues to such events and the organization of poetry workshops for high school students. He had already initiated during his time as a university lecturer latter activity. In addition, he planned the publication of an anthology of local poets, entitled Streets Vancouver Front and Back - compilation finally appeared under the title "A Verse Map of Vancouver ", a large-format illustrated book to bring the city squares with the poems in unison. As Poet Laureate of Vancouver, he received an allowance of 5,000 Canadian dollars and a project-based doping in an identical amount annually. The foundation was made ​​possible by a donation of $ 100,000 to philanthropist Yosef Wosk and the BC Arts Renaissance Fund managed.

He currently lives with his wife, with whom he has two children, and is active in Vancouver continues a writer.

Work

  • Catalan Poems (1971, winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, 1972)
  • Queen of the Sea ( 1976)
  • Twenty-Five (1978 )
  • The Iceland Man ( 1981)
  • Fire before Dark ( 1983)
  • A Staircase for All Souls ( 1996)
  • Incubus: The Dark Side of the Light ( 1997)
  • The Book of Contradictions (2002)
  • The incorrection (2007, nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize )
  • The Anachronicles (2008)
  • Body Works (1974 )
  • God's Eye ( 1981)
  • Coming to Grips with Lucy (1982 )
  • A Bad Day to Be Winning (1984 )
  • Paula Lake ( 1985)
  • Cage (1987, winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize )
  • The Listeners (1991 )
  • Musical Dogs ( 1996)
  • Words From Inside: Prison Arts Foundation (1974, 1975)
  • Where Words Like Monarchs Fly: A cross- generational Anthology of Mexican Poets in Translation (1998)
  • A Verse Map of Vancouver ( 2009)
  • Jose Emilio Pacheco: Selected Poems (1987, winner of the FR Scott Prize for Translation)
  • Homero Aridjis: Eyes to See Otherwise / Ojos de Otro ( 2001, 2002, with Betty Aridjis )
  • Homero Aridjis, Solar Poems / Poemas Solares ( City Lights, San Francisco, 2010)
Workshop (disambiguation) The Malahat Review Keath Fraser Keith Maillard Gayla Reid Marilyn Bowering Michael Turner (musician) Eden Robinson Madeleine Thien Carol Shields Pauline Holdstock Mary Novik Lee Henderson Cathleen With Integrated Authority File
367917
de