George McWhirter is best known for his poetry, although he has also written short stories and novels. His radio plays betoken an interest in broadcast literature, and McWhirter, who has been a frequent contributor to radio poetry readings, as well as a radio interviewer and interviewee, has had stories broadcast in addition to his plays. His publications, the first of them contributions to journals, have been appearing steadily since the late 1960s. In the early 1980s he produced at least a book a year, besides his articles and reviews. However, although he shared the Commonwealth Poetry Prize with Chinua Achebe in 1972, he has yet to achieve widespread public acclaim.

McWhirter was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1939 to James and Margaret McConnell McWhirter. His father was a fitter in a shipyard. Since most of the family has earned a living by shipbuilding, it would have been natural for...