AustLit

Wilhelm Hiener holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma of Education in Music. He has worked as a teacher, journalist, restaurant owner and antique dealer, and served with the South African Army in World War II.

Hiener migrated to Tasmania in 1961, where he became a senior English teacher, a theatre critic and broadcaster. He has contributed to numerous literary magazines and journals, both in Australia and internationally, including Australian Literary Studies, the Bulletin, English in Australia, Makar and Poetry Australia. His verse has also been anthologised. In 1968, he co-edited A Burglar's Life: The Stirring Adventures of the Great English Burglar Mark Jeffrey: A Thrilling History of the Dark Days of Convictism in Australia.

Hiener has won several awards, including the Poetry Magazine Award in 1967, the Realist Poetry Prize in 1968, and a Commonwealth Literary Grant in 1971. With his wife J. E. Hiener, he wrote 'The Birdcage', which was successfully performed by the University of Tasmania in 1965. Hiener has written in the genres of poetry, drama, short stories, Australian studies, education and journalism. By the 1990s Hiener was living in New Zealand.