John Metcalf

In this much-anticipated memoir, Metcalf takes us on a personal journey through his life and those influences that inform his own literary aesthetic. Here is a fascinating story peopled with the likes of Alice Munro, Norman Levine, Ernest Hemingway, John Newlove, Hugh Hood, Keath Fraser, Irving Layton, Mavis Gallant, and many other literary luminar …

A fresh group of writers, critics, booksellers, poets, and novelists heap scorn and vilification on Canadian icons—such as Margaret Atwood, stuffy academics, feminist poets, Elspeth Cameron, contemporary literary theory, and The Canada Council—in this collection. Contributors include Hugh Hood, Louis Dudek, William Hoffer, Brian Fawcett, Robin Sk …

'John Metcalf often comes as close to the baffling, painful comedy of human experience as a writer can get.'

Presenting 11 polished and incisive essays on Canadian literature and culture, this collection explores the dangers of state subsidy, anthologizing, the inflation of reputations by academics desperate to invent new ancestors, and the lunacy of affirmative action in literature. It also features loving illuminations of fiction's interior workings.

First published in 1972, Going Down Slow is an intense and very funny novel about one mans attempt to maintain his sanity, and his sense of humour, in the face of mounting odds. Metcalfs young hero, David Appleby, a young school teacher just over from Britain, is pitted against small-mindedness, prejudice, and temptations that are generations old. …

How Stories Mean gathers together criticism and theory written by short story writers themselves. Several of the essays were newly written for this book. The essays document the establishment and growth of the story form in Canada over the last twenty-five years but the collection is far more than archival. It offers endless insights into how write …

A new edition of this title may be available from Thomas Allen.

John Metcalf's Shut Up He Explained defies expectations and strict definition. Part memoir, part travelogue, part criticism -- wholly Metcalf -- it is thoughtful, engaged, contentious and often very funny. It offers a full does of Metcalfian wisdom and wit, and provides ample evidence that neither age nor indifference nor attack have withered him: …

John Metcalf is widely considered one of Canada's best writers. "Standing Stones: The Best Stories of John Metcalf" brings together three remarkable novellas and five critically acclaimed short stories.The "Washington Post" has called his talent "generous, hectoring, huge and remarkable." This collection showcases Metcalf's celebrated elegance as w …

Featuring articles and poems from such writers as Norman Snider, Irving Layton, Fraser Sutherland, John Mills, Brian Fawcett, and Doug Gibson, this collection addresses numerous facets of Canadian literature, including the Canada Council, Robertson Davies' characters, Robin Mathews and nationalism, Margaret Atwood and Northern Journey, why The Moun …

Concerned with the shifting notions of identity as they are grasped by children, adolescents, and young men, this collection includes such poised and witty tales as “Early Morning Rabbits,” “Keys and Watercress,” and the title novella. Variety and reality is heightened by the author's deft handling of language and by the subtle texturing in e …

'The Porcupine's Quill Reader celebrates and promotes the work of a small publishing house in the village of Erin, Ontario. The fact that authors published here have had four Governor General Award nominations in four years suggest that editor John Metcalf and publisher Tim Inkster must be doing something right. The Reader contains 20 short stories …

A collection of writing by eight of Canada's best contemporary story writers presented in tandem with critical essays immediately following each story. Includes short fiction by Mavis Gallant, Hugh Hood, Alice Munro, Leon Rooke, and Clark Blaise, and criticism by Lawrence Mathews, W.J. Keith, Michael Darling and Robert Lecker.

Eight interviews, eight stories, eight commentaries. Eight of Canada's finest writers. Writers Talking gives readers a chance to listen in: Terry Griggs on where stories come from, Michael Winter on writing Newfoundland, K. D. Miller on being an actor who writes. The volume also features stories by and conversations with Mary Borsky, Steven Heighto …