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 Heighton, Elise Levine, Annabel Lyon, and Lisa Moore.

John Metcalf is one of Canada's most distinguished literary editors, writers, critics, and anthologists. He has helped shape the sensibility of an entire group of emerging writers through his work at the Porcupine's Quill press. Known for his strong views about literary standards, Metcalf has nurtured some of our most essential writers, including Leon Rooke, Russel Smith, Terry Griggs, Caroline Adderson, Annabel Lyon, Andrew Pyper, Steven Heighton, Jane Urquhart, Elise Levine, Clarke Blaise, Michael Winter, and Mary Swan, among dozens of other fine authors.John Metcalf is the Senior Editor of Porcupine's Quill. An accomplished writer, editor, and anthologist, he is the author of more than a dozen works of fiction and non-fiction including "Adult Entertainment, The Lady Who Sold Furniture", and "Kicking Against the Pricks: Essays".

John Metcalf's profile page

Author bio   Claire Wilkshire is a writer, editor, translator and teacher living in St. John’s with her husband, writer Larry Mathews. They have two adult children. Maxine (2013) is Claire’s first novel. Her short fiction has appeared in publications such as Grain, the New Quarterly, Event, and the Fiddlehead. She’s a founding member of the Burning Rock writing group.

 

Claire Wilkshire's profile page

'Writers Talking is a great idea, and the editors have crafted the material into a thorough, balanced and honed work. It would be nice to see more publications like this.'

The Telegram (St John's)

'Metcalf is not eccentric but central, a brilliant prose-smith who has mentored an entire generation of fledgling authors.'

Toro Magazine

'The interviews provide a vivid impression of the writers' influences, techniques, and ambitions. Each interview is followed by a previously published story by the author and his or her brief commentary on the story. A source of inspiration for creative-writing students, Writers Talking also sheds light on the contributions of editors -- specifically John Metcalf.'

Canadian Book Review Annual

'Writers Talking is a great idea, and the editors have crafted the material into a thorough, balanced and honed work. It would be nice to see more publications like this.'

The Telegram (St John's)

'What's most interesting about the book is the ways in which almost all the writers work out what it means to be Canadian writers. Michael Winter discusses having to leave Newfoundland in order to be able to write about it; Steven Heighton relates how his travels through Canada, as well as outside of it, forged his identity as a writer; Mary Borsky speaks of wonder at her realization that Canada could be an acceptable setting for serious literature; Terry Griggs traces her development as a writer to her childhood discovery of the differences of region in Canada. In telling their histories, the authors featured in Writers Talking who also include Lisa Moore, K.D. Miller, Elise Levine, and Annabel Lyon, tell the history of recent Canadian literature itself, shedding light not only on their work and careers, but also on the people and places that have made it all possible.'

amazon.ca

'I'm a junky for anything that takes readers inside the world of the imagination, and this collection is particularly fine. Eight of my favorite contemporary Canadian writers -- Michael Winter, Lisa Moore, Annabel Lyon, Steven Heighton, Terry Griggs, Elise Levine, Mary Borsky, and K.D. Milleri -- talking about their work. The set up is pure genius: an interview, followed by a story, and then the writers' commentary on the technical challenges they had to solve in the writing of the story in order to achieve the effect they were after. The interviews are wonderfully wrought -- in most of them, the questions have been removed so the pieces read as seamless narratives of a writer's coming-of-age.'

The New Quarterly

'The interviews provide a vivid impression of the writers' influences, techniques, and ambitions. Each interview is followed by a previously published story by the author and his or her brief commentary on the story. A source of inspiration for creative-writing students, Writers Talking also sheds light on the contributions of editors -- specifically John Metcalf.'

Canadian Book Review Annual

'Writers Talking is very much a book that is alive, one that will certainly make readers want to read more (especially by these eight writers), and read more carefully; it will also make writers want to write more -- and, again, more carefully. Each of these stories dazzles with a quiet, meticulous brilliance, a brilliance that comes from a sustained, holy belief in getting the words right. As Steven Heighton says in his interview/essay: ''At the turn of the millennium being a true rebel means being, by postmodern standards, unabashedly uncool -- an aesthete, devoted to the old pursuit of truth and beauty in artistic form.'' ... To that I say, now quoting Elise Levine: ''Yippee-i-o.'' '

Globe & Mail