The narrative begins with Metcalf's early life in Knaresborough, England, where he adapted to his blindness with remarkable determination. Despite his disability, Metcalf led an active childhood, excelling in physical activities like swimming, horse riding, and playing the violin. He later found work as a musician and adventurer, but it was his work as a civil engineer that earned him lasting fame.Metcalf’s most notable achievements came during the Industrial Revolution, when he became a p...

Finding Again the World brings together a dozen of the best stories by John Metcalf, a modern master of the form. Spanning more than fifty years and ranging from some of his earliest published stories, such as “Dandelions” and “The Eastmill Reception Centre,” to his latest, with “Ceazer Salad” and “The Museum at the End of the World,” this current gathering shows a writer whose voice, at every stage of his career, is unmistakeable. These are elegant and brilliantly charged fiction...

In "The Life of John Metcalf, Commonly Called Blind Jack of Knaresborough," John Metcalf masterfully intertwines autobiography and biography, offering a vivid account of his remarkable journey through a world largely shaped by his blindness. Written in an engaging, accessible style, Metcalf'Äôs narrative reflects the resilience of the human spirit, capturing both the travails and triumphs of his life. The literary form evokes the traditions of 18th-century autobiographies while eschewing r...

“[Metcalf’s] talent is generous, hectoring, huge, and remarkable.”—Washington PostIn Temerity & Gall, Metcalf looks back on a lifetime spent in letters; surveys, with no punches pulled, the current state of CanLit; and offers a passionate defense of the promise and potential of Canadian writing.In a 1983 editorial letter to the Globe and Mail, celebrated Canadian novelist W.P. Kinsella railed that “Mr. Metcalf—an ...

Paving Our Ways covers the international history of road paving in an interesting, readable and technically accurate way. It provides an overview of the associated technologies in a historical context.It examines the earliest pavements in Egypt and Mesopotamia and then moves to North Africa, Crete, Greece and Italy, before a review of pavements used by the Romans in their magnificent road system. After its empire collapsed, Roman pavements fell into ruin. The slow recovery...

No other person has done more to celebrate and encourage the short story in Canada than John Metcalf. For more than five decades he has worked tirelessly as editor, anthologist, writer, critic, and teacher to help shape our understanding of the form and what it can do. The long-time editor of the yearly Best Canadian Stories anthology, as well as a fiction editor at some of the pre-eminent literary presses in the country for more than forty years, he has worked to support and cham...

Set in Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, and Ottawa, Ontario, the stories in The Museum at the End of the World span the life of writer Robert Ford and his wife Sheila. Playing with various forms of comedy throughout, author John Metcalf paints a portrait of 20th century literary life with levity, satire, and unsuspecting moments of emotional depth.

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: he remains as sharp, critical, constructive and insightful as ever. Indeed, this may just be his most important and engaged book. Certainly it w...

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. Metcalf's young hero, David Appleby, a young school teacher just over from Britain, is pitted against small-mindedness, prejudice, and temptations that are generations old. The writing is, as one would expect of anything by Metcalf, of the highest order. Going Down Slow is a sharp and biting satir...

Vital Signs brings together the collected novellas by a modern master of the form, by a writer who Alice Munro has said "often comes as close to the baffling comedy of human experience as a writer can get." Elegant, wry, compassionate and mischievous, Vital Signs will pierce both funny bone and heart.

Now in its 47th year, Best Canadian Stories has long championed the short story form and highlighted the work of many of the writers, throughout their respective careers, who have gone on to shape the Canadian literary canon. Caroline Adderson, Margaret Atwood, Clark Blaise, Lynn Coady, Mavis Gallant, Zsuzsi Gartner, Douglas Glover, Steven Heighton, Isabel Huggan, Mark Anthony Jarman, Norman Levine, Rohinton Mistry, Alice Munro, Leon Rooke, Diane Schoemperlen, Russell Smith, Linda...