John Metcalf

John Wesley Metcalf (born 12 November 1938) is an English-born Canadian writer, editor and critic.

Personal life Metcalf was born in Carlisle, England on 12 November 1938. His father, Thomas Metcalf, was a clergyman and his mother, Gladys Moore Metcalf, was a teacher. He immigrated to Canada in 1962 and here began to write. In 1975 he married Myrna Teitelbaum and now lives with her in Ottawa, Ontario.

Writing career Metcalf's first attempt at writing fiction came when he entered the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Short Story Essay Contest which was followed by eight of his short stories being accepted by the Vancouver-based magazine Prism International. He supplemented his writing career with teaching jobs. His first novel Going Down Slow follows a young teacher as described above as he deals with morality in the workplace, and his second novel, General Ludd, describes a similar character, fighting the implementation of communications technology in his workplace.

Awards Forde Abroad won the 1996 Gold Medal for Fiction at the National Magazine Awards. The Estuary won University of Western Ontario's President's Medal for the Best Story of 1969. Metcalf was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2004.

Selected works The Lady Who Sold Furniture, 1970 Going Down Slow, 1972 The Teeth of My Father, 1975 Girl in Gingham, 1978 General Ludd, 1981 Kicking Against the Pricks, 1982 Selected Stories, 1982 Adult Entertainment, 1986 What is a Canadian Literature?, 1988 Shooting the Stars, 1992 Freedom from Culture, 1993 An Aesthetic Underground: A Literary Memoir, 2003 Forde Abroad, 2003 Standing Stones, 2004 Shut Up He Explained: A Literary Memoir Volume II, 2007 The Museum at the End of the World, 2016