John Metcalf (writer) - Writing Career

Writing Career

His 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. While writing he took side jobs in teaching to keep himself afloat.

New Canadian Writing, 1969 included Metcalf's first published stories. These stories all followed a common theme of youth and their coming of age. Metcalf used this theme of youth and coming of age and the events that shape it, extensively throughout his works. His first novella was published in 1970, shortly after New Canadian Writing,1969, and was titled The Lady Who Stole Furniture. It follows the narrator as he deals with the morality and integrity of his intimate relationship with an older woman, and thus followed this theme of coming of age. It was this novella that first showcased Metcalf's “skill with dialogue, the idiom and rhythms of speech", which is seen in most of his work. Many of his works follow characters modeled after himself, many are young English teachers who have immigrated to Canada and are displeased with the state of the educational system. 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 follows the same type of character as he fights the implementation of communications technology in his workplace. The Teeth of My Father are a collection of short stories with the common theme of artists’ relationships with society and their artwork and personal life. This theme was followed by, and extended in Metcalf's Adult Entertainment. Girl in Gingham is a collection of two novellas. The first called Private Parts, chronicles one narrators “sexual and spiritual childhood and adolescence”. The second called Girl in Gingham follows another narrators search for the perfect mate through the use of an online dating service, with the undertone being his realization of people trying to invent themselves to fit what others want, or the ideals of their culture. Short story and Novella forms are Metcalf’s preferred form of writing. Metcalf describes that when writing these forms “you got to get it dead right. A beat or two off and its ruined.” Metcalf is a long-time critic of Canadian ``cultural and educational inadequacies`` and published Kicking Against the Pricks in 1982 to showcase this frustration. It was a collection of 8 essays and included an interview with himself. To further increase debate within the literary community he published The Bumper Book in 1986 and followed it with Carry on Bumping in 1988. Both collections consisted of contentious essays Metcalf hoped would showcase what he saw as problems with Canadian literature. In an interview with Geoff Hancock, John Metcalf blatantly states that “the quality of the education has declined everywhere over the last 50 years as the number to be educated has risen”. He goes on to say that he is in “conflict with the dominant nature of North American society” and the influence it has on education.