The Porcupine's Quill Reader

`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 and assorted gossipy anecdotes and photographs of the authors giving readings and socializing. (And yes, this creates a feeling of being the voyeur at the family picnic, and yes, you might wonder why you would want to be a voyeur there of all places.) Inkster has long been known for quality book design and treats readers to brief arcane chats about typeface selection and paper size. Interesting if you like knowing why some books look and feel so much better than others, easy to skip if you don't.'

John Metcalf was born in Carlisle, England, and was educated at the University of Bristol. He emigrated to Canada in 1962. In addition to working on his own writings (novels, stories and essays), he held for many years the unsalaried post of Senior Editor of the Porcupine' Quill. John Metcalf is the editor of Canadian Notes and Queries and book publisher Biblioasis. He resides in Ottawa with his wife, Myrna.

Tim Inkster's proudest moment, as a poet, was the inclusion of "In Search of Eldorado" (from A Crown Prince Waits for a Train) in the 1975 edition of the Penguin Book of Canadian Verse edited by Ralph Gustafson. His most recent collection was Blue Angel (Black Moss, 1981) after which he stopped writing poems in favour of a career in the book publishing industry. The Crown Prince Waits for a Train is one of only two Porcupine's Quill publications from the 1970s that