A fresh group of writers, critics, booksellers, poets, and novelists heap scorn and vilification on Canadian icons'such as Margaret Atwood, stuffy academics, feminist poets, Elspeth Cameron, contemporary literary theory, and The Canada Council?in this collection. Contributors include Hugh Hood, Louis Dudek, William Hoffer, Brian Fawcett, Robin Skelton, Maggie Helwig, and Winslow L. D. Howard. Vitriol, humor, and cynicism march together against the shibboleths of Canadian culture.

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

"This is Canadian literature viewed by its irascible outsiders. What a bracing change of air from the homogenized fog of establishment viewpoints and media-inflated reputations." — The Ottawa Citizen

"This book provides entertainment, some abstruseness and double-talk, mud-slinging and name-calling, and, more importantly, a sense of national identity." — Canadian Book Review Annual

"It is always literate, it is occasionally funny, and there are more than half-a-dozen essays worth reading and thinking about, and a couple that are inspired." — Saturday Night