"[Metcalf's] talent is generous, hectoring, huge, and remarkable."--Washington Post For more than five decades, John Metcalf has worked tirelessly as editor, anthologist, writer, critic, and teacher to help shape our understanding of Canadian literature and imagine its potential. A long-time editor of the Best Canadian Stories anthology; fiction editor at some of the preeminent literary presses in the country for more than forty years; and past editor of Canadian Notes and Queries, Canada's longest-running independent journal of literary criticism, Metcalf has worked tirelessly to support generations of our best writers. In 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.