UW Gazette, June 25, 1997
     
     The New Quarterly, a literary magazine published out
of St. Jerome's College and UW, has won the 1996 gold medal
for fiction at the National Magazine Awards.
     The winning entry, a novella-length story by Ottawa
writer John Metcalf called "Forde Abroad," appeared in the
fall issue, which focused on Metcalf's influence as an
editor.
     "John has devoted the past dozen years to publishing
and promoting the work of other writers and to creating a
climate of reception for that work," says Kim Jernigan, one
of The New Quarterly's three fiction editors.
     "It's been an uphill battle and has left him little
energy for his own writing. We had to cajole this story out
of him, and we're delighted it has done so well. Metcalfe
is an immensely entertaining writer. We've been deprived of
his work far too long," she says.
     "Forde Abroad" is described as a poignantly comic
story about a writer whose vanity has compelled him to
accept an invitation to read from his work at a conference
in Slovenia. Anyone who has attended an academic conference
will recognize the cast of characters and the desires and
machinations at work within the seemingly staid confines of
the conference, not to mention the bad food.
     "I don't think it's giving too much away to say that
Forde returns home chastened," Jernigan adds, "but then one
doesn't read Metcalf for the plot alone. One reads him for
his love of language, for his wonderful way with dialogue,
for his comic pacing, for the way he gets to the surface of
things.
     "As Forde himself says, '(Art) arises from the
realness of the world. Of course art encompasses ideas but
it's not about ideas. It's more concerned with feeling. And
you capture the feeling through things, through particu
larity."
     Metcalf will receive a cash award of $1,000 and the
prize will raise the profile of The New Quarterly, which
was in competition with such well-known literaries as The
Malahat Review and Descant.
     "We've been saying for years that we're publishing
some of the best new fiction in Canada," says managing
editor Mary Merikle. "With a silver medal at the National
Magazine Awards last year, and this year the gold, other
people are beginning to say so too."
     "Forde Abroad" has also been selected as the lead
piece for the annual collection Best Canadian Stories.
     The fall issue of TNQ, as well as the more recent
winter issue, is available for sale at the UW bookstore.