On the Origin of Stories

A published writer I know once told me that the minute any of her children takes up a pencil and expresses a desire to write, she will immediately yank it out of their hand. Who would want to encourage a loved one to enter a life filled with anguish, rejection, and hardship? For any would‑be writer who wants to know the truth about publishing, swap out that pencil for Off the Record, a compilation of reflections from Caroline Adderson, Kristyn Dunnion, Cynthia Flood, Shaena Lambert, Elise Levine, and Kathy Page on what “lured them into this writing life,” as the editor of the book, John Metcalf, explains in his foreword.

Metcalf understands the bumpy terrain of Wordsville. A presence in Canadian letters for more than five decades, he has worked with countless authors in his capacity as senior fiction editor at Biblioasis. He’s also completed more than a dozen volumes of fiction and non-fiction himself. His appreciation for the challenges of being a...