Following in the footsteps of American and British overrated writers lists, the intrepid Steven Beattie (yes, that guy over there with the red dot from a sniper’s laser sight on his forehead) c0-pens a list of overrated Canadians. A brave list, and while some are like shooting fish in a barrel, others I completely disagree with. Erin Moure is a genius. I’m not saying she’s perfect every time, but that she’s consistently good enough for me to trust her impulse to publish whatever she feels like. Very rarely prolificity is a blessing, not a curse, and she falls into this category for me. (See this article for my views on prolific writers.)

The rules of the game were pretty simple. We considered living authors only. Some established track record was required (breathe easy, Vincent Lam, your time has not yet come). And the two of us had to be, if not in complete agreement, at least amenable to each other’s point of view. Though as it turned out, when the time came to compare names, there were few major points of contention.

Of course, the judgment of who is overrated and who is underrated will always be somewhat subjective, but we did manage to hold to a few guidelines. Overrated authors win prestigious literary prizes, receive fawning reviews in the national media, and are brand names, if not always bestsellers. The underrated (which will be posted tomorrow) are names you may have heard of but, if sales figures are any indication, we’ll wager you haven’t got around to actually reading them. Some have won prizes, but there isn’t a Giller- or a Booker-winner among them. Like a lot of writers, they got their start in the small press. The difference is, that’s where most of them have stayed.