It has been one week already since the publication of critic Anis Shivani's The 15 Most Overrated Contemporary American Writers, but the provocative article is still being shared around Facebook and Twitter. Many are shocked, considering that he took down popular names in American literature. Some say it's a "gutsy, instructive read" while others say "it is stupid."
The article has a provocative start, "Are the writers receiving the major awards and official recognition really the best writers today? Or are they overrated mediocrities with little claim to recognition by posterity?" Shivani went on to say that Amy Tan has "ruined minority/ethnic fiction by pouncing upon a made-for-success formula of family secrets wrapped in the multigenerational saga--East and South Asian writers have been doing little else for 20 years."
The article generated almost 2,000 angry comments, 11,000 re-tweets, and we can undoubtedly say that it is one of the most-read literary articles this year. Read on.
