who the better writer ...

yuh read all of them?

the Canadian 

yes , short stories.

I read Lawrence and Atwood more than 40 years ago in school here in Canada....

Margaret Lawrence was easier for me but boring..irrelevant.  Gabrielle Roy seemed most relevant.  but her name is not on the list is it?

all middle class elitist people who don't have a clue about the whole of the life..life at the bottom of Canadian society..especially where it intersected with the impact of immigrants then burgeoning, starting up and roiling and what it portended for Canada.

I did it for school.  I would not have read them otherwise..even Roy who explored ordinary Quebec life..containing themes I was much more familiar with

I don't know Findley

I have lost interest in the technical aspects of writing as arbiter literary quality..save where I encounter creativity in the conveyance of meaning..especially when the content in question is the stock of ordinary life bubbling towards the progressive and revolutionary.

by that measurement I can spend days, all day long with Naipaul on his west indian books..or James on cricket BaB

if writing is not usefully relevant it means little to me..I pass it by.

I am tired of the middle class to wealthy experience as determinative content of things literary... television, films, food, dress etc.  truly tired of it.  if I read it must be progressive, exploratory and explanatory, and indicative of ways forward for humans

I am sure if one spends the necessary time with Lawrence and Atwood they would find the progressive in their work.  I never found it and stopped looking quickly

Timothy Findley:

I think I would find Munro useful.

I neglected Lawrence Hill because of who his parents were..his father really.  I saw Dan Hill not as he was portrayed in the media..as a great positive black figure..but as the opposite of that.  but now that I am reminded I will go look for "Black Berry Sweet Juice"

in fact I will look for it on the net right now.  maybe I will get a free read.  nutten better dan free! ::LOL::

i read the older text  in high school and, the prose/syntax/lexicon can be difficult.