Round-Up: Word of the Year, June Eric-Udorie, and Best of 2016 Lists
From the the word of the year to an anthology on feminism, here’s the latest literary news:
- Merriam Webster announced that its word of the year is “surreal.” “Surreal is Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year because it was looked up significantly more frequently by users in 2016 than it was in previous years,” the organization said in its announcement. This followed the many other word of the year announcements: dictionary.com’s word of the year was “Xenophobia,” Oxford Dictionary’s was “post-truth,” and Slate argued that the this year’s word of the year should actually be a number.
- June Eric-Udorie, an activist and writer, will be editing an anthology with Virago “that will focus on intersectional feminism, identity and beliefs.” The eighteen-year-old Eric-Udorie has been a feminist blogger and writer since high school and was named as one of BBC’s 100 Women in 2016. “Over the last few years, my feminist politics has developed and changed hugely, and for that I have to credit women of colour online, especially Black women, for their scholarship. I think it’s time we move away from a predominantly white, middle class, able-bodied feminist discourse, and I hope this anthology will give a platform to women who continue to be marginalised within the feminist movement,” she told the Bookseller.
- It’s almost the New Year, which means the best books of 2016 lists are here. If you’re looking to do some last minute shopping or need some good titles to read over the winter break, here are the books that have been dubbed “the best”: Lit Hub, the New York Times, and Publishers Weekly, all gave their top picks; EW listed its top book jackets; the Guardian ranked the best photography books of the year; and the Spinoff gives its take on the best of poetry.
