The online Cambridge Dictionary takes a different tack. It asks fans to vote on the word they believe best reflects the year, then editors create a shortlist and followers vote again, a complicated but inclusive process, more like a People’s Choice Word Award. The winner? Nomophobia<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span>\u2014the fear or worry of being without your mobile phone or unable to use it.<\/span><\/p>\n The Oxford English Dictionary chooses a Word of the Year that will \u201c<\/span>reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year, and have lasting potential as a term of cultural significance.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>This year\u2019s choice is\u00a0Toxic<\/b><\/a>, a word that first appeared in the mid-seventeenth century and still means poisonous, although its use has broadened dramatically. <\/span>Most commonly in 2018, “toxic” was linked to “chemical” but the #2 use was “toxic masculinity,” and “toxic culture” was #7 on the list.<\/span><\/p>\n Misinformation <\/b><\/a>was the winning 2018 Word of the Year at Dictionary.com<\/span><\/a>. Unlike “<\/span>disinformation,” which refers to propaganda\u2014facts or stories manipul<\/span>ated with the intent to mislead\u2014<\/span>misinformation is defined as \u201c<\/span>false information that is spread, regardless of whether there is intent to mislead.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>\u201cSince the days we could speak, we could also lie,\u201d says author An Xiao Mina.\u00a0<\/span>\u201cAnd since the days we could lie, we could fabricate, we could create new stories. What changes is the technologies that emerge.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n M<\/span>isinformation is gossip writ large. We\u2019ve always been able to lie to ourselves and to our family and friends. That seems sweetly innocent in an age when Facebookers and Tweeters can spread such lies to the world, without bothering to determine if they are the truth.<\/p>\n Late in 2018, <\/span>Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0fact-checkers shared their record of all the false or misleading claims President Trump has made since he was inducted. The count was 6,420, an average of 10 false or misleading claims a day. <\/span><\/p>\n As Dictionary.com<\/span><\/a> notes, \u201cmisinformation\u201d isn\u2019t just a Word of the Year, it\u2019s a call to action.<\/span><\/p>\n Nomophobia. Justice. Toxic. Misinformation. If 2018 were a wine, it might be better left to spoil on the shelf.<\/p>\n The Word of the Year with the longest pedigree comes from the American Dialect Society<\/a>, founded in 1889 and dedicated to the study of North American English. Their word is chosen by a vote of independent linguists and isn\u2019t announced until later in January. After \u201cdumpster fire\u201d (2016) and \u201cfake news\u201d (2017), we look forward with anticipation to their candidate for the word (or phrase) that really nails 2018.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 2018\u00a0Holes in the Heart<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n The influential and beloved writers of my generation are dying off, too many to list here, although these I especially mourn:<\/p>\n Perhaps less well-known, but also leaving their mark in the world of books:<\/span><\/p>\n Todd Bol<\/a>, founder of the non-profit Little Free Libraries which now has some 75,000 free libraries on lawns in 88 countries. Bol built the first little library in 2009 in the shape of a schoolhouse to honor his mother, June, who was a book lover and teacher.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Walter Skold,<\/a> founder of the Dead Poets Society of America, who visited more that 600 poets\u2019 graves in his life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And here in Canada, several good friends are among the writers I’ll miss:<\/p>\n As Derek Wolcott wrote, “The future happens. No matter how much we scream.\u201d<\/p>\n He also wrote, \u201cI read; I travel; I become.\u201d This year, I plan to travel in the landscapes of these writers, their words a kind of immortality.<\/p>\n My casita has changed \u2014 we are in a different rental house in Mexico, and hence a new writing space, this with a long view of mountains, trees, church spires, and early in the morning, balloons!<\/p>\n Over Christmas, I listened to the Audible version of Refuge<\/em> with pleasure. The fourteen years of its writing has diminished in my memory like a long and difficult pregnancy.<\/p>\n I spent most of December finishing another draft of my new novel, A Course in Miracles,\u00a0<\/em>this one set in Mexico during the Zapatista War. The stack of manuscript pages are in front me, ready for what I hope will be a final read-through before the novel whooshes to my agent.<\/p>\n I am anxious to finish this book, because another is whispering at me from the shadows, with increasing urgency. I\u00a0never know how to describe a book before it is written. It\u2019s like naming a child: I had to see my boys to christen them. So let\u2019s just say this is the true story of a remarkable woman that might be called A Voice in the Wilderness. <\/i>Vamos a ver.<\/p>\n Five years later, having made some big changes and met that first round of goals, we are at it again. In some ways our situation is different \u2014 we have both eased away from work-for-hire \u2014 and some of our goals remain the same. Write more. Exercise more. The puzzler, then as now, is this: where is the most creative, the most provocative and inspiring, the most nurturing place for us to live?<\/span><\/p>\n The exercise is a bit like plotting a novel, one you have to live through to discover how it turns out.<\/p>\n Electric Literature<\/a> is a bit wearying to join (you have to sign up via a site called Medium), but regular trips are worth it for the stories, the essays, and especially Scuttlebutt. Some of their best offerings last year? Obits for neglected women writers. Brilliant Q&A with Lauren Groff. Why the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature was cancelled. <\/span><\/p>\n 2018 was definitely an annus horribilis for me, wracked with architectural and respiratory catastrophe. Politically, it was discouraging.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/merilynsimonds.com\/books-unpacked-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/0_V9p8id8Jrt79OvQe.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span>Justice<\/b><\/a>, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary Word of the Year, is the word we were most curious about and most needed help defining. Justice showed the greatest \u201clook-up\u201d leap: it was consulted 74% more often in 2018 than in 2017, which I find encouraging, since justice \u2014 social, racial, legal, political, sexual \u2014 was at heart of so much of the public conversation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n
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<\/a><\/a>Novelist Ann Ireland<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\nNews from my Casita<\/b><\/h3>\n
<\/p>\nFrom the Department of How-Time-Flies<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a>Five years ago, my husband and I had reached one of those boggy bits in a life. We felt stuck. We knew we needed to make changes, but which ones? We had both recently participated in strategic planning workshops \u2014 me with Kingston WritersFest and he with his university creative writing department \u2014 so we decided to apply those techniques to ourselves. We divided our life into six areas: work-for-hire, creative work, health & fitness, family & friends, finances, and living circumstances. We had rules: each of us could speak for 20 minutes uninterrupted on each topic while the other took notes and then reiterated what the person had said to make sure they’d understood. We took a day for each topic, learned a lot about each other, and ended up with a list of surprising and motivating goals. <\/span><\/p>\nLinks to Share<\/b><\/h3>\n
<\/a>Page Turner<\/a> \u00a0is a dive straight to The New Yorker<\/em>\u00a0Books Section, for those who are overwhelmed by the weekly magazine (or wearied by the incessant political analysis of #42). On this site you’ll find some of the finest writing on international and homegrown North American literature. <\/span><\/p>\nChoice Indie Bookseller <\/b><\/span> <\/b><\/h3>\n
<\/a>Owl\u2019s Nest Books<\/a> has been supplying readers in Calgary, Alberta, for over 40 years, making it the city\u2019s longest established independent bookseller. Founded by Evelyn deMille in 1975, Owl\u2019s Nest still exudes her principles of dedication to books and care for readers. Tucked in Britannia Mall, this shop feels nothing like a strip-mall store \u2014 more like the library of a reader you want to get to know.\u00a0<\/span>They offer a discount to book clubs, and an excellent blog called Hootings<\/em>, as well as a great selection of Staff Picks on their website.<\/p>\nA Final Word<\/strong><\/h3>\n