Naming of the Club

Initially, we spoke of the book club as our “diverse literature” reading group, but realized quickly that this language was unwieldy and would not catch people’s attention.

After brainstorming a few names with The Center for Equity and Inclusion (“Real Talk Reads”, to tie it to an extant program on our campus named “Real Talk”) and roughly surveying extant names of academic book clubs, we changed tactics.  We decided to ask the student workers at our library for name suggestions, as a way to find a name that might resonate with the student population on campus.

One of our student workers had the following to say:

I like Real Talk Reads, and after a moment of thinking about more potential names I came up with Real Lit[erature] (it’s a double entendre because lit is also slang word for something that is a very cool experience). Just a thought.

We used their suggestion after running it by other students.  We also really like the fact that giving a student the power to name a club meant for students sets a good precedent.