up lit

Chick-lit was the first of the lit for literature coinages, but Macquarie also has gangsta lit (novels about American street life) and grit-lit  (novels about people on the fringes of society).  More recently there was grip lit which hasn’t made it into the dictionary yet but which is a genre of psychological thrillers set in a domestic context.

 The latest in this set is up lit, short for uplifting literature. It seems that there is a surge in the popularity of stories which are life-affirming, which travel the dark moments of the soul but eventually win through whatever life may dish out to discover serenity and happiness.

 Up lit is not just about stories that warm the cockles of our hearts. It borders on therapy as we explore how to overcome anxiety, how to deal with being on the spectrum and not like everyone else, the benefits of kindness to others, how to respond to bullying and sexual harassment and rise above it. Rise above it all.