news
Electric Lit Is Delighted to Welcome Its Newest Board Member, Meredith Talusan
The executive editor of Them brings an enthusiasm for creative digital initiatives to the team
Electric Literature is excited to welcome Meredith Talusan, the executive editor of Them, Condé Nast’s recently-launched LGTBQ website, to its board of directors.
Originally from the Philippines (where she was a child actor in a popular sitcom!), Talusan earned an MFA in creative writing and an MA in comparative literature from Cornell University. Fairest, her memoir exploring race, gender, immigration, and intersectionality, is forthcoming from Viking Press.
Before joining Them, Talusan worked as a staff writer at BuzzFeed covering LGBTQ issues, and has received a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism, as well as awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Gay and Lesbian Association. In addition to her stellar editorial work at Them, she has spearheaded special projects like an interactive map and voting guide focused on LGBTQ issues, in partnership with Google. She brings her passion for creative digital initiatives to Electric Literature.
“I love Electric Literature’s mission and the way it bridges the worlds of traditional books and whatever the future has in store,” says Talusan. “It’s vital to keep pushing literature forward, while staying rooted in a tradition of art and scholarship.”
Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels That Take Us Beyond the Gender Binary
Talusan is the first new member of Electric Literature’s board since Nicole Cliffe, writer and co-founder of the Toast, joined in December 2017. Talusan’s activism as a transgender writer, and as an editor amplifying trans, queer, and genderqueer voices, fits right in with Electric Lit’s goal of making literature relevant, exciting, and inclusive.
“The principles of our mission should be reflected by our board,” says Electric Literature’s Executive Director, Halimah Marcus. “We want our readers to feel represented in our leadership as well as in our subject matter and bylines.”
Talusan will join Cliffe and other board members Andy Hunter, Electric Lit’s co-founder and publisher of Catapult and Lit Hub; acclaimed novelist Michael Cunningham; Bookforum publisher Danielle McConnell; the vice president and executive editor of HarperCollins, Sara Nelson; and the vice president and executive editor of Farrar Straus and Giroux, Sean McDonald.
