Arika Okrent, the language columnist for Mental Floss and a frequent linguistic contributor to many publications, has been named this year's recipient of the Linguistic Society of America's Linguistics Journalism Award. The Linguistics Journalism Award, chosen annually by LSA officers and staff, honors the journalist whose work best represents linguistics over the previous 12 months.

Dr. Okrent's work at Mental Floss is acclaimed for taking often-complex linguistic topics and making them easily accessible. Her use of innovative media forms such as listicles and whiteboard videos has helped bring linguistic knowledge to a wide audience. In addition to her work at Mental Floss, Dr. Okrent is editor-at-large at TheWeek.com and has written for publications including Smithsonian Magazine, Lapham's Quarterly, and Schwa Fire over the past year alone.

Dr. Okrent, who received her Ph.D. in linguistics and psychology from the University of Chicago, is also the author of In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers and the Mad Dreamers who tried to Build a Perfect Language.

Okrent is the second-ever recipient of the Linguistics Journalism Award; journalist Ben Zimmer received the inaugural LJA in 2014. The Linguistics Journalism Award is the second of the LSA Awards to be announced (after the Student Abstract Awards); all LSA Awards will be presented at the 2016 LSA Annual Meeting on Saturday, January 9, 5:30 PM at the Marriott Marquis Washington, DC.