Akademik

n.

A literary genre that features books written by women and focusing on young, quirky, female protagonists. Also: chick-lit.

"The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing is the 'chick lit' book of the moment, a loosely linked set of short stories centering on Jane Rosenal's romantic coming-of-age over 20 or so years."

— Nancy Pate, " 'Chick Lit' Can Be Funny and Serious," The Orlando Sentinel, June 27, 1999

Anyway, I still adore his writing, and he's still my hero, but I'm really very sad to see Wolcott decrying postfem chick lit as mere "popularity-contest coquetry." (I think he's jealous.) He doesn't even like Cynthia Heimel or Julie Burchill, from what I can tell.

— Vicki Hengen, "Pictures perfect; rock gems; chick lit," The Boston Globe, May 22, 1996

There's another sense to this phrase that means "books written by women or that appeal primarily to women" and so is the literary analogue to filmdom's chick flicks. Here's the earliest citation for this sense:

According to Peterson's Guides' fascinating fact book "Alma Mater," Harvard also offers "Modern Art and Abstraction" (known on campus as "Spots 'n' Dots") and "American Architecture Since 1700" (students simply call it "Gas Stations"). And at Princeton, if your transcript says you took "Music 103," someone will snicker and call it "Clapping for Credit." By the way, the very proper sounding "Female Literary Tradition" is known there as "chick lit."

— Warren Berry, "Now, Add a Degree of," Newsday, April 13, 1993