The Expert
Katherine Barber
Editor-in-Chief
Canadian Dictionary Department
Oxford University Press
"Canada's Word Lady" Katherine Barber, Editor-in-Chief of the award-winning and best-selling Canadian Oxford Dictionary, is known for her lively and engaging take on the history of our language and is a popular guest on radio and TV across Canada. She grew up in Winnipeg and studied French at the Universities of Winnipeg and Ottawa. Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Dictionaries at Oxford University Press since 1991, she has overseen the production of 11 dictionaries. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary has sold over 200,000 copies and is the official dictionary of The Canadian Press, The Globe and Mail, and most of Canada's legislatures.
She received the Canadian Booksellers Association's Editor of the Year Award in 1999 and the University of Winnipeg Distinguished Alumni Award in 2000. Her lively book of word histories, Six Words You Never Knew Had Something to Do With Pigs was on the Maclean's bestseller list for 14 weeks in 2006 and became a Canadian bestseller in its first year of publication. Her interests outside lexicography are ballet, travelling, choral singing, gardening, and cooking.
