Writing, language and publication support for academics
Welcome to my Linguaverse! I'm Wendy, an independent language professional who provides writing, language and publication support to academics from my home base in Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.
I've been a lover of words and language for ages — legend has it that I wrote my name on the side of our house when I was 4 or 5 years old (luckily, it was in crayon and my mother was able to undo the damage).
Spanish captivated me when I was a teenager in Los Angeles, and I followed it (and linguistics/other languages) across continents until I landed in the Basque Country in 2005.
My undergraduate degree was linguistics with a minor in Spanish. I spent my junior year abroad in Madrid. Linguistics continued to call my name, so I did a Master's in California and then moved to Buffalo, New York, to do a PhD in functional linguistics. I loved the work, but even then (circa 2000) academia was a tough game to play. I ended up not completing my dissertation and came away with a second Master's degree.
Parallel to my study and research in linguistics, I taught language and composition to international students and spent a year in Malmö, Sweden, running a summer writing and study skills bridging program at the World Maritime University and teaching in the regular language and writing program.
In 2005 I added translation and authors' editing to my professional skill set, and in 2018 I trained as a structured writing retreat facilitator.
I engage in regular continuous professional development for language professionals, both as participant and trainer. Recent talks given include:
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"Against native-speakerism: authors’ editors as access allies." Oral presentation at METM23 (with co-presenters Theresa Truax-Gischler and Kate Sotejeff-Wilson), Mantua, Italy. 13 October 2023.
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"Language inherited and inhabited: multilingualism, selves and worlds." Moderator of panel at METM22, Donostia/San Sebastián. 14 October 2022.
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"Editors café." Moderator of fringe event at METM21 (online). 14 October 2021.
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"Honing skills through near-peer exchange." Oral presentation at SENSE 2020 (online). 4 June 2020.
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"Building a language professional–academic co-working partnership." Oral presentation at METM19, Split, Croatia. 28 September 2019.
I'm also active in the writing retreat arena, and in early 2024 a volume on social writing that I co-edited was published by Palgrave Macmillan. I also co-authored the introductory chapter plus wrote my own chapter on the benefits that academic authors can avail themselves of when social writing with academy-adjacent folk like language professionals.
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Baldwin, W. (2023). "Meetings at the Textface: What Academics and Language Professionals Gain When They Team Up and Adopt a Social Writing Approach to Academic Text Production." In: Pais Zozimo, J., Sotejeff-Wilson, K., Baldwin, W. (eds) Women Writing Socially in Academia: Dispatches from Writing Rooms. Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44977-2_13.
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Zozimo, J.P., Sotejeff-Wilson, K., Baldwin, W. (2023). "Introduction: From Our Writing Rooms to Yours." In: Pais Zozimo, J., Sotejeff-Wilson, K., Baldwin, W. (eds) Women Writing Socially in Academia: Dispatches from Writing Rooms. Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44977-2_1.
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Pais Zozimo, J., Sotejeff-Wilson, K., Baldwin, W. (eds) Women Writing Socially in Academia: Dispatches from Writing Rooms. Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44977-2.
For additional detail about my academic and professional background, visit my profiles on LinkedIn and in the Mediterranean Editors & Translators directory.
Linguist.
Authors' editor.
Writing facilitator.
Writing trainer.
Member of:
