Writing, language and publication support for academics
I'm 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 as long as I can remember — legend has it that I wrote my name on the side of our house when I was about 4 years old (luckily, it was in crayon and my mother was able to undo the damage) and I remember the awe I felt when I was taught to count to 10 and say 'please' and 'thank you' in Spanish at around the same age.
Spanish re-captivated me as a teenager growing up in Los Angeles, and I followed it (and linguistics and 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 studying at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and returned to Madrid upon graduation to teach English for a year. Linguistics continued to call me, 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 profile, and in 2018 I trained as a structured writing retreat facilitator.
Professional activity
I'm active in the area of social writing and writing retreat facilitation. I am co-editor of a volume on social writing that was published in 2024 as part of Palgrave's Studies in Gender and Education series. I also co-authored the introductory chapter wrote a 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 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 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 Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44977-2.
Additionally, I'm a founding member of Writing for Academic and Research Purposes (WRAP), an international network whose aim is to embed methods of social writing in and beyond academia.
I engage in regular continuous professional development for language professionals.
Recent talks given include:
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"Academic translators as author allies – a path to a future in academic translation?" (2024). Workshop delivered for ITI Spanish Network. Online. 11 November.
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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.
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: