KWG Twig News — February 2024

2023–2024, Book Club, Digital Meet-up, In-person, Networking, News, Professional Development, Social Event

We started 2024 with a fantastic virtual event in January: Indexing for Editors. Thanks to Jolanta Komornicka and Alexandra Peace for the presentation!

Welcome

Welcome to our newest members: Mark Grausam and Evan Polstra.

Upcoming Twig Events

Our monthly twig events, on the fourth Wednesday of the month (occasionally the fourth Thursday), alternate between in person and virtual and are usually at 6:30 p.m. We also plan the occasional coffee social on a Saturday.

February 2024

Saturday, February 10 — Coffee Social, Cambridge

Our first in-person coffee social of the year! Following the appeal and success of an in-person coffee social that we held last fall in Kitchener, we would like to hold another — in Cambridge this time.

Date:Saturday, February 10, 2024
Time:10:00 a.m. to noon
Location:Coffee Culture Café & Eatery 138 Main St., Cambridge, ON
Style:In person; coffeeculturecafe.com; maps.app.goo.gl; Parking is available across the street.

This event is free for Editors Canada members and non-members. Please RSVP to KWG@editors.ca by Wednesday, February 7.

Wednesday, February 28 — Dinner Social, Waterloo

Join us for our first in-person dinner social of the year:

Date:Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Time:6:30–8:30 p.m.
Location:Pho Ben Thanh Viet Thai Restaurant; 36 Northfield Dr. E., Waterloo, ON
Style:In person; phobenthanh.ca; maps.app.goo.gl; Large parking lot on site.

This event is free for Editors Canada members and non-members.

Please RSVP to KWG@editors.ca by Monday, February 26.

March 2024

Wednesday, March 27 — Virtual Book Club

Our first virtual book club event of the year! The book under discussion will be The Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction by Amy J. Schneider. More details and zoom meeting link to come closer to the date!

March or April 2024

Date TBD — Coffee social in the London area?

We would like to arrange an in-person coffee social for our members who may find the London area more convenient than the KWG area. Current thoughts are for late March or early April.

Please keep an eye out for an email: we will send around an informal email questionnaire early in February to gauge interest.

National News

Skills development

Check out editors.ca to find webinars, resources, and mentorship opportunities that can help you develop your skills. Editors Canada members and student affiliates get 40% off webinars!

National conference

The 2024 Editors Canada conference will be in Vancouver, June 23–23. Registration opens in February, so keep an eye out for an email from the national office!

Award nominations

The Tom Fairley Award nomination deadline is Friday, February 9, 2024. Nominees don’t have to be members of Editors Canada and self-nominations are encouraged. For complete nomination instructions and other information about the award, visit the Tom Fairley Award page

The Karen Virag Award nomination deadline is Thursday, February 29, 2024. Nominees may be individuals or organizations, members or non-members. For complete nomination instructions and other information about the award, visit the Karen Virag Award page

The applications period for the 2024 Claudette Upton Scholarship is open. This annual national award of $1,000 recognizes a promising student affiliate from Editors Canada. If you’re a student affiliate, or if you know someone who should be, visit the Claudette Upton Scholarship page for more information.

National website transition has been accomplished. You should have received notice directly from the national office. Check out the new website.

Please check your email for updates on upcoming events! If you have any questions, comments, or announcements, email Amanda and Lloyd at kwg@editors.ca.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: The image is a photograph of Scrabble tiles that spell out “news” on a red background.

October (Virtual) Meetup: The Editor’s Book Club reads Sin and Syntax

2020-2021, Book Club, Digital Meet-up, Editor's Tool Kit, Editors Canada members only, Networking, Professional Development

We’re back! And we’re meeting up online to discuss C. Hale’s Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose.

Contact us at kwg.twig@editors.ca to get a copy of the link.

Here’s an excerpt from the introduction of Sin and Syntax as posted on Hale’s website: Language is paradox. Sin and Syntax dwells in contradictions and dabbles in the eloquence of tradition, the intelligence of creoles, the decadence of slang. We’ll root around where language is most playful: in the pop, the vernacular, the mongrel tongues. We’ll examine how the highbrow and the lowbrow define the edges of prose and how the middlebrow dooms it to mediocrity. We’ll diss legalese and computerese and ditch the lifeless rhythms of Standard Written English. We’ll also summon the spirit of renegades who ignore taboos and make the language sing, from Shakespeare to Shake ’n Bake and from Joan Didion to Junot Díaz. With a little Bob Dylan and Nicki Minaj thrown in. We’ll wallow with Walt Whitman, who ridiculed the “dictionary makers,” insisting that language has its base “broad and low, close to the ground.” We’ll accept English as a robust, swarthy tongue, capable of surviving tumult and thriving on change.

Constance Hale has published six books. She writes, hula dances, runs a writer’s retreat in Hawaii, and currently edits for the Harvard Business Review (http://sinandsyntax.com/bio/).

Event details

Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Time: 7:30 PM

Please RSVP by email to kwg.twig@editors.ca by Tuesday, October 6, 2020.

This event is for Editors Canada members only.

Photo of a weathered sign. Photo credited to K. Mitch Hodge via Unsplash.

April Events (Virtual Meetups!)

2019-2020, Book Club, Digital Meet-up, Networking, News, Professional Development, Webinar club

Things aren’t easy these days. Both in-house and freelance editors–like everyone else–are experiencing anxiety and insecurity. But it’s during these times that we should reach out and share.

This month, we have moved our networking socials online:

Our first online networking social will go live on Wednesday, April 1 from 7 to 8:30 pm. There’s still time to sign up if you’d like to join us: RSVP by email. (Note. This month’s event is only open to members of our twig.)

(Online) Webinar Club is a go:

This club was imagined as an opportunity for in-house editors, and members with daytime obligations who can’t participate in live webinars during the day, to review recorded webinars and discuss them with fellow editors. (Both members and non-members are welcome to join.)

Join Sophie Blom (@sewblom) on April 5, 2020 from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm for an online discussion of Sonya Poller’s Writing & Editing for Non-Profits: Making an Impact. A recording of this webinar is available on the Editors’ Association of Canada website.

And the Editor’s Book Club has gone virtual:

Our first online meetup will take place during the last week of April (date TBA) and we’ll discuss What do Editors Do: The Art, Craft, and Business of Editing by Peter Ginna. Or, if you’d like to follow our reading list on your own, please send us an email: we’d be happy to share the list!

And please consider supporting small businesses during this time. Both Words Worth Books (Kitchener-Waterloo) and the Bookshelf (Guelph) are offering free delivery services for book orders.

Photo by Duy Pham via Unsplash