Typically, anniversaries are times of looking back, reminiscing and celebrating successes. My partners have already written about the founding of WCEA 25 years ago and stories that we share of our past. But anniversaries are also an opportunity to look…
As West Coast Editorial Associates celebrates our 25th anniversary this year, we’ve been talking a lot about the partnership’s history. Past and current partners have shared stories and photos that have made us laugh (a lot), sometimes groan, and occasionally…
Twenty-five years ago, when West Coast Editorial Associates was born, I was barely a West Coaster and wasn’t yet an editor. Before moving to Victoria from Toronto in July 1992, I wrote articles for national magazines and reviewed screenplays for…
In May 1992, seven editors (Nancy Flight, Anne Norman, Claudette Reed Upton, Lois Richardson, John Ricker, Barbara Tomlin, and Yvonne Van Ruskenveld) drafted a letter of agreement and West Coast Editorial Associates (WCEA) was born. So this month we are…
In August 2016 I wrote about the Library of Congress in Washington, DC—a must-see for any language and literature buffs visiting the US capital. A January 25, 2017, Washington Post story reported that a new attraction for word lovers is…
Is anything more agreeable than a good bookstore? Partner, book lover, and history buff Lana Okerlund is digging into the past of British Columbia booksellers. Follow her findings on her new blog, agreeableplace.com.
As editors, we know the power of choosing the right words to get a message across to readers. As readers ourselves, we see how words can change people’s perceptions: are the thousands of people on the move “migrants”—or are they…
Recently, my book club read H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. We discussed the book for the entire evening, a sure indication of a good read. At one point, Margaret, a former English teacher, opened the book at random…
If you are an editor, you likely have an opinion about whether political correctness is a force for good or evil, and will have fought your own anti-bias battles against certain words and phrases. Sociologist BJ Gallagher contends that “While the original…
Delete, search, replace, revise, revise, revise—changes and corrections are so easy with our electronic tools. But what if your words were literally cast in stone and you wanted to change them? Cemeteries are sometimes called “gardens of stone” and the…
