KWG Twig News — April 2026

2025-2026, In-person, Networking, News, Professional Development, Social Event, Writers' Festival

Hello Editors!

This this month on our regular fourth Wednesday of the month, we have an in-person gathering planned in Waterloo.

When: Wed., April 22

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Where: Browns Socialhouse, 255 Northfield Dr E, Waterloo, ON N2K 0G5

All are welcome, whether you’re a new member, a longtime member who hasn’t ventured out recently or a seasoned local twig event attendee.

It’s not required to RSVP but if you know you’re coming, it can help us plan for numbers if you do. This said, don’t be shy to show up if you haven’t said so in advance. We’ve chosen a venue with space to be able to accommodate numbers in flux.

If you can’t make it but would still like to catch up or just say hi, please feel free to drop a line.

Item 1: March gathering musings

Last month we had a good turnout of people meeting online to talk about editing habits. Some people shared hopes for what they want to explore with professional development, additional education or networking. A shoutout to thoughtful and resourceful sharing from people in the meeting in addition to another member who was happy to answer specific questions after the meeting about the program at Simon Fraser University.

Item 2: Online coworking

One interesting idea that someone mentioned at the March meeting was joining others for online workspaces.

The weekly Editors’ Coworking Space, hosted by Calgary Editors on Mondays at 12:30, is open to members. You can find more info at the Editors Canada events calendar. A bit about it: “Start your week with a positive push from your fellow editors with this 90-minute work sprint. You can use this space to set priorities for the week, cross administrative tasks off your list or jump into editing or other work.” You have to email the Calgary twig for a link.

Item 3: GritLit in Hamilton

Editors Hamilton-Halton is a sponsor of gritLIT, Hamilton’s literary festival and here’s what the twig shares about its involvement: “This year we are hosting the audience hospitality lounge during the festivities. On Saturday April 18 and Sunday April 19, our volunteers will also be conducting in-person Blue Pencil editing sessions as part of the events. Sure to be fun! We’d can’t wait to connect with members, students, and writers at the festival.”

Let us know where you’re at!

As a reminder, we’re always happy to toot your horn! Let us know what you’ve been up to, or up-coming events you have on your calendar we should celebrate/promote or what you’d like to see at our local level.

And we also maintain on our website profiles of our editors, to help clients find you. If you want to be listed (or want to update your listing), let us know!

Finally, if you have a local space in mind where you think the twig might enjoy meeting, please reach us with suggestions.

KWG Twig News — March 2026

2025-2026, Annual Conference, Networking, News, Social Event

Hello Editors! We hope you’re enjoying the longer days as March unfolds.

Apologies for the delayed posting of this March news to this site. It was sent to members earlier via email.

This month, given our alternating format of in-person and virtual gatherings on the fourth Wednesday of the month, we have a virtual teach-in meeting on March 25 at 6:30 p.m.

Members and non-members alike are welcome to join us for the in-person socializing; online meetings are limited to registered members of Editors Canada. If you’re a member and missed the email, please reach out for the link.

Jola will be traveling, and Susannah (writing this) will host the meeting. Inspired by spring reminders of life being constantly in flux, and how much we gain from hearing from each other, I invite you to come prepared to talk about key points related to this theme:

A Day in the Life of an Editor: As editors, whether we’re beginning to build our editing skills, practice or business, or are more seasoned professionals, each of us faces daily choices around the best ways to use our time and build our schedules to meet professional aims or duties and weave a life. In the mix at any given time might be long-term and short-term work goals, as well as balancing community, family or caregiving needs and commitments. All of these are important for sustenance now and into the future.

Some questions to consider to prompt sharing: From workspace to daily routines, what habits do you rely on as an editor? Are they serving you well right now? What’s working well that might inspire others, or where might you see room to grow? Do you have any small potential tweaks you’d like to add to your daily routines that you think could yield effective changes for your work or your work-life balance? If so, what would you need to implement them? What have you learned from others (editors or not) that’s made a qualitative difference for you?

I hope to see you there!

Other news / notes

Item 1

If you haven’t yet, check out the Editors Canada Career Development Hub. A recent blog post on the Editors Canada website discusses the launch of the Hub, “a user-friendly webpage for members that collects career-building resources for all types of editors, in all industries and at all stages, whether student affiliate or advanced.”

Item 2

Reminder: The national Editors Canada 2026 conference, with the theme Editing in the Age of Misinformation, is happening May 21 – 23 at Dalhousie University in Halifax:

Home | 2026 Conference: Editing in the Age of Misinformation

Finally, at our last meeting, we had nine people out at a Guelph café, and it was great to hear from some others who checked in before. If you have specific ideas of events or ways of gathering you’d like to see in next months before summer, please reach us.

If you can’t make it out to the virtual meeting, and you’d still like to connect, please reach out to say hello, book a chat or ask questions.

Remember to check your email for information on upcoming events! We hold regular events on the 4th Wednesday of the month. If you have any questions, comments, or announcements, please email kwg@editors.ca.

KWG Twig News — February 2026

2025-2026, Annual Conference, In-person, Networking, News, Social Event

Days are starting to get a little longer, it’s the month of hearts – and I hope you are keeping warm through our long winter.

Social Get Together

Date:	Wednesday, February 25, 2026
Time:	6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Location:	Williams Cafe 492 Edinburgh Rd S. Guelph (Please note another location of Williams exists in a mall; we’re going to the standalone one at the noted address There is plenty of parking.

For members who may be new – or who could use reminders to help plan ahead – this upcoming gathering follows our Editors Canada Twig local format of alternating in-person and online meetings on the fourth Wednesday of the month. Members and non-members alike are welcome to join us for the in-person socializing; online meetings are limited to registered members of Editors Canada.

If you wish to eat dinner out, you can do that at Williams. If you prefer to eat at home, please feel welcome to do that instead and join us just for the company.

Whether you are a seasoned attendee of events with our Twig, or this could be your first gathering, I hope as you are able, you feel welcome to come say hello and share some time together. This is an informal space to get to know one another and share updates and questions around editing life.

If you can’t make it out and you’d still like to connect to debrief your editing month, if you have any questions or if you just like to talk to a human being before venturing to new places, please reach out to say hello or book a chat.

Item 1

Registration for the national Editors Canada 2026 conference, with the theme Editing in the Age of Misinformation, is now open. It’s happening May 21 – 23 at Dalhousie University in Halifax:

Home | 2026 Conference: Editing in the Age of Misinformation

Item 2:

Please check out upcoming webinars at the Editors Canada website.

At our last meeting, our online teach-in heard some fascinating sharing about some of people’s most useful editing tools, hacks or approaches, as well as their hopes for 2026. We heard about everything from billing practices to keyboarding macros and fiction style guides, and about how people are drawing on their diverse expertise and life experiences to build their editing life.

At a cross-Canada Editors chairs online meeting, Jolanta heard from local Twig chairs from Calgary, Toronto, Quebec, Hamilton-Halton, as well as with the director of branches and twigs, Nathan Nathan Wilkinson, and Suzanne Aubin, director of member recruitment and retention.

In March, we’ll meet again online – please stay tuned for meeting details and a link early that month.

KWG Twig News — January 2026

2025-2026, Digital Meet-up, Editors Canada members only, Networking, News, Plain Language, Professional Development, Social Event, Study Group

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has by now managed to dig themselves out from under the snow. This month, we have a virtual meeting coming up on January 28.

In the spirit of New Year’s Resolutions and the annual commitment among editors to learn that One Thing that’s been nagging at us, our meeting will be something of a teach-in. We invite everyone to come prepared to talk about one or two things that they find essential to their editing work, why they’re indispensable, and be prepared to describe how they work.

For example, maybe you have a go-to macro that you love (such as my macro that toggles the case for the first letter of a word — very handy when I’m editing references where authors are constantly getting title case wrong), or you are a wiz with PerfectIt, TextExpander, a time tracking method, or even just a trusty pen and notepad.

Whatever it is, we want to hear about it! Think of this as an opportunity both to help fellow editors and to learn about new methods that are worth trying in your own work routine.

At our last meeting, in November 2025, we discussed Accessibility Standards Canada’s new plain language standards.

https://www.canada.ca/en/accessibility-standards-canada/news/2025/10/accessibility-standards-canada-publishes-canadas-first-plain-language-standard.html

As a bit of a follow-up on that, we have two items:

Item 1

SFU has a certificate in plain language and there’s an information session this Thursday, January 8, for anyone interested.

From SFU: Expand your communication career by specializing in the growing area of plain language. To explore the expert training offered in our Plain Language Certificate program, you’re invited to join us for our program info session in January. Save the date:

Plain Language Certificate Online Info Session
Thur, Jan 8
12 p.m. PST online

RSVP

During the info session, we’ll share the benefits of our flexible online program for your communication career. You’ll also meet instructor Julie Clement, a former law professor with over 25 years’ experience teaching legal writing using plain language principles.

Item 2

As a corollary on plain language material, Jean Markovich has kindly shared some information on digital accessibility and decolonizing editing that are likely to be of interest. Thanks, Jean!

Digital Accessibility

Webinar with Mike Johnson and Jane Friedman. I watched this one with Editors Calgary in November. While this webinar is targeted toward writers, it is invaluable for editors to be aware of the tools, rules, and cools of digital accessibility.

How do you check if the manuscript you are working on is formatted properly for alt text? How do you know if the margins and spacing will be optimal? What are the various print concerns that readers face? Accessibility expert, Mike Johnson, explains it all.

You can access the webinar on Jane’s YouTube channel.

Decolonizing Editing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cptsSIivZ7U

January Virtual Meeting and Teach-In

Date:	Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Time:	6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Please get in touch to request the Zoom link.

KWG Twig News — November 2025

2025-2026, Digital Meet-up, Editors Canada members only, Networking, News, Plain Language, Professional Development, Social Event, Study Group

Hello, everyone!

In October we met up for dinner, then did a walking tour of three home offices in the Central Frederick neighbourhood. We had a great turn-out: 11 people! Conversation during the office tour covered everything from the use of space heaters to keep our feet warm and mug warmers to keep our tea warm, different types of tech and monitor set ups, book arrangements, chairs and desks, software preferences, negotiating with others in the household over space, and workflow processes. Plus, there was lots of marveling over decor choices. Thank you to our editors who were gracious enough to open up their homes for us to gawk and gab!

We have been getting lists of books from people that they’re willing to loan out to fellow Twig members. We’ll be working on putting the list up on our website over the course of November.

For our November meeting, we thought it be good to discuss Accessibility Standards Canada’s new plain language standards.

“Accessibility Standards Canada is pleased to announce the publication of the CAN-ASC-3.1:2025 Plain Language standard. This equity-based standard is the first National Standard of Canada on plain language. The release coincides with International Plain Language Day, marking a milestone in advancing accessibility in Canada.”

You can find the standard here:

https://www.canada.ca/en/accessibility-standards-canada/news/2025/10/accessibility-standards-canada-publishes-canadas-first-plain-language-standard.html

We also will save some time to discuss the book lending program and field questions and suggestions about how it will work, as well as our usual social chit-chat.

As a reminder, we’re always happy to toot your horn! Let us know what you’ve been up to, or up-coming events you have on your calendar we should celebrate/promote. And we also maintain on our website profiles of our editors, to help clients find you. If you want to be listed (or want to update your listing), let us know!

One of our members has two books they’re looking to give away:

Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed.
Concise Oxford Dictionary

If you’re interested in either of these, please let us know and we’ll put you in touch with the member.

News from Other Twigs and National

Editors Calgary is inviting interested members from all Branches and Twigs to attend their Q&A session about a new pilot program that will launch in January. Here’s the information:

Group Mastermind Program Q&A

Tuesday, November 18 | 2:30–3:30 MT | Free

Editors Calgary is pleased to support a unique and innovative group mastermind program that blends mentorship, peer learning, and hands-on practice. The masterminds are designed to make tangible improvements to your editing practice, to answer the perennial questions of “am I doing this right?” and “is there a better way to do this?” You will come away with improved competence and confidence, regardless of whether you are a new editor or seasoned veteran.

Prior to opening registration, we’re hosting a live Q&A session with the facilitators. They will explain how they developed this program, outline the plan for each cohort, and answer questions from attendees.

Program Components

Five 90-minute small-group masterminds, run roughly biweekly, facilitated by experienced editors:
- Nonfiction (Karen Crosby): Nonfiction book manuscripts, large document workflow, checklists.
- Corporate content (Lori Burwash): Reports, marketing materials, websites, project workflows, proofreading, checklists.
- Fiction (Brenna Bailey-Davies): Novels, short stories, genre conventions, publishing processes.
Three 60-minute all-group panels on three of the off weeks:
- Running Your Business
- Author–Editor Relationship and the Art of the Query
- Editor’s Toolkit
A private community to share ideas and feedback.

Program Timeline

November 18: Q&A session, registration opens
January: Private community opens
Week of January 12: First mastermind session
Week of January 26: Second mastermind session
Week of February 2: First all-group panel
Week of February 9: Third mastermind session
Week of February 23: Second all-group panel
Week of March 2: Fourth mastermind session
Week of March 16: Fifth mastermind session
Week of March 30: Third all-group panel and wrap-up

We’ve provided more information on the Q&A registration page, but we know that you will likely have many questions to ask the facilitators. If you cannot attend the Q&A live, please register to receive a recording of the session.

https://mailchi.mp/409fffa24b65/0hkrhsor6h

November Virtual Meeting

Join us for dinner at a local Kitchener restaurant before we take a tour of some of our home offices and chat about what it takes to work from home.

Please RSVP by Sunday, October 19, if you’d like to join us so we can confirm the reservation with the restaurant.

Date:	Wednesday, November 26, 2025
Time:	6:30 – 8:30 pm
Location:	Zoom See email for Zoom link

KWG Twig News — October 2025

2025-2026, 2025-2026, In-person, Networking, News, Professional Development, Social Event

Hello, everyone!

It’s October already, and I’m still not quite ready for it. We had a lovely Zoom meeting on September 24th. Nine of us turned up and shared aspects of professional development we’d engaged in over the past year. There was a six-week course on line editing, focused on how to line edit in various genres (I think everyone made a note to check this one out); an EC course on structural editing; a recommendation for Gwen Hayes’ Romancing the Beat (aka How to Write Kissing Books); and general conversation around course work, finding work, and conferences.

This month, we’ll be meeting in person. We’ll start with our standard dinner get-together, this time at Palm Valley Indian Cuisine in Kitchener. After dinner, we’ll do a bit of a walking tour of some of our home offices (three of us live just up the street from the restaurant). There will be light refreshments at each stop on the walking tour and we’re hoping this bit of show-and-tell will spark some interesting discussions about working from home.

We’re still working on our November plans, but it will be a Zoom meeting with a guest speaker.

News from Other Twigs and National

Jenny O’Reilly of the Hamilton-Halton twig is inviting everyone to join them on October 14 for a virtual meeting. They will have Stephanie Watterson as a speaker. Stephanie is an editor and author from B.C., and she’ll be discussing how to help authors who are in need of editorial services, but have limited resources.

October 14, 7pm ET (4pm PT)
Hamilton-Halton twig virtual meeting
“Editing for Low-Income Authors” with Stephanie Watterson
Contact hamilton-halton@editors.ca for information on how to join.

In case you missed the latest news from EC, here’s a quick round-up:

There’s still time to register for the 2025 professional certification exams
The webinar line-up is out! There are quite a few on the list that I’m making note of. Building off our conversation on the 24th, some of you may find the Finding Work Roundtable useful, as well as Strategic Pricing in the Changing Market.
The Academic Editing group has a video recording from their September book club
Members can get a 25% discount to JSTOR

October Dinner and Office Tour

Join us for dinner at a local Kitchener restaurant before we take a tour of some of our home offices and chat about what it takes to work from home.

Please RSVP by Sunday, October 19, if you’d like to join us so we can confirm the reservation with the restaurant.

Date:	Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Time:	6:30 – 8:30 pm
Location:	Palm Valley Indian Cuisine Frederick Mall 385 Frederick St #34 Kitchener There is parking in the mall parking lot.

KWG Twig News — September 2025

2025-2026, 2025-2026, Digital Meet-up, News, Professional Development, Social Event

Hello, everyone!

I hope everyone had a lovely summer and the first stirrings of fall are treating you all well. Susannah, our new co-chair, and I have been meeting and thinking about what kinds of activities we’d like to organize for the Twig this year, and as always we’re happy to hear suggestions from all of you!

Our next meeting will be on September 24, from 6:30-8:30, on Zoom. Since it’s back-to-school season, we thought we’d do something of a show-and-tell for our first meeting back: Come prepared to talk about some aspect of professional development you did in the past year. Did you read a book about editing? Attend a webinar or conference? Give a talk? Engage in a quarterly review of your business? Rearrange your office space? Let us know! Did you find the PD useful? Would you recommend that particular activity to the rest of us, or would it be best to warn us away from it? Please get in touch at kwg@editors.ca if you’d like more info.

Looking forward to October, we propose doing something a little different from our standard dinner outings. We’ll begin with dinner at Palm Valley Indian Cuisine in Kitchener, then proceed on a tour of the office spaces of some of us who live in the Central Frederick neighbourhood of Kitchener (right up the street from the restaurant). Participating editors will supply refreshments at their homes and we’re hoping this bit of show-and-tell will spark some interesting discussions about working from home.

September Virtual Chat

Date:	Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Time:	6:30 – 8:30 pm
Location:	Zoom (link will be sent via email)

KWG Twig News — May 2025

2024-2025, Digital Meet-up, In-person, Networking, News, Professional Development, Social Event, Uncategorized

Twig News

Hello, everyone!

April was a quiet month, except at the very end when seven us got together for dinner in Guelph, followed by bubble tea. This month we’ll have a bit more going on, with a coffee meetup mid-way through the month and a learning session and get-together over Zoom at the end of the month.

This month, we’re excited to have Melanie Taddeo speaking to us about accessibility in editing. If you have any questions that you’d like to see addressed in the presentation, or are curious about a particular aspect of accessibility in editing, please email your questions to kwg@editors.ca and we will pass them along to her. Please try to send your questions no later than May 19 so Melanie has time to prepare.

We’ve been seeing an up-tick in writers emailing us for services, which is great! If you’d like to have your editing profile listed on our Directory of Editors on our website, https://kwgeditorscanada.wordpress.com/, contact us at kwg@editors.ca.

We are still looking for someone willing to help out being co-chair alongside Jola. If you’re interested or know someone who might be a good fit, email kwg@editors.ca.

New Initiative

Many of us are freelancers with tight budgets, or in-house editors with tight budgets. Which is all to say that having the extra cash for books is not always possible. What if we pooled our resources? Not in the sense of buying, but in the sense of a community lending program. If you’d be interested in loaning out your editing resources (the new CMOS 18, Garner’s Modern English Usage, or anything else), let us know! Over the next few months, we’ll compile the list of books people are willing to share. This way, if anyone is in need of a particular resource, they can reach out and we’ll put the would-be borrower in touch with the appropriate people who have that book. The two can then negotiate the pick-up/drop-off and length of the loan. We’ll host the list of books on our website so people know what’s available.

As we all know, books have a way of bringing people together. You’ll get to know more of your fellow editors and read some great books in the process!

May Coffee Meet-Up

This month we will be in Kitchener. Warm up with your favourite coffee-shop brew, enjoy some lovely pastries, and join us for a morning chat!

Date:	Saturday, May 17, 2025
Time:	10 am – 12 pm
Location:	Aura-La Pastries + Provisions 324 Frederick St., Kitchener Free parking on side streets.

May Learning Session and Chat

Date:	Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Time:	6:30 – 8:30 pm
Location:	Zoom Link will be sent to members via email.

Remember to check your email for information on upcoming events! If you have any questions, comments, or announcements, please email kwg@editors.ca.

KWG Twig News — April 2025

2024-2025, Book Club, Digital Meet-up, In-person, Networking, News, Professional Development, Social Event, Uncategorized

Twig News

I think I spoke too soon when I welcomed us to spring at the beginning of March! I hope everyone is staying as dry as possible in this slush.

In March we had a cozy coffee meet-up and an engaging book club discussion about our various freelancing practices during our virtual meeting.

This month, we’ll continue with our in-person socializing at our dinner event in Guelph.

We’re still looking for volunteers for a new co-chair for the Twig. If you’re interested or know someone who might be a good fit, email kwg@editors.ca.

Members Spotlight

Laura Bontje is celebrating the release of her new picture book, When the Air Sang (Annick Press), called “marvellous” and “magical” by Dr. David Suzuki. Join Laura and illustrator Sarah Whang on Saturday, April 12, from 2:30-3:30 pm for a book launch at Sound in Motion Studio in London, Ontario.

Catie Phares delivered a webinar for Editors Canada in March: “AI for Editors: Friend, Foe, or Flunky?” It’s now available as a recording. It was a follow-up to an earlier webinar Catie did for Editors Canada in October that was also on AI, The Future of Editing: Leaning into What AI Can’t Do.

On April 7, Jolanta Komornicka’s course on back-of-book indexing is starting at Library Juice Academy. It’s a six-week asynchronous course designed to prepare you for working as an indexer.

April Dinner Social

This month we will be in Guelph.

Date:	Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Time:	6:30-8:30pm
Location:	Shakespeare Arms 35 Harvard Rd Guelph, ON N1 G 2X9 Parking lot in front. Reservation under “Lloyd.”

Remember to check your email for information on upcoming events! If you have any questions, comments, or announcements, please email kwg@editors.ca.

KWG Twig News — March 2025

2024-2025, Book Club, Digital Meet-up, In-person, Networking, News, Professional Development, Social Event, Uncategorized

Twig News

Welcome to Spring!

In February we got our coffee meetups back up and running, which we’ll be continuing this month, and we met for a lively dinner in Cambridge.

This month, we’ll have our coffee meetup for some in-person socialization. Our Zoom meeting will be a book club discussion (first hour) of Erin Brenner’s The Chicago Guide to Freelance Editors, followed by a more free-ranging conversation. You can purchase the book here or through your local bookstore, or find it at your library.

As the warmer months begin to creep up on us, so too does the end of Lloyd’s term as co-chair. This means that we are now beginning to look for someone to help Jola out as co-chair of the Twig. If you’re interested or know someone who might be a good fit, email kwg@editors.ca.

March Coffee Meet-Up

This month we will be in Waterloo. Warm up with your favourite coffee-shop brew, enjoy some lovely pastries, and join us for a morning chat!

Date:	Saturday, March 22, 2025
Time:	10 a.m. — 12 p.m.
Location:	Covenant Cafe 355 Erb St. W Waterloo, ON N2L 1W4 Parking lot in front

March Book Club

Date:	Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Time:	6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Location:	Zoom Email kwg@editors.ca for link

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