Gael Spivak joins us on Feb. 7 for the 60th episode of That Word Chat with Editor Mark Allen. Spivak is a senior writer and editor at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and a key figure on the working group that is writing the ISO plain language standard.

She chairs the international committee that is helping countries to translate, localize and adopt the standard once it is published, likely this spring. We’ll talk about what we can expect to see from the International Organization for Standardization and what the effect this will be on writing an editing.

Spivak was on the board of directors for the Editors’ Association of Canada for 10 years, which included time as the association’s president. She was also the co-chair of the first international editing conference (and was well into planning the second one when the pandemic struck). She is also a moderator in several international communities of practice for editors. 

Spivak said she adores squirrels and rescues orphaned baby squirrels. She also has a weakness for tiny books and stationery, and she is known for her large collection of articles on the history and use of the singular they in English.

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Sign up below for the Zoom link to the live show, then join us at 4:30 p.m. ET (21:30 UTC) on Tuesday, Feb. 7.