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Feel free to forward this
issue to colleagues and friends!
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Fall 2025 Quarterly 🍁
Fall came in quickly this year, as if stumbling over the threshold, and, apart from still-green tomatoes on still-growing vines, there’s no denying it. Bright leaves and withered grapes are rendered mush underfoot, the gold-tinged sunlight shines lower and less often, raincoats and galoshes replace sun hats and sandals, and a hush of solace settles in.
In this issue of Northwest News Quarterly, we look both backward and forward: from a summer well spent to an autumn full of promise. Contents include:
- Photos from the our conference, picnic, and translation open mic night
- Guides to both the ATA66 and ALTA48 annual conferences (who’s who?!)
- NOTIS Interpreter Practice Groups: a re-introduction
- A post-NOTIS2025 “thank you” note (with still more photos)
- Upcoming events, exciting announcements, and more...
We hope you will enjoy our fall quarterly—and a cozy fall. |
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NOTIS in Pictures 📸
Want to propose an event in your area? Check out this often-overlooked membership perk—and let us know info@notisnet.org. |
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NOTIS 2025 Annual ITD Conference (pt. 1)
Keep scrolling! There are even more pictures below... Have conference pictures to share? It’s easy! Upload them directly (and view the shared gallery) at DropEvent.com/NOTIS2025... |
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Seven interpreters represent the Harborview Medical team at NOTIS 2025. |
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Devin Gilbert delivers his keynote: "Articulate Your Human Value..." |
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NOTIS members Michiko, Yuka, and Noriko flaunt their swag bags. |
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Board Member Tiva Aga (center) poses with colleagues Loan and Ala. |
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Attendees mill & mingle as their colleagues file in, collect materials, and enjoy some much needed pre-conference caffeine. |
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NOTIS Summer Picnic & Potluck in Tacoma 
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Charlie Wang prepares dumplings! |
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Good eats and great conversation :) |
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A Sketchnote by Jenni Salmi 🎨
Scenes from a NOTIS Book Discussion
In June, the Northwest Literary Translators* gathered for an online discussion of Language City, by Ross Perlin: a “love letter to [the vertical villages of] New York,” where a single building can be home to “entire cultures.” No screenshots were taken (that we know of), and no need! Here’s a recap of the event, as funneled through the comic-book fingers of “resident doodler” Jenni Salmi.
*Keep scrolling for more 📷 from our literary group |
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Jenni Salmi grew up noodling with writing before she could read, and learning English from NKOTB lyrics. It’s no surprise she eventually morphed into a translator (Finnish <> EN), editor, and life-long language learner. To pay more attention to the little things in life, Jenni started a comic journal during the pandemic. You can find more of her noodling and doodline on Instagram @ehtoota_amerikasta (as well as here, in our summer newsletter).
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NOTIS 2025 Endnotes
Thank you to all who showed up in person and behind the scenes to make this year’s conference an extraordinary success! 
First and foremost, we would like to thank our members! As a non-profit, member-driven T&I association, NOTIS wouldn’t be able to organize crucial events like this without your steady support. Your engagement and dedication to T&I are what keep us going — and growing stronger every year. |
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We’re overwhelmed with awe and gratitude for the remarkable presenters who took to the podium to share their insights and expertise about the past, present, and future of our professions. We cannot thank Keynote Speaker Dr. Devin Gilbert enough for making the trip (despite the odds) and wowing our attendees with 3 top-notch sessions. No notes!
To our other distinguished speakers — Zakiya Hanafi, Rainer Klett, Rachel E. Herring, Marian Schwartz, Dulce Bustamante, Andrew Belisle, Carlo Tanne, Wendy Call, and Cynthia E. Roat — THANK YOU. “Stellar” is insufficient praise when it comes to you lot. (...) |
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Keynote Speaker Devin Gilbert shares a laugh with NOTIS VP Christina Woelz. |
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Zakiya Hanafi makes a case for intercultural competency. |
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Cindy Roat outlines our revised Code of Ethics & Standards of Practice. |
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Marian Schwartz, who spoke to the politics of Russian translation, poses with NOTIS Board Member Kay Heikkinen. |
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Rachel Herring prepares to lead two skills training sessions on note-taking for consecutive dialogue. |
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Andrew Belisle shares strategies for creating and sustaining effective interpreter practice groups. |
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SOSi: NOTIS 2025 Gold Sponsors |
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Interpreters United, WFSE/AFSCME Council 28 Local 1671: Diamond 💎 |
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Universal Language Service (ULS): Diamond 💎 |
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Seattle Central College Continuing Education: Silver |
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Oregon Society of Translators & Interpreters: Collaborative |
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Finally, this marketing specialist  would be remiss not to shine a light on the tireless efforts of: 1) the all-volunteer NOTIS 2025 Conference Planning Committee: Christina Woelz, Maria Lucas, Yvonne Simpson, Laura Friend, Norma Kaminsky, and Eunyoung Kim; 2) our rock(star) of an office manager, Naomi Uchida; and 3) our in-conference volunteers. These conferences are a Herculean effort, and you are this year’s heroes.
At last, but never least, our eternal gratitude goes out to our parent organization: the American Translators Association (ATA).
Thanks again! We’d be utterly adrift without you — all of you. ⚓️ ☐ |
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Sponsored content from Moli, a valued gold-level supporter of the NOTIS 2024 Annual Conference! Moli is an innovative platform that streamlines scheduling and management of interpreter services for courts, ensuring efficient and transparent connections between interpreters and legal institutions. |
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Level Up with NOTIS Interpreter Practice Groups 🚀
NOTIS practice groups are a new member benefit offering the interpreters in our community a practical, peer-led way to build skills, prepare for exams, and stay sharp in their craft. These small groups (typically 2–4 members) choose their own focus—whether that’s court or medical exam prep, consecutive or simultaneous practice, terminology work, or language-neutral skills like note-taking, delivery, or memory. |
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Participants are given access to shared practice materials, feedback templates, practice logs, and a NOTIS Zoom account for sessions over 40 minutes. The groups are self-organized, and members are encouraged to team up with colleagues who share similar goals or certification pathways.
For more information, visit our dedicated webpage at NOTISnet.org/Interpreter-Practice-Groups. Sincerely,
Andrew Belisle
NOTIS Practice Group Liaison
notispracticegroups@gmail.com |
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NW Linguists at the Podium 🧑🏫 Support your colleagues at ATA 66 & ALTA 48 Distance be darned 🙃, NOTIS will be well represented at this year’s ATA and ALTA conferences! For those of you who are attending one (or both) of these events, we cobbled together a handy guide to help you locate your colleagues’ sessions, show your support for their hard work, and gain valuable insights from their experience. Enjoy! |
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The 66th Annual ATA Conference
October 22–25 in Boston, Massachusetts FULL AGENDA | PRESENTER INFO
Academia Meets Real World: Collaborations between Interpreters and Translators in Classroom Settings (Panel) • 10/24 at 4:15 pm
Diana Arbiser – NOTIS member; staff interpreter at the OR Office of the Federal Public Defender
Court Interpreter Ethics for 200!: The Game of Professional Responsibility • 10/23 at 1:30 p.m. — AND —
Teaching the Next Generation of Language Professionals • 10/25 at 10:30
Yasmin Alkashef – ATA board member; NOTIS 2o24 Conference speaker
3 Paths to Publishing Professional Literary Translations • 10/25 at 1:30 p.m.
Shelley Fairweather-Vega – past NOTIS president; founder + lead of the Northwest Literary Translators (part of the NOTIS Translation Division)
Combining Regular Expressions and AI to Solve Tricky CAT Tool Problems • 10/25 at 4:15 p.m. Jamie Lucero – past NOTIS board member; owner of Morning Star Translations; Seattle Central translation instructor
Practical Strategies for Improving Consecutive Interpreting • 10/23 at 4:15
Corinne McKay – past ATA president; NOTIS 2024 keynote speaker
Mastering Marketing: Strategies for Educators, Trainers, and Course Creators • 10/25 at 10:30
Marisa Rueda Will – frequent NOTIS presenter; owner of Tica Interpreter Training and Translations
AFTI - For Our Past and Future • 10/25 at 4:15 p.m.
Caitilin Walsh – past president of both NOTIS and ATA; chair of the American Foundation for Translation & Interpretation (AFTI); Bellevue College T&I instructor |
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The 48th Annual ALTA Conference Nov. 5–8, Tucson, AZ |
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Big news 🥳 ALTA’s 2026 conference will take place in Portland, OR! |
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Panel Activity
When Reinvention Becomes Necessity (panelist) • 11/06 at 9, with moderator Samantha Schnee (founding editor, Words Without Borders)
Deborah Woodard – Creative writing instructor at Hugo House, Seattle
Seeing Double: Translating Multilingual Sources (moderator) • 11/07 at 9, with Wendy Call* and more — AND —
Institutional Support: Collaboration Makes a Patchwork Quilt (panelist) • 11/08 at 10:45, with Gabriella Page-Fort* as moderator
Sasha Senderovich – UW Professor of Slavic, International, and Jewish Studies; co-lead of the UW Translation Studies Hub
Institutional Support: Collaboration Makes...* (moderator)
Gabriella Page-Fort – Exec. editor at HarperOne Group; board member of ALTA and the Association for American Poets (AAP)
Seeing Double: Translating Multilingual Sources...* (panelist)
Wendy Call – repeat NOTIS presenter and workshop leader
Envisioning the Perfect Contract: What to Know & Where to Learn More (panelist) • 11/08 at 10:45 — AND —
Eurasia in Translation: Shifting Canons, Shaping Contexts (panelist) • 11/08 at 3:45 p.m.
Shelley Fairweather-Vega – past president of NOTIS; founder of NWLitTrans; lead administrator of the ATA Literary Division
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Bilingual Readings
Northwest Literary Translator Nancy Jean Ross will read from her SP-EN translation of Rosario Castellanos’s Letters to Ricardo in the Bilingual Reading: Café Latino (11/07 at 2:00 p.m.)
NOTIS 2025 Conference presenter and past ALTA President Marian Schwartz will read excerpts from Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s Kidnapped, translated from Russian, in the Bilingual Reading: Slavic Languages (11/07 at 2:00 p.m.).
NW Literary Translator and early UW Translation organizer Katie King will read from her SP-EN translation of Marta Sanz’s My Clavicle: And Other Massive Misalignments in the Bilingual Reading Series: Romance Languages (11/08, 3:45 p.m.). ☐
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Sponsored content from Universal Language Service (ULS), a valued diamond-level sponsor of the NOTIS 2025 Annual Conference!
ULS is actively recruiting spoken and signed language interpreters. Learn more here or contact them by email at interpreter@ulsonline.net. |
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More NOTIS Sightings 👀
Translation in the Spotlight: Open Mic Night! Northwest Literary Translators — Arwen Dewey, Priscilla Schulz and Xialin Ding, Lola Rogers, Yasemin Alptekin, Jeff Kahrs, Deborah Woodard, Shelley Fairweather-Vega, Tim Gregory, and Kay Heikkinen (not pictured) — gathered at Folio to share excerpts from their work in translation. The texts were nearly as diverse as the languages from which they hailed... with a stimulating blend of verse, narrative, young adult lit., and more from the original French, Mandarin, Turkish, Italian, Arabic, and so on! |
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They’re Finalists!! NOTIS’s own Shelley Fairweather-Vega — together with Uzbek author Hamid Ismailov — made it onto the National Book Award Shortlist for their latest brilliant ✨ collaboration: “We Computers: A Ghazal Novel.” Hats off! Recommended reading: |
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Shelley Fairweather-Vega is joined by Aria Fani at the Book Launch for We Computers: A Ghazal Novel, on August 20 at the Elliott Bay Book Co. |
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Stay Tuned to the Blog 🎶 Next up on the NW Linguist Blog: a long-form, multimedia article on the joys and challenges of translating verse by Vancouver, WA-based translator David Houston-Hill. Coming next week! |
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To learn more about our upcoming events, visit our main website calendar. Interested in our on-demand offerings? Click here!
Have a great idea for a presentation, workshop, or social gathering? NOTIS wants to help! Click here to learn more and get started today... |
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Also of Note... ✍️️
Have something to share? A call for submissions, papers, or proposals? A recent publication? An upcoming event, volunteer opportunity, or scholarship? Email our publications director at social@notisnet.org. - Congratulations to NOTIS Board Member Kay Heikkinen on her latest published translation, available now for purchase from Simon & Schuster: The Gates of Paradise, by Taleb Arefai.
- Apply before Nov. 2! Seattle City of Literature is accepting “microgrant” applications from Seattle-area writers, translators, and literary and arts organizations working on international projects. Details at seattlecityoflit.org/microgrants.
- Now through November 3: The California Healthcare Interpreting Association (CHIA) is accepting presentation proposals for their spring 2026 conference. Click here to learn more and submit your proposal.
- The Latino Bar Association of Washington (LBAW) and El Centro de la Raza need intake and interpreting (SP-EN) volunteers for their Free Legal Clinic on January 14, 2026. Info and sign-up sheet here.
And Others’ Events: |
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About Our Publications ️📰
Each year, in addition to regular blog posts, NOTIS publishes four quarterly newsletters. The principal objective of our publications is to inform, educate, and entertain.
The 2025 editorial team is led by Brianna Salinas, NOTIS Marketing and Communications Specialist, as editor-in-chief. Her trusty advisors and co-editors are Kay Heikkinen and Zakiya Hanafi.
Letters to the editor, short translations or articles, anecdotes, images, calendar items, and other announcements are both welcome and encouraged! For more information, please see our call for submissions.
To submit content, or for any other inquiries, please contact our team at social@notisnet.org. ☐ |
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THANK YOU for reading
the Fall 2025 issue of
NW News Quarterly! 🍄 |
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