FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Toronto, May 25, 2026—Letitia Henville of Montreal, Quebec, is the winner of the 2026 Karen Virag Award, presented by the Editors’ Association of Canada (Editors Canada). This award, which comes with a $400 prize, recognizes exceptional efforts by an individual or organization to raise the profile of editing in their community. The award was presented at the banquet of the Editors Canada conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Friday, May 22, 2026.
An innovative force in academia, Letitia Henville is helping to transform how scholars approach communication. Through a combination of education, mentorship, community building, advocacy, and developing accessible, research-informed resources, she is a strong advocate for the importance of professional editing in the field.
Letitia has been an active member of Editors Canada since 2017 and has consistently demonstrated leadership and excellence. Her achievements include receiving the association’s Claudette Upton Scholarship in 2018 and two President’s Awards for Volunteer Service in 2020 and 2025. In 2022, she co-founded the Academic Editing Special Interest Group, a joint venture of Editors Canada and the Editorial Freelancers Association, which has since grown into a thriving global community of more than 1,100 members. Through her work co-chairing the group’s book club and advocacy committee, serving on its executive, and launching the grant editing community of practice, Letitia has helped shape meaningful spaces for professional connection and growth.
A prolific writer and educator, she has been published widely on editing in Inside Higher Ed, The Editors’ Weekly and University Affairs, where her monthly column, “Ask Dr. Editor,” has earned multiple Canadian Online Publishing Awards for Best Business Column. In the column, she shares practical, actionable advice, including writing tips and templates, and spotlights other editors. “This combination of practical rigour and professional generosity is a defining feature of her work,” said one of her nominators.
Through her newsletter, The Shortlist, she offers practical, research-informed advice to more than 2,000 subscribers each month.
Letitia’s commitment to inclusion is evident in her creation of writingwellishard.com, a free resource supporting diverse and high-quality academic writing. The site drew over 72,500 visits in 2025 alone. She has interviewed over 150 peer reviewers to create four PDFs that share the unwritten rules and expectations of the major federal research grants, and has created multiple templates, include 12 for the new Tri-Agency narrative CV (6 in English, 6 in French) for researchers across career stages and disciplines.
“In our time working together at UBC, she consistently demonstrated an ability to translate complex processes around grants and project development into clear, practical guidance for graduate students and faculty alike,” said another supporter of Letitia’s nomination. “Her approach is grounded not only in editorial excellence but also in equity: she is deeply committed to demystifying academic systems that often feel opaque or exclusionary.”
As a volunteer, educator and mentor, Letitia Henville exemplifies the spirit of the Karen Virag Award. Her work advances the profession and also makes it more visible, inclusive and high impact.
One of her nominators summarized Letitia’s contribution to the editing profession as follows: “What strikes me most about Letitia is that she puts into practice the idea that a rising tide lifts all boats. She is genuinely invested in community building and capacity building among editors. Letitia consistently works to strengthen our professional community and demonstrate the value of what we do. She also brings warmth and joy to this work—she’s fun to collaborate with, which makes the important work of community-building all the more sustainable and rewarding.”
* * *
Three respected Canadian editors made up the selection committee for the 2026 Karen Virag Award.
Adrienne Montgomerie is an award-winning certified copyeditor. Find Adrienne teaching editing at a handful of Canadian universities or online as SciEditor. They’ve written more than 900 blog posts aimed at helping other editors, and a few dozen to help clients. You’ll find them quoted in or contributing to many of the guides to the editing profession.
Marie-Christine Payette is a freelance translator and editor. She started her own business in 2011 and offers French editing and proofreading, comparative editing (English and French) as well as English to French translation. She specializes in education (curriculum, educational material), children’s literature, medical (surveys, research reports, consent forms, patient education materials), academic journals, and texts for museums and outdoor exhibitions (e.g., exhibit panels and labels, interpretive materials for public art and monuments). She received the Editors’ Canada President’s Award for Volunteer Service in 2018 and in 2021.
Gael Spivak is a plain language writer and editor. She volunteers with the International Plain Language Federation, where she chairs the localization and implementation committee. The committee is focused on promoting the ISO plain language standard and helping countries around the world to translate, localize, adopt and implement the standard. She was on the Editors Canada’s board of directors for 10 years, including being the association’s president. She has won several of the association’s awards, including the President’s Award for Volunteer Service, the Lee d’Anjou Volunteer of the Year Award and the Karen Virag Award
– 30 –
About Karen Virag
Karen Virag, a long-time member of Editors Canada’s Prairie Provinces branch, was the association’s director of publications from 2012 to 2013. In addition to co-chairing the association’s successful 2008 national conference in Edmonton and managing the production of Stylistic Editing: Meeting Professional Editorial Standards (2011), she represented Editors Canada for several years on the board of the Cultural Human Resources Council (CHRC). Virag was supervising editor at the Alberta Teachers’ Association, and a freelance editor and writer. She regularly wrote book reviews for the Edmonton Journal and articles for The Tomato, a culinary magazine. She also volunteered for Arts on the Avenue, an Edmonton community initiative, and along with Virginia Durksen was well known as one of the Grammar Gals appearing regularly on Alberta at Noon, a CBC Radio One call-in program.
About Editors Canada
Editors Canada began in 1979 as the Freelance Editors’ Association of Canada to promote and maintain high standards of editing. In 1994, the word “Freelance” was dropped to reflect the association’s expanding focus to serve both freelance and in-house editors. As Canada’s only national editorial association, it is the hub for members and affiliates, both salaried and freelance, who work in the corporate, technical, government, not-for-profit and publishing sectors. The association’s professional development programs and services include professional certification, an annual conference, seminars, webinars, and networking with other associations. Editors Canada has four regional branches: British Columbia; Toronto; Ottawa–Gatineau; and Quebec, as well as smaller branches (called twigs) in Atlantic Canada, Barrie, Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton-Halton, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo-Guelph and Manitoba.
Media contact
Michelle Ou (she/elle)
Senior Communications Manager
Editors Canada
communications@editors.ca