Writing

Katie Botkin is a freelance writer and for 13 years, was an editor of MultiLingual magazine, working up to Editor-in-Chief. She decided at the age of six that she wanted to be an author, and invented magazines to write throughout her homeschooling career. Afterwards, she traveled the world extensively to catch up on what she’d missed as a nerd. She has bachelors degrees in French and Journalism summa cum laude, and a master’s in TESL (or English, with an emphasis on linguistics).

And degrees are great, but the most helpful tools in writing are skepticism, methodical research capabilities, and perpetual curiosity about almost everything. And words, yes. Loving the rhythm and shape of words helps too.

Katie is currently working on a memoir and a speculative fiction novel. She ghostwrites content for private clients, and copywrites websites, emails, and social media. She has written for CSA Research, LocWorld, Nariveda, Lingoport, and other private clients. Katie particularly enjoys creating compelling marketing scripts for video projects, as she did in two collaborative pieces she also helped produce and source talent for, one with words and one without.

She often writes articles on dance and movement; travel; minority languages such as Salish and Rohingya; and how religion influences culture. On religion, she writes personal essays such as “Why the Devil gets all the good music,” and reported pieces include “Keeping the ‘peace and purity’ of a small town Idaho empire” and “The Descent,” on how Turkey went from a democracy to a dictatorship.

Katie also writes about how linguistic tech applies in the real world. “Litigating in Tongues” involves the intersection of linguistics and law for Best Lawyers magazine, and “Red Talk, Blue Talk” explores the United States’ political dialects, and some of the implication for language technology. 

Please contact her for editing services, coaching, and copywriting.