Who is M.S. Wordsmith? That would be me, Mariëlle S. Smith.

But who am I? And how did I get from being regular old M.S. Smith to being M.S. Wordsmith?

The child of a Scottish father and a Dutch mother, I have always been intrigued by language and how it works. How is meaning created? What becomes lost in translation? I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing stories or reading them, and I’ve always wanted to borrow more books in one go than the library allowed.

Good thing the library was located at the end of our street 😉

After a long detour into academia, during which I began working as a freelance editor and translator, I left the university behind in February 2019 and moved to Cyprus to pursue writing, editing, and coaching full-time.

As M.S. Wordsmith, I edit and translate fiction, non-fiction, and academic writing, and I coach its writers.

Next to my work as M.S. Wordsmith, I am editor-in-chief of the bilingual journal Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies (Journal of Gender Studies) and co-host of the Diving into Writing podcast and the upcoming Doing Diversity in Writing podcast.