Searching for Words, A Commitment to Building with and from Writing Centers

Review of a Translingual Book

Abstract

The book Buscando las palabras while writing. Conversations between writing centers in Latin America and the US, edited by Gleen Hutchinson and Andrea Torres Torres, and published in 2024 by Editorial Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, allows, in their words, for the connection between a creative process that has no limits and the variety of advantages found in translanguage. From this perspective, the text explores representation and academic writing from Latin America, drawing on a diversity of experiences, practices, and reflections that account for the agency, power of change, and criticism of writing centers in relation to academic writing. Both the researchers who participated in the volume and the tutors at the writing centers at Florida International University and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana wrote in Spanish and English together with other colleagues from Colombia, Mexico, and the United States, with the aim of learning from each other and seeking new perspectives. This review seeks to highlight some key and valuable elements of this commitment to dialogue about academic practices and literacies from a bilingual perspective. Thus, this review concludes that Buscando las palabras while writing is a book whose potential lies in its ability to enable other discussions from different points of view and perspectives, both from teachers and students.