Sound check. Sound check. Is this thing on?

Hello!

You probably don't know me. Yet. But since you are here, let's change that.

My name is Wes Ford, and I'm an editor at the International Reading Association (IRA). More specifically, I'm the Associate Editor for ReadWriteThing.org, a joint venture by IRA and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) funded by a grant from Verizon Thinkfinity.

Before working with the ReadWriteThink team, I was a production editor at IRA working on books and journals. If you had articles published in The Reading Teachers, The Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, or Reading Research Quarterly between 2006 and 2010, I might have worked on it.  Of course, I was probably in contact with you during the process, so you might recognize the name.

I also worked on a number of books in some capacity, usually proof reading or copy editing. I'm not going to list them all out.

I've done work for IRA on other projects, some in an editor function, others not so much. I've worked at the IRA Marketplace/Bookstore for a few of the conventions (Toronto, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Chicago). If you were ever at the Marketplace, we might have met!

This year in Orlando, I had some different responsibilities. There were a bunch of ReadWriteThink meetings to attend, and we hosted a couple of sessions at the convention. I also had the privileged of video recording some behind the scenes footage as well as some interviews with IRA staff and attendees.

Not sure when that footage will become available, but I'll let you know.

So what's the point of all this? The introduction? The blog?

Just a bit of fun. A way of introducing the staff of IRA to the membership. A little bit of an outlet from the main office. Even a way to contact one of the IRA editors.

The hope is give an insider perspective. Give some details on what goes on at IRA, who we are, and what we do.

Maybe we have met, you and I, via emails about manuscripts or perhaps at one of the IRA conventions. And that's awesome if we did! I hope it happens again.

But for everyone else, all those other members who have never met anyone from IRA, well, now you have.

Hi! I'm Wes, and I'm an editor at IRA.

It's a pleasure to meet you.

I hope to talk to you again real soon.


Wes