The Language Collective: TLC for your texts

The select group of language professionals you see here specialize in translating, editing and writing English and Dutch texts for a diverse clientele. Our collaborative ventures are based on shared values of professional quality, personal accountability and creative collaboration. Each of us has a flourishing freelance practice of our own, but if you’re looking for a team of experts to handle a bigger project, we’d be delighted to discuss options.

Joy Phillips

Services: NL>EN translation, copyediting, copywriting, Dunglish rescue, certified translation
Specialized in: climate, environment, tech & innovation, architecture & infrastructure, creative design
Joy’s portfolio / Joy on LinkedIn

Joy is a certified translator, copywriter and author’s editor working from Dutch into English, offering 21 years of experience in helping writers, companies, non-profits and government agencies convey their concepts to a broader international audience. Over the past few years, she has had the privilege of translating a number of non-fiction books on art, architecture and science. An inveterate bookaholic and irrepressible extrovert who has lived more than half her life over 9000 km from where she was born, she is fascinated by language, food, coffee & speculative fiction. If you’re interested in collaborating to tailor your text to an international audience or would like her to speak at a conference you’re organizing, check Joy’s current schedule, or send an email to discuss details.

Michael Blommaert

Services: NL>EN and EN>NL translation
Specialized in: IT, entertainment, legal, psychology, HR, creative storytelling, marketing
Michael’s website / Michael on LinkedIn

Professionally active in English-speaking international settings for two decades, Michael spent much of his career as a consultant in HR, legal advice, change management and interim management in entertainment and retail. Following a career change several years ago, he now brings the same passion, commitment and storytelling-driven approach to the field of translation. In his professional practice, Michael draws on his law degree, corporate background, and enthusiasm for technology and innovation. Recent projects included a series of ebooks and articles on IT risk management and auditing, chapters for an academic reference book on international treaty law, corporate reports on HR strategy and employment policy, psychological profiles for HR evaluation purposes, a book on relationship therapy, three film scripts, a novel on Renaissance painters in Amsterdam, a series of interior decoration magazines, and ongoing collaborative translations to help assess refugee resilience.

Nicole van Overveld

Services: NL copyediting & copywriting, EN>NL and NL>EN translation, online content
Specialized in: financial, marketing & advertising, user experience, corporate identity, non-profit, technical, literary
Van Overveld taal en tekst / Nicole on LinkedIn

Born in the Netherlands and raised in every book she’s read since kindergarten, Nicole is a voracious reader with a strong preference for English texts. She chose to study mechanical engineering after high school, pursuing her insatiable curiosity about how things work. This analytical side helped her to analyze customer and user demands in her work as a business analyst and marketing manager. Her drive to create prompted a radical shift from pure design to hands-on implementation, leading her to become an online editor and copywriter. After 16 years as a language professional in large corporations, her eternal curiosity inspired the start of her own company in 2015. Nicole is enjoying exploring a whole new spectrum of subjects and linguistic challenges.

Kyle Wohlmut

Services: NL>EN translation, DE>EN translation, copy editing
Specialized in: legal translation (litigation, contract law), academic writing, tech industry, culinary, profanity
Kyle by email / Kyle on LinkedIn

Kyle provides a unique combination of creative feel and flair for language with hard experience and training in legal translation, technical writing and administration. A Silicon Valley native who’s seen the tech industry from the inside, he draws on his passion for language, aesthetics and perfection (as attested to by his studies in literature and former career as a professional musician) to give even the most legal and technical texts the polished shine and pizzazz of a finished work of art. He is equally at home with demanding content requiring technical perfection (contracts, user guides, financial reporting, academic works) as with softer texts that have to strike just the right tone (marketing texts, speeches, texts in art & design (and yes, he’s translated a complete novel)).
He has an eye for the arts and has produced English-language content for a number of notable Dutch creatives, including Sylvia Witteman and Janne Schra. Since leaving his native California, he has lived in both the Netherlands and Germany.

Laura van Staveren

Services: NL>EN and EN>NL translation
Specialized in: technical, chemical, medical, pharma; technical and practical applications of Dutch and European regulations (no legal translations!)
LS Edits / Laura by email
Laura on LinkedIn / Laura on ProZ

Fully bilingual in Dutch and English, Laura started out in animal husbandry and veterinary medicine, but moved on to construction and engineering, working in sales and communication for an international wholesaler. In the course of her in-house career, she translated numerous machinery user manuals and material safety data sheets. Since going freelance in 2013, Laura’s projects have included a 120-page magazine about injectables for a leading pharma supplier, a 160-page code of practice for classifying gas explosion hazard areas for a major global oil and gas company, and extensive scientific reference documents for forensic psychological evaluation of perpetrators of sexual assault and domestic violence.

Colby Dunn

Services: NL>EN translation, copywriting, copyediting, transcription
Specialized in: journalism, creative storytelling, public relations, marketing, academic editing
Colby at The Niche Editorial / Colby on LinkedIn

Colby is a native English speaker who was educated and trained as a journalist. She has since worked with clients around the globe on subjects as diverse as anti-money laundering in London to HIV/AIDS treatment in South Africa. She has been working in Europe since 2008 and now makes Amsterdam her home. Her keen eye for detail and flawless prose are much appreciated by the magazines, market research bureaus and public relations firms that rely on her services.