At MLA in Chicago 2014, we announced the winner of our tagline contest: Dr. Jacquilyn Weeks, Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis.

We ran the contest to hear, in members’ own words, what SabbaticalHomes.com actually means to the people who use it. Jacquilyn’s entry, “Writing Home,” stood out from a strong field of submissions and it is easy to see why once you hear her reasoning.

When we talked with her at MLA, she explained that researchers traveling for work are usually looking for something a hotel cannot give them: a space that feels comfortable and lived in, but still functions as a serious place to think and write. Her tagline captures that idea from a few angles. It is a home you write in while you are there, a home you might end up writing about since so much of academic travel finds its way into the work itself, and a home you write to in the sense of staying connected to the place and people you left behind.

That layered idea of distance and comfort is close to what we hear from members again and again, which is part of why it resonated with us so strongly.

MLA has always been a good place to have these conversations. The attendees are academics working across literature, language, and writing, and many are also SabbaticalHomes.com members with their own stories about how the site fits into their research and travel. Hearing how someone like Jacquilyn thinks about language, and turns that into a phrase that sums up a service in a few words, is exactly the kind of moment that makes the convention worth attending each year.

You can watch our full conversation with Jacquilyn here.