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Contact

Phone

902 423 8116

Regular Office Hours

Monday – Friday
10 am – 3 pm

Having trouble finding our office door?

Mail

WFNS
1113 Marginal Road
Halifax, NS
B3H 4P7

Email

WFNS staff members administer and promote all programs and services through a mutually supportive & collaborative team approach. However, individual staff members lead the key areas outlined below. Please contact a specific staff member whenever possible.

If unsure who to contact, please email contact@writers.ns.ca only. Copying all staff on an email will increase the time required for us to respond.

Andy Verboom

(he/him)

Program Manager
(Membership Services)

Key areas:

  • Author Spotlights
  • Digital & print communications: Nova Writes Anthology and other print projects; Subtext; website
  • E-commerce: dues; purchases; registration & program fees
  • General Membership & Writers’ Council: accounts; applications; dues & subscriptions; profiles
  • Literary Events Calendar
  • Programs: Alpha Reader Exchange; Booktoberfest; Ellemeno Visual Literature Prize; Jampolis Cottage Residency Program; Manuscript Review Program; Message on a Bottle; Micro-Anthology Series
  • Resources
  • Workshops

Linda Hudson

(she/her)

Program Manager
(Arts Education)

Key areas:

  • Peer assessment, including jury recruitment & facilitation
  • Programs: Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program; Coffee Chats; Emerging Writers Prizes; Nova Writes Competition
  • Youth programs: Creative Writing Day Camps; Writers In The Schools

Oriana Duinker

(she/her)

Executive Director

Key areas:

  • By-laws, policies, & practices
  • Equity & accessibility
  • Event space bookings
  • Event series & standalone events: author talks; author panels; fundraisers; info sessions; meet-ups; public readings
  • Media inquiries
  • Operations: donations & donor relations; endowments; fundraising; investments; partnerships
  • Payments to Writers’ Council members
  • Programs: 50 for 50 Contest Series; Nova Scotia and Atlantic Book Awards
  • Social media
  • Volunteer opportunities
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Experience Levels

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) uses the following terms to describe writers’ experience levels:

  • New writers: those with less than two years’ creative writing experience and/or no short-form publications (e.g., short stories, personal essays, or poems in literary magazines, journals, anthologies, or chapbooks).
  • Emerging writers: those with more than two years’ creative writing experience and/or numerous short-form publications.
  • Early-career authors: those with 1 or 2 book-length publications or the equivalent in book-length and short-form publications.
  • Established authors: those with 3 or 4 book-length publications.
  • Professional authors: those with 5 or more book-length publications.

Please keep in mind that each form of creative writing (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, writing for children, writing for young adults, and others) provides you with a unique set of experiences and skills, so you might consider yourself an ‘established author’ in one form but a ‘new writer’ in another.

Occasionally, WFNS uses the phrase “emerging and established writers/authors” to mean ‘writers and authors of all experience levels.’

The “Recommended experience level” section of each workshop description refers to the above definitions. A workshop’s participants should usually have similar levels of creative writing and / or publication experience. This ensures that each participant gets value from the workshop⁠ and is presented with info, strategies, and skills that suit their experience. 

For “intensive” and “masterclass” workshops, which provide more opportunities for peer-to-peer feedback, the recommended experience level should be followed closely.

For all other workshops, the recommended experience level is just that—a recommendation—and we encourage potential participants to follow their own judgment when registering.

If uncertain about your experience level with respect to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca