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Introducing Dea Toivonen, Outreach & Social Coordinator

Announcements

Please join the staff and Board of Directors of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia in welcoming Dea Toivonen (they/them) into the newly created position of Outreach & Social Coordinator!

You may recognize Dea as the astute interviewer in the Author Spotlights published this August and September, which they conducted during their summer contract with WFNS as Program Officer, Arts Education. Dea also undertook the RBC Emerging Artists Residency at Jampolis Cottage in 2023/24, working on a collection of short fiction that explores contemporary loneliness and questing for queer and chosen family.

To the Outreach & Social Coordinator position, Dea brings their Honours Degree in Contemporary Studies and Creative Writing (University of King’s College); their background as a creative writer, artist, writing tutor, and teaching assistant living in Kjipuktuk; and their interest in the experiences and successes of emerging and early-career writers. 

Dea will work closely with Executive Director Oriana Duinker and the Board’s Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Committee in the coordination of WFNS’s equity, accessibility, and outreach initiatives. They will also be program lead of our Emerging Writers Prizes program, will head our social media communications, and will take over as primary interviewer in our Author Spotlight series.

Dea is committed to building literary and arts community on anti-oppressive frameworks and to creating spaces that support the literary voices of marginalized and underrepresented writers—and they’re excited to help expand WFNS’s capacities, to develop programs that serve writers of all backgrounds and experiences, and to build bridges with communities, individuals, and organizations throughout Nova Scotia. They are eager to hear what members are looking for in a local literary community, and you’re welcome to reach out to them at outreach@writers.ns.ca with suggestions and feedback.

1113 Marginal Road

Halifax, NS B3H 4P7

902 423 8116

contact@writers.ns.ca

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The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is based in Kjipuktuk, in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship,” which Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) Peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725. The treaties do not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognize Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) title and establish the rules for an ongoing relationship between nations.

© Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, 2025. All rights reserved.

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Recommended Experience Levels

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) recommends that participants in any given workshop have similar levels of creative writing and / or publication experience. This ensures that each participant gets value from the workshop⁠ and is presented with information, strategies, and skills that suit their career stage. The “Recommended experience level” section of each workshop description refers to the following definitions used by WFNS.

  • 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, and writing for children and young adults) 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.

For “intensive” and “masterclass” creative writing 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 you’re uncertain of your experience level with regard to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca