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2024 Atlantic & Nova Scotia Book Awards shortlists

The shortlists for the 2024 Atlantic Book Awards and 2024 Nova Scotia Book Awards were jointly announced on April 15 at Trident Booksellers (Halifax).

The Atlantic Book Awards Society also opened voting on April 15 for its new Readers’ Choice Award, open to any book written by an Atlantic Canadian author or published by an Atlantic Canadian press in 2023. Over 130 titles are on the ballot, with the option to submit more titles before voting closes. Vote on the 2024 Atlantic Readers’ Choice Award

Congratulations to the below authors shortlisted for WFNS’s Atlantic & Nova Scotia Book Awards!

(See the websites of the Atlantic Book Awards, Nova Scotia Book Awards, and Dartmouth Book Awards for Atlantic & Nova Scotia Book Awards shortlists.)


J. M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award

Shortlist

Joe Bishop
Indie Rock
(University of Alberta Press)

Matthew Hollett
Optic Nerve
(Brick Books)

Sadie McCarney
Your Therapist Says It’s Magical Thinking
(ECW Press)

Fawn Parker
Soft Inheritance
(Palimpsest Press)

Harry Thurston
Ultramarine
(Gaspereau Press)


Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children's Literature

Shortlist

Alma Fullteron
The Journal of Anxious Izzy Parker
(Second Story Press)

Vicki Grant
A Green Velvet Secret
(Tundra Books)

George Paul
Kepmite’taqney Ktapekiaqn / Le chant d’honneur / The Honour Song
(Éditions Bouton d’or Acadie)

Jack Wong
The Words We Share
(Annick Press)


Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award

Shortlist

Violet Browne
This is the House That Luke Built
(Goose Lane Editions)

Charlene Carr
Hold My Girl
(HarperCollins)

Amanda Peters
The Berry Pickers
(HarperCollins)

William Ping
Hollow Bamboo
(HarperCollins)

Michelle Porter
A Grandmother Begins the Story
(Viking Canada)


Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award

Shortlist

Sherri Aikenhead
Mommy Don’t: From Mother to Murderer: The True Story of Penny and Karissa Boudreau
(Nimbus Publishing)

Karen Pinchin
Kings of Their Own Ocean: Tuna, Obsession, and the Future of Our Seas
(Knopf Canada)

Kelly Thompson
Still, I Cannot Save You: A Memoir of Sisterhood, Love, and Letting Go
(McClelland & Stewart)

See the websites of the Atlantic Book Awards, Nova Scotia Book Awards, and Dartmouth Book Awards for other Atlantic & Nova Scotia Book Awards shortlists.

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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 and 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.

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 information, strategies, and skills that suit their career stage. 

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 you’re uncertain of your experience level with regard to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca