WFNS logo ltrmark sticky 100px
WFNS logo ltrmark sticky 100px

2025 Atlantic & Nova Scotia Book Awards shortlists

The shortlists for the 2025 Atlantic Book Awards and 2025 Nova Scotia Book Awards were jointly announced on March 31 at the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (Halifax).

Congratulations to the twenty authors shortlisted for WFNS’s five Atlantic & Nova Scotia Book Awards! Extra congrats to Annick MacAskill, whose Votive (Gaspereau Press) is shortlisted for both the Abraham Award and the Tynes Award!

Click the shortlisted authors’ book covers for more details, and read the Atlantic Book Awards press release for other Atlantic & Nova Scotia Book Awards shortlists.


J.M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award​

Clare Goulet
Graphis scripta / writing lichen
(Gaspereau Press)

Annick MacAskill
Votive
(Gaspereau Press)

Johanna Skibsrud
Medium
(Bookhug Press)

Bren Simmers
The Work
(Gaspereau Press)

Douglas Walbourne-Gough
Island
(Goose Lane Editions)


Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children's Literature (YA)

Chad Lucas
You Owe Me One, Universe
(Abrams Books)

Rebecca Phillips
The End of Always
(Second Storey Press)

Valerie Sherrard
Standing on Neptune
(DCB)

Hannah State
Journey to the Dark Galaxy
(Glowing Light Press)

Gloria Ann Wesley
Shovels Not Rifles
(Formac)


Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award

Carol Bruneau
Threshold: Stories
(Nimbus Publishing)

Charlene Carr
We Rip the World Apart
(HarperCollins Canada)

David Huebert
Oil People
(McClelland & Stewart)

Susie Taylor
Vigil
(Breakwater Books)

Mark Blagrave
Felt
(Cormorant Books)


Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award (Nova Scotia)

Bartin Bauman
Hell of a Ride: Chasing Home and Survival on a Bicycle Ride Across Canada
(Pottersfield Press)

Andrea Currie
Finding Otipemisiwak: The People Who Own Themselves
(Arsenal Pulp Press)

Dean Jobb
A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue
(HarperCollins Canada)


Maxine Tynes Nova Scotia Poetry Award

Alice Burdick
Ox Lost, Snow Deep
(Anvil Press)

Cory Lavender
Come One Thing Another
(Gaspereau Press)

Annick MacAskill
Votive
(Gaspereau Press)

Scroll to Top
WFNS logo ltrmark sticky 100px

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