Congratulations to the 2024 recipients of WFNS’s three Emerging Writers Prizes!
Each established between 2021 and 2023, these three prizes support writers as they advance book-length works-in-progress and as they undertake creative writing mentorships and professional training to advance their literary careers.
- The Charles R. Saunders Prize (valued at $2500) encourages literary creation in speculative fiction and in nonfiction by emerging writers of marginalized backgrounds—in short, writing by someone like Charles R. Saunders at the beginning of his career.
- The Elizabeth Venart Prize (valued at $1750) recognizes the unique barriers to literary creation faced by women and other marginalized genders—in particular, the lack of time and space imposed by systems of gendered labour and gendered childrearing.
- The Senator Don Oliver Black Voices Prize (valued at $5000) recognizes the barriers to literary creation and recognition faced by Black and African Nova Scotian writers—who have been and still are marginalized by systemic inequality, including within Canadian publishing.

Nailah Tataa
2025 Charles R. Saunders Prize
Nailah Tataa is a ritual-based writer, artist, and facilitator in Kjipuktuk. They are currently working on an article for Visual Arta Nova Scotia and learning the craft of writing about curation.
Nailah's prize-winning submission is an excerpt from their collection of interconnected stories exploring afro-futurism and speculative eco-fiction.

Jaime Jacques
2025 Elizabeth Venart Prize
Jaime Jacques is a writer based in K'jipuktuk/Halifax. She studied journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University, is the author of Moon El Salvador, and has published her poetry in places like Rattle, Rogue Agent, Variant Lit, and Birdcoat Quarterly. She is a poetry reader for PRISM International.
Jaime's award-winning submission is an excerpt from a poetry chapbook-in-progress, her debut, which addresses themes of privilege, inequality, neocolonialism, trauma, and healing.

Natasha Thomas
2025 Senator Don Oliver Black Voices Prize
Natasha Thomas, a tenth-generation African Nova Scotian, is a playwright, composer, and theatre artist. A graduate of NSCC’s Music Arts program, she blends music and storytelling as director of The Beyond Imagination Puppet Crew. She is part of the Black Theatre Workshop program and has stage-managed for Dartmouth Players, Halifax Fringe, and Neptune Theatre’s 2023 Chrysalis Program.
Natasha's prize-winning submission is an excerpt from her play, Freedom Runs Two, a cantata for a puppet theatre, that tells the history of African Nova Scotians from slavery to modern days through the eyes of a child and his grandmother.