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Message on a Bottle 2025 winner & finalists

Congratulations to the winner and three finalists in this year’s Message on a Bottle contest!

Winner:
Claire Morley (Halifax) for the poem “Starfall Scrumping”

Finalists:
Jamie Feldman (Cape Breton) for the poem “White Witch’s Brew”
Melissa Kuipers (Antigonish) for the poem “Flower Power”
Jamie Samson (Halifax) for the poem “Respect Your Elder(flower)s”

Claire’s poem, “Starfall Scrumping,” will be published on the bottle label of Island Folk Cider House‘s new elderflower cider. Claire will receive $250 cash from WFNS and enjoy a six-pack of the new cider courtesy of Island Folk.

“Starfall Scrumping”—both the poem and the eponymous cider—will be revealed at a Halifax launch in May. Details to come!

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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