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2023 Nova Scotia and Atlantic Book Awards shortlists

Congratulations to the 15 authors shortlisted for WFNS-administered Nova Scotia Book Awards and Atlantic Book Awards.

An extra congratulations to Nanci Lee, whose debut full-length collection, Hsin, is shortlisted for both the Maxine Tynes Nova Scotia Poetry Award and the J.M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award.

Click on any cover to learn more about the shortlisted title and to purchase it from its publisher.

Nova Scotia Books Awards

The winners of this year’s Nova Scotia Book Awards, which combine three Dartmouth Book Awards and WFNS’s two provincial awards below, will be announced on Monday, June 5 (7pm), at Brightwood Golf & Country Club (Dartmouth). The event will be hosted by author Charlene Carr (Hold My Girl).

Get tickets ($10)

Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award​
2023 Finalists

Kate Beaton, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands (Drawn & Quarterly)

El Jones, Abolitionist Intimacies (Fernwood Publishing)

Toufah Jallow with Kim Pittaway, Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement (Penguin Random House)


Maxine Tynes Nova Scotia Poetry Award ​
2023 Finalists

Sylvia D. Hamilton, Tender (Gaspereau Press)

Sue Goyette, Monoculture (Gaspereau Press)

Nanci Lee, Hsin (Brick Books)

Atlantic Books Awards

The winners of this year’s six Atlantic Scotia Book Awards, including WFNS’s three regional awards below, will be announced on Wednesday, June 7 (7pm), in Paul O’Regan Hall at Halifax Central Library. This gala event will be hosted by journalist, author, and editor Lindsay Ruck (Amazing Black Atlantic Canadians) and will be livestreamed for free.

Get tickets ($20)


Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children's Literature
2023 Finalists

Nicola Davison, Decoding Dot Grey (Nimbus Publishing)

Vicki Grant, Tell Me When You Feel Something (Penguin Random House Canada)

Jo Treggiari, Heartbreak Homes (Nimbus Publishing)


J.M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award​
2023 Finalists

Luke Hathaway, The Affirmations (Biblioasis)

Nanci Lee, Hsin (Brick Books)

Annick MacAskill, Shadow Blight (Gaspereau Press)


Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award​
2023 Finalists

K. R. Byggdin, Wonder World (Enfield & Wizenty)

Bobbi French, The Good Women of Safe Harbour (HarperCollins Canada)

Lisa Moore, This is How We Love (House of Anansi)

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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