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2025 Nova Writes winners & finalists

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is delighted to announce the four winners of the 2025 Nova Writes Competition!

We’re also delighted to announce the new name of the competition’s short-form nonfiction prize: the Silver Donald Cameron Essay Prize.

‘Silver Don,’ as he was affectionately known, was a founding member of WFNS nearly 50 years ago, and he remained a dedicated supporter until his passing in 2020. His wide-ranging career as an author spanned several decades, as did his celebration as a book-length nonfiction author: his travelogue Wind, Whales and Whisky: A Cape Breton Voyage won the Dartmouth Book Award (Nonfiction) in 1992; his study The Living Beach: Life, Death and Politics where the Land Meets the Sea won the Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award in 1999; and his posthumously published final book, Blood in the Water: A True Story of Revenge in the Maritimes, was a Richardson finalist and Dartmouth Book Award winner in 2021. 

“Don did everything well,” his partner Marjorie Simmins—also an award-winning journalist and nonfiction author—wrote to us, “but he certainly aced essays. His columns in The Chronicle Herald were basically essays: 800 words, once a week, for 14 years, on every subject under the sun, from serious to humorous, and included fiction and non-fiction. I think he’d be very pleased to know his name is still respected in this way.”

More about Silver Don and his legacy, including his work toward “a green and sustainable future,” can be learned at silverdonaldcameron.ca.

Silver Donald Cameron joins the constellation of legendary Nova Scotian authors that our Nova Writes prizes commemorate: Budge Wilson, Rita Joe, and Joyce Barkhouse.

In the generous spirit shared by each of these authors, all Nova Writes Competition entrants receive feedback from our volunteer readers. Shortlisted entrants receive additional feedback from the category judges. The four winning writers below are busy revising their work for inclusion in the inaugural Nova Writes anthology, which will launch in June at our Celebration of Emerging Writers.

Budge Wilson
Short Story Prize

“two girls at the end of the world” by Sophia Linfield

Silver Donald Cameron
Essay Prize

“Helicopter Down in the Barrens” by Larry Hicks

Rita Joe
Poetry Prize

Family Function by Susie DeCoste

Joyce Barkhouse
Middle-Grade & YA Fiction Prize 

“Going Back Home” by Charlie Bligh

Congratulations to the fifteen writers shortlisted for the 2025 Nova Writes Competition!

Thanks to our volunteer readers, all Nova Writes entrants have received feedback on their work. The writers on these shortlists will receive additional feedback from this year’s judges—and the winners, announced in April, will be included in the inaugural Nova Writes anthology.

Budge Wilson Short Story Prize shortlist

“The Newcomer” by Cass Harmond
“Gwen and Pat” by Beth Ann Knowles
“two girls at the end of the world” by Sophia Linfield
“Silent Night” by Mary Anne White

Wilson Prize judge K.R. Byggdin won the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award in 2022 for their novel Wonder World. K.R. holds a BA in English & Creative Writing from Dalhousie University, and is currently working on their MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph. Their writing has appeared in anthologies and journals across Canada, the UK, and New Zealand.

Nova Essay Prize shortlist

“My father’s daughter: part of the story” by Michelle England
“Helicopter Down in the Barrens” by Larry Hicks
“Tape for Girls” by Sophia Lawrence

Nova Essay Prize judge Sandra Phinney is an accomplished photographer and prolific writer with four books, contributed to several travel guides, and her articles have appeared in over 70 publications. Additionally, Sandra gives writing workshops on memoir and travel writing.

Rita Joe Poetry Prize shortlist

nôrm(ə)l by Ava Cranhill
Family Function by Susie DeCoste
a fruitful life by Grace Hamilton-Burge
opening with a river by kristin stark

Joe Prize judge Annick MacAskill is the author of four full-length poetry collections and has been nominated for the League of Canadian Poets’ Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, the League of Canadian Poets’ Pat Lowther Memorial Award, thrice nominated for the J.M. Abraham Poetry Award, nominated for the Maxine Tynes award (2024), and was the recipient of the Governor General’s Literary Award for English-Lanugage Poetry in 2022.

Joyce Barkhouse Middle-Grade & YA Prize shortlist

“The Mermaid Letters” by Lorenda
“Going Back Home” by Charlie Bligh
“Danny and the Dachshunds” by Baleigh McWade
“Jack Havoc” by William Pitcher

Barkhouse Prize judge Sara O’Leary has written numerous critically acclaimed picture books including The Little Books of the Little Brontes, This is Ruby, and This is Sadie. Her book This is Sadie was adapted for the stage by New York City’s Children’s Theatre. Sara’s other accomplishments include writing fiction, plays, and critical reviews.

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The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is based in Kjipuktuk, in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship,” which Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) Peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725. The treaties do not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognize Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) title and establish the rules for an ongoing relationship between nations.

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Simultaneous Submissions

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) administers some programs (and special projects) that involve print and/or digital publication of ‘selected’ or ‘winning’ entries. In most cases, writing submitted to these programs and projects must not be previously published and must not be simultaneously under consideration for publication by another organization. Why? Because our assessment and selection processes depends on all submitted writing being available for first publication. If writing selected for publication by WFNS has already been published or is published by another organization first, copyright issues will likely make it impossible for WFNS to (re-)publish that writing.

When simultaneous submissions to a WFNS program are not permitted, it means the following:

  • You may not submit writing that has been accepted for future publication by another organization.
  • You may not submit writing that is currently being considered for publication by another organization—or for another prize that includes publication.
  • The writing submitted to WFNS may not be submitted for publication to another organization until the WFNS program results are communicated. Results will be communicated directly to you by email and often also through the public announcement of a shortlist or list of winners. Once your writing is no longer being considered for the WFNS program, you are free to submit it elsewhere.
    • If you wish to submit your entry elsewhere before WFNS program results have been announced, you must first contact WFNS to withdraw your entry. Any entry fee cannot be refunded.

Prohibitions on simultaneous submission do not apply to multiple WFNS programs. You are always permitted to submit the same unpublished writing to multiple WFNS programs (and special projects) at the same time, such as the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program, the Emerging Writers Prizes, the Jampolis Cottage Residency Program, the Message on a Bottle contest, the Nova Writes Competition, and any WFNS projects involving one-time or recurring special publications.

Recommended Experience Levels

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) recommends that participants in any given workshop 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. The “Recommended experience level” section of each workshop description refers to the following definitions used by WFNS.

  • 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, and writing for children and young adults) 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.

For “intensive” and “masterclass” creative writing 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