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2026 Nova Writes finalists

Congratulations to the twenty finalists in our 2026 Nova Writes Competition!

Thanks to our volunteer readers, all Nova Writes entrants have received feedback on their work. Finalists have received additional feedback from this year’s judges. The winning entrants, announced on April 30, will be published in print in the 2026 Nova Writes anthology.

Budge Wilson Short Story Prize finalists

Elizabeth Collis, “Migration Flight”
Emily Dodge, “A Pale Yellow Line”
Lauren McNeil, “A Lovely Funeral”
Zoey Phillips, “Bandit”
Nicole Regalado, “Mama Andina”
Paula Romanow, “The Train”
Jennifer Stewart, “Snapshot”

This year’s Wilson Prize judge, Donna Jones Alward, is a New York Times bestselling author of many beloved romance novels that have been translated into over a dozen languages. She lives in Nova Scotia with her husband and two cats. Her most recent novels are When the World Fell Silent (2024) and Ship of Dreams (2025). 

Silver Donald Cameron Essay Prize finalists

Anneli Berger, “Proust’s Socks”
Nancy Kimber, “Pussy Willows Saved My Life”
Sophia Lawrence, “Weeding and Burning”
Michael S. Ryan, “Dye Rusty”

This year’s Cameron Prize judge, Lezlie Lowe, is a noted book author and journalist working in text and audio across genres. She has a 20+-year career as a columnist, feature writer, and audio documentary maker. Her journalism has received regional and national recognition and has appeared in The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, The Independent, Buzzfeed, The Walrus, and the National Post, among others. She is the author of two books, and has been listed as a top-25 pick by CBC Books and the Toronto Star and one of the top 100 books of the year by The Globe and Mail.

Rita Joe Poetry Prize finalists

Matthew Anderson, The First Frost
Rohini Bannerjee, Grant Me Grief
Stephania Jean, Borrowed Country, Someone Blue
Melissa Kuipers, Each Spring We Go to the Hills
Nikita Ross, Tending Time
Lorraine Ryan, The Demise of a Forest Model

This year’s Joe Prize judge, Margo Wheaton, is an award-winning poet and editor and is the author of Rags of Night in Our Mouths (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022) and Wild Green Light (with David Adams Richards, Pottersfield Press, 2021). She lives and writes in Halifax. Her debut poetry collection, The Unlit Path Behind the House (McGill-Queen’s, 2016), won the Fred Kerner Award (Canadian Authors’ Association) for Book of the Year and the Alfred G. Bailey Award from the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick. It was also shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award, the J.M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award, the Fred Cogswell Award for Literary Excellence, and the Relit Award.

Joyce Barkhouse Middle-Grade & YA Fiction Prize finalists

Carolyn Harnanan, The Garden of Discovery
Avery Mossop, The Memory Thief
Gabrielle Pope, Damon and Memory

This year’s Barkhouse Prize judge, Chad Lucas, has worked as a newspaper reporter, communications advisor, freelance writer, part-time journalism instructor, and parenting columnist. His work has appeared in publications including Halifax Magazine, Black to Business, Sport Quarterly, and The Chronicle Herald. Chad’s debut novel, Thanks A Lot, Universe, was named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and a best middle grade book of 2021 by the School Library Journal, New York Public Library, and Canadian Children’s Book Centre. His second book, Let the Monster Out (2022), was nominated for the Forest of Reading Red Maple Award (2023) and the Manitoba Young Readers Choice Awards (2024). You Owe Me One, Universe (2023) is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Chad’s fourth book is The Vanished Ones (2025).

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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, writing for 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.

Occasionally, WFNS uses the phrase “emerging and established writers/authors” to mean ‘writers and authors of all experience levels.’

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 info, strategies, and skills that suit their experience. 

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 uncertain about your experience level with respect to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca