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Postcard Story Contest winners

Congratulations to the winners of our 3rd annual Postcard Story Contest!

1st: “The love I did not see” by Lisandra N. Hernandez

Lisandra N. Hernandez has always had a passion for writing. She enjoys drawing from personal emotions and experiences to connect with readers and empathize through story telling. Her personal values center around kindness —what we owe to each other by virtue of being human and sharing the human experience. As the daughter of an immigrant single mother, she is no stranger to adversity and struggle, and she owes these hardships a great deal, for they allowed her to build resiliency and strength. When she is not writing, Lisandra enjoys spending time with her husband and friends, reading philosophy, playing sports, practicing law, and watching romantic comedies.

Runner-up: “Dear Thieves” by Elizabeth Murphy

Elizabeth is a retired university professor, researcher, and author of one academic book and more than 100 academic articles. In addition to her academic writing, she is the author of An Imperfect Librarian, a novel published by Breakwater Books in 2008. Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading, described the novel as “[s]plendid, clever and entertaining.” In 2009, Elizabeth was a featured author at the Winterset Festival in the New Voices category. In the same year, she was an invited author at the Canterbury Tales Literary Festival in Saint John, New Brunswick, along with writers Kenneth Harvey and Donna Morrissey. She is a member of both the Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia. Although born in Newfoundland, she has been a resident of Nova Scotia since 2019.

Runner-up: “Frugality” by Christina McRae

Rosalie Osmond is the published author of five books, three non-fiction and two fiction. Both novels were nominated for the Dartmouth book award. She has also won the Rita Joe Poetry Prize.

Congrats also to the remaining finalists: Leslie Hennen, Melanie Hobbs, Beth Ann Knowles, Kevin MacDonell, Dana C Mount, Magi Nams, and Michelle Samson.

READ THE WINNING STORIES
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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