Program News

A Definitive (Re-)Introduction to WFNS

On April 28, 2025, Program Manager Andy Verboom presented a comprehensive survey of the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia's organizational structure, the range of WFNS programming opportunities for emerging writers and established authors, and how program, workshop, event, and resource information is presented on the WFNS website. Highlighted were major governance and program additions and improvements made between 2020 and 2025.

"A Definitive (Re-)Introduction to WFNS" was free to attend.

Click on the button below to view a PDF of this presentation. Any follow-up questions may be directed to contact@writers.ns.ca.

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2025 Nova Writes winners & finalists

Award News, Program News

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 Lindfield

Silver Donald Cameron
Essay Prize

“Helicopter Down in the Barrens” by Larry Hicks

Rita Joe
Poetry Prize

Sea Changes by Susie DeCoste
(originally titled Family Function)

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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2025/26 Jampolis Cottage Writers in Residence

Jampolis Cottage, Program News

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2025/26 Sponsored Residencies at Jampolis Cottage and to the participants in the 2025 Oliver-Craig Black Writers’ Retreat at Jampolis Cottage!

Atlantic Indigenous Writer’s Residency:
Michelle Porter

Delmore “Buddy” Daye Residency:
Trevor Silver

Robert Pope Foundation Residency:
Christine Wu

Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia Residencies:
Les Tyler Johnson & Amy Saunders

Oliver-Craig Black Writers’ Retreat:
Tracey Pinder & Trevor Silver

Learn more about these writers and their residency and retreat projects below.

Michelle Porter

Recipient of the Atlantic Indigenous Writer's Residency,
sponsored by Amanda Peters (author of The Berry Pickers and Waiting for the Long Night Moon)

Michelle Porter is the descendent of a long line of Métis storytellers (the Goulet family) originally from the Red River area. Her first novel, A Grandmother Begins the Story (2023), was the winner of the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and was shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. She’s the author of two nonfiction books, Approaching Fire and Scratching River, and one book of poetry, Inquiries. Currently, she lives in Newfoundland and Labrador where she teaches creative writing.

Michelle plans to focus on the development of a second book-length poetry manuscript, Yellow Pears, which explores themes related to Métis intergenerational storytelling, trauma, joy, and healing. With a selection of poems already drafted, Michelle will use the Atlantic Indigenous Writer's Residency to edit and to write new poems to complete the thematic arc of the poetry collection as currently imagined. Michelle wants to look ahead, using word, line, and stanza to explore possibilities for the future (Indigenous futurity), relationships with the land (prairie grassland and bison in particular), and what Oji-Cree writer Joshua Whitehead and Dene and Métis poet Tenille Campbell have termed "Indigenous joy." She also wants to ask what joy and the future of bison have to do with her, her ancestors, and all our collective futures. Yellow Pears will be published by McClelland & Stewart in 2027.

Trevor Silver

Recipient of the Delmore "Buddy" Daye Residency,
sponsored by the Delmore "Buddy" Daye Learning Institute

+ Participant in the Oliver-Craig Black Writers' Retreat,
sponsored by the Honourable Don Oliver and The Craig Foundation

Trevor Silver is a multidisciplinary entrepreneur, writer, and community builder from North Preston, Nova Scotia. He is the founder of tREv Clothing, a brand rooted in the values of trust, respect, education, and value. Through his storytelling, mentorship, and social impact work, Trevor empowers others to purse personal growth and creative success. His writing blends real-life experience with motivational insight, drawing from his journey as a Black business owner and youth mentor. Trevor is currently working on his debut book, Trevor’s Life Lessons, a reflection on the principles that have guided his path.

During the residency, Trevor will be focused on completing the first full draft of his debut nonfiction book, Trevor’s Life Lessons. This project combines memoir and motivational storytelling, drawing on his lived experience as a Black entrepreneur, mentor, and community leader. The book shares hard-earned lessons on discipline, resilience, self-worth, and success, all grounded in stories from Trevor’s upbringing in North Preston and the journey of building his brand, tREv Clothing. The retreat and residency weeks will provide the dedicated time and space needed to refine the book’s structure, deepen key chapters, and bring this work-in-process closer to completion.

Christine Wu

Recipient of the Robert Pope Foundation Residency,
sponsored by the Robert Pope Foundation

Christine Wu is a Chinese-Canadian poet born and raised on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh (Vancouver, BC) who now lives and writes in Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki. Her work has been published in literary journals including Arc, Contemporary Verse 2, The Malahat Review, and Room, among others. In 2023, she was the winner of the RBC PEN Canada New Voices Award, and in 2022, she was a finalist for the RBC Writers’ Trust Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. Her debut poetry collection, Familial Hungers, was published by Brick Books in 2025.

Christine will be working on new poems for her sophomore collection of poetry, centered around leaving the Church and its parallels with the experience of losing her late father, with whom she had a complicated and tense relationship. This new work will explore her experiences growing up in a Christian subculture within a family rife with generational trauma—and the intersection of her relationships with faith and family, the impact of colonialism, and the ways to grieve what has been lost.

Photo credit: Indigo Clarke Media

Les Tyler Johnson

Recipient of a Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia Residency

Les Tyler Johnson is a writer, educator, and multifaceted creator whose work explores trans identity, relationships, and personal transformation. His work has appeared in The New York Times Modern Love, Tablet Magazine, and Narrative Magazine. When not writing, Les enjoys Zumba, sewing, reading, and spending time with his partner, two adult sons, and cat.

Les will be working on a graphic memoir that explores the complex—and often tumultuous—relationship with his mother, who lived with and later died from Alzheimer's. Centred on his mother's late-life relationship with another memory care home resident, Karen, and Les's own journey as a queer and trans person, the project explores vulnerability, acceptance, healing, and the transformative power of breaking free of societal expectations.

Amy Saunders

Recipient of a Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia Residency

Amy Saunders is a queer, award-winning writer of poetry, memoir, essay, and short fiction. Her work focuses on addiction, family, motherhood, spirituality, and recovery. Her personal essays, branded content, and poetry have appeared in Chatelaine, VICE, TeenVogue, SheDoesTheCity, the Canadian Archive of Poetry, and IN&OUT magazine. A Toronto-native, she now lives in the unceded and ancestral territory of Kjipuktuk with her husband and daughter. She is an alumna of Tennant’s Cove Writers Workshops (NB), Off Assignments ‘Writing Motherhood’ with Rachel Yoder (USA), and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, where she was awarded the Banff Artist Award for artistic merit in 2024.

For the duration of her WFNS Residency, Amy will continue her work on her first manuscript, To Carry a Corpse, a nonfiction work titled in which a father-daughter duo find each other in the afterlife. Drawing on inspiration from Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice, Terese Marie Mailhot’s Heartberries, and Sheila Heti’s Pure Colour, To Carry a Corpse is a transcendent memoir of redemption and prose. Amy is currently seeking representation.

Tracey Pinder

Participant in the Oliver-Craig Black Writers' Retreat,
sponsored by the Honourable Don Oliver and The Craig Foundation

Tracey Pinder is not one for labels. A few that have followed her are facilitator, agitator, activist, feminist, mom, friend and confidante, and nomadic spirit. Tracey is drawn to various forms of creativity and has penned short stories and poetry, but it has taken her many years to call herself a writer. Born in England and spending most of her life in Ontario, Tracey came to the east coast with her laptop and camera to continue documenting this thing we call life. She enjoys both the lake and the ocean and continues to find community in her new home province.

During the Oliver-Craig Retreat, Tracey will be focusing on the research and storytelling aspects of her mother’s immigration story: life in 1950’s England as a young immigrant woman who, up until then, had had little exposure to white folks. Her mother immigrated to England from Barbados on her own at the age of 19, living in Leeds before moving to London where she met and married Tracey’s father. Growing up, Tracey repeatedly heard the story of her parents’ epic romance and courtship, the kind of heart-warming tale that movies are made of, but not much about her mother’s life in England prior to meeting her dad. Her mother's creative nonfiction story will be Tracey’s first book-length project.

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Meet the 2025 MacLeod Mentorship participants

Program News

WFNS is pleased to announce the 8 writers participating in the 2025 Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program as apprentices and mentors:

Carol Bruneau

Jennifer Stewart's mentor, Carol Bruneau, is the author of eleven books: four short fiction collections, most recently Threshold (2024), six novels, and one nonfiction book. Her novels include Brighten the Corner Where You Are, nominated for the IMPAQ Dublin Literary Award, and A Circle on the Surface, winner of the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction. Her 2017 story collection, A Bird on Every Tree, was a finalist for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction. Her first novel, Purple for Sky, won both awards in 2001. She has mentored six writers in the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program.

Evelyn C. White

Melissa Goertzen's mentor, Evelyn C. White, is the author of Every Goodbye Ain’t Gone: A Photo Narrative of Black Heritage on Salt Spring Island (2009). She is also the author of the acclaimed biography Alice Walker: A Life (2004). A former reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle, she has been widely published in Canada and the US. The Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Program awarded her the 2021 Raymond Taavel Media Award for coverage of the 2SLGBTQ+ community. She was the 2024 mentor for the Oliver-Craig Black Writers' Retreat at Jampolis Cottage.

Elaine McCluskey

Roberta McGinn's mentor, Elaine McCluskey, is the author of four short-story collections and three novels, mostly set in Nova Scotia. Her most recent work, a novel entitled The Gift Child, was released in March 2024 by Goose Lane Editions. Rafael Has Pretty Eyes won the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction. Her stories have appeared in over twenty literary journals, including Room, subTerrain, and The Antigonish Review. One story was a Journey Prize finalist, another placed second in the Fish international contest in Ireland. She lives in Dartmouth. She has worked as a journalist, a book editor, and a university lecturer.

Julian Mortimer Smith

Nailah Tataa's mentor, Julian Mortimer Smith, is a science fiction and fantasy writer based in Yarmouth. His stories have appeared in many of the world’s top speculative fiction venues, including Asimov’s, Terraform, Lightspeed, and Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. He has also taught writing to teenagers and adults and has worked as an editor of both fiction and nonfiction. His first book, The World of Dew and Other Stories, won the 2020 Blue Light Books Prize and is published by Indiana University Press.

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Meet the recipients of the 2025 Emerging Writers Prizes

Award News, Program News

Congratulations to the 2024 recipients of WFNS’s three Emerging Writers Prizes!

Each established between 2021 and 2023, these three prizes support writers as they advance book-length works-in-progress and as they undertake creative writing mentorships and professional training to advance their literary careers.

The Charles R. Saunders Prize (valued at $2500) encourages literary creation in speculative fiction and in nonfiction by emerging writers of marginalized backgrounds—in short, writing by someone like Charles R. Saunders at the beginning of his career.
The Elizabeth Venart Prize (valued at $1750) recognizes the unique barriers to literary creation faced by women and other marginalized genders—in particular, the lack of time and space imposed by systems of gendered labour and gendered childrearing.
The Senator Don Oliver Black Voices Prize (valued at $5000) recognizes the barriers to literary creation and recognition faced by Black and African Nova Scotian writers—who have been and still are marginalized by systemic inequality, including within Canadian publishing.

Jaime Jacques

2025 Elizabeth Venart Prize

Jaime Jacques is a writer based in K'jipuktuk/Halifax. She studied journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University, is the author of Moon El Salvador, and has published her poetry in places like Rattle, Rogue Agent, Variant Lit, and Birdcoat Quarterly. She is a poetry reader for PRISM International.

Jaime's award-winning submission is an excerpt from a poetry chapbook-in-progress, her debut, which addresses themes of privilege, inequality, neocolonialism, trauma, and healing.

Natasha Thomas

2025 Senator Don Oliver Black Voices Prize

Natasha Thomas, a tenth-generation African Nova Scotian, is a playwright, composer, and theatre artist. A graduate of NSCC’s Music Arts program, she blends music and storytelling as director of The Beyond Imagination Puppet Crew. She is part of the Black Theatre Workshop program and has stage-managed for Dartmouth Players, Halifax Fringe, and Neptune Theatre’s 2023 Chrysalis Program.

Natasha's prize-winning submission is an excerpt from her play, Freedom Runs Two, a cantata for a puppet theatre, that tells the history of African Nova Scotians from slavery to modern days through the eyes of a child and his grandmother.

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Introducing the new Nova Writes Competition

Announcements, Program News

With thanks to everyone who completed our Nova Writes survey in September and October, we’re pleased to reveal the new shape of WFNS’s Nova Writes Competition for new and emerging writers!

No longer a competition “for unpublished manuscripts,” Nova Writes is now a competition for publication. An annual, printed Nova Writes anthology will feature the winning entries in each of four categories:

Budge Wilson Short Story Prize (2,500 to 5,000 words)
Nova Essay Prize (2,500 to 5,000 words)
Rita Joe Poetry Prize (1,250 to 2,500 words, or 10 to 20 pages)
Joyce Barkhouse Middle-Grade & YA Fiction Prize (2,500 to 5,000 words)

All entrants will still receive written developmental feedback from volunteer readers, and shortlisted and winning entrants will receive additional feedback from category judges. Each winning entrant will also meet (remotely) with the judge who selects them, gaining more insight on how to revise for publication in the anthology.

Additional changes:

Entry cap raised: You can now enter up to three short works in each category each year.
Entry fee lowered: We’ve dropped the fee to $26 for a single entry, $23 each for two entries, or $20 for three or more entries. Current General Members receive 25% off their total fee.
Residency requirement relaxed: All current residents of Nova Scotia are now eligible to enter, including out-of-province students and seasonal residents.

If you’re a new or emerging writer, check out the full competition details and put this year’s entry deadline in your calendar: January 16!

If you’re a more established author, please help us share the news of the newly renewed Nova Writes!

Introducing the new Nova Writes Competition Read More »

2024/25 Jampolis Cottage Writers-in-Residence

Jampolis Cottage, Program News

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2024/25 Sponsored Residencies at Jampolis Cottage and to the participants in the 2024 Oliver-Craig Black Writers’ Retreat at Jampolis Cottage!

Delmore “Buddy” Daye Residency:
Cory Lavender

William & Elizabeth Pope Residency:
Janelle Levesque

Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia Residency:
K.R. Byggdin

Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia Residency:
Asher Cookson

Oliver-Craig Black Writers’ Retreat:
Jesse Nervais & Natasha Thomas

Learn more about these writers and their residency and retreat projects below.

Cory Lavender

Recipient of the Delmore "Buddy" Daye Residency,
sponsored by the Delmore "Buddy" Daye Learning Institute

Cory Lavender is a poet of African Nova Scotian and European descent living in Mi’kma’ki. His chapbooks are Lawson Roy’s Revelation (Gaspereau Press, 2018) and Ballad of Bernie "Bear" Roy (knife fork book, 2020). His work has appeared in journals such as Grain, Prairie Fire, Riddle Fence, and The Fiddlehead and in Watch Your Head: Writers and Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis (Coach House Press, 2020). A full-length collection of poems, Come One Thing Another, is forthcoming from Gaspereau Press in late 2024.

Cory will be continuing ongoing work on poems and exploring short-form creative nonfiction. As he wraps up his first full-length poetry collection, Cory sees how many more works he needs to write about himself and his family in relation the geography, ecology, culture, and history of Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia). In particular, he wants to continue discussing the Lavenders’ negotiation of their African Nova Scotianness and the impact of “passing” as white for some decades. Cory's potential topics range from Black Loyalist John Lavender’s petition for a land grant in the early 1800s, to how the Lavenders have been racially identified in census data through the years, to his uncle’s troublesome Facebook posts shortly after George Floyd’s murder.

Janelle Levesque

Recipient of the William & Elizabeth Pope Residency,
sponsored by the Robert Pope Foundation

Janelle Levesque is a writer currently based in Kjipuktuk. She has been working on her debut poetry chapbook, Salt Lick, as part of WFNS’s 2024 Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program. Janelle has worn many hats as a tree planter, a farmer, a barista, a photographer, and a sociologist. She is passionate about community, social justice, and mental health, as well as harnessing the potency of the written word in responding creatively to the political and environmental challenges we face in all three areas. Her poems have appeared in 7 Mondays, Open Heart Forgery, and The Ambler.

Janelle will be working on her first full-length collection of poetry, Woolgathering, which explores the many iterations and ineffable feelingscapes of grief—that depersonalizing experience not only occasioned by death but seeping from the pores of time itself. What does it mean to mourn the living—to grieve a symbolic death, such as a loved one with dementia? What does it mean to be widowed to oneself; to inhabit a body that refuses to house you? These are a few of the questions Woolgathering seeks to confront. Personifying and metaphorizing concepts such as time, memory, and grief, assembling tiny alters, and orbiting moment-sized burial plots, this collection is an elegy for each passing moment.

K.R. Byggdin

Recipient of a Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia Residency

K.R. Byggdin is the author of Wonder World (Enfield & Wizenty, 2022), a ReLit Award finalist and winner of the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. Their writing has also appeared in anthologies and journals across Canada, the UK, and New Zealand. Born and raised on the Prairies, they currently divide their time between Halifax and Toronto as an MFA candidate at the University of Guelph.

K.R. will be working on a new book-length fiction manuscript. This novel centres on a long-term couple in their thirties and explores the act of queer family making within the intersections of nonbinary identity, polyamory, infertility, and grief. It is set primarily in contemporary Halifax and Yarmouth.

Asher Cookson

Recipient of a Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia Residency

Asher Cookson is a writer born and living in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. He is currently in his final year of his BA in Creative Writing and English at the University of King’s College. Asher’s work focuses on confessional and experimental poetry exploring the queer experience, as well as environmental horror and the traditional gothic.

Asher will be working on their debut poetry collection, which will centre on the fear of decay and the horror of Earth reclaiming itself. This eco-gothic collection will be research-driven, exploring the worst-case scenarios of the climate crisis and imagining a post-anthropocene world from the perspective of the Earth itself. Its poems will depict both small- and large-scale horror, examining eco-horror on an individual and global level.

Jesse Nervais

Participant in the Oliver-Craig Black Writers' Retreat,
sponsored by Senator Don Oliver and the Craig Foundation

Photo description: Jesse holding Pride & Joy, by Kate Lum and Dr. Frank J. Sileo, at Blockshop Books, Lunenburg, 2023

Jesse Nervais is a motivational speaker, mentor, and writer currently based in Halifax. In 2021, he founded Dreadlocks & Kindness, an organization that seeks to empower others through inclusive, focused education, fundraising, and mentorship. From Rainbow Bagels to Rubik’s Cubes, Jesse has led several community collaborations throughout Atlantic Canada, tackling themes of self-love, anti-racism, mental health, and allyship. Known for his innovative style, passion, and unique approaches to problem solving, he is an active advocate for the diversity, inclusion, and wellness of others in life and on the page. Jesse is an alumnus of the University of Lethbridge and relocated to Nova Scotia in 2015.

Under the guidance of distinguished mentor Evelyn C. White, Jesse will be working on two projects: Happy, a YA novel-in-verse that follows two queer characters' grade-twelve experiences as they navigate coming-out journeys, learn to manage mental health, and transition into their authentic selves; and Ava in Wonderland, a theatrical reimagining of Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland through the lenses of an African Nova Scotian, 2SLGBTQ+, and Indigenous experience that is being written in collaboration with award-winning Indigenous and Black Scotian artist SAMQWAN.

Natasha Thomas

Participant in the Oliver-Craig Black Writers' Retreat,
sponsored by Senator Don Oliver and the Craig Foundation

Natasha Thomas is an African Nova Scotian of more than 10 generations' ascent and the Artistic Director of Beyond Imagination Puppet Crew. She also volunteers with Dartmouth Players Theatre Company as an Assistant Stage Manager. Natasha was the 2023 Chrysalis Director for Neptune Theatre's production of Billy Elliot; was commissioned by Eastern Front Theatre in 2021 to create the micro digital short film The Eyes of Nature; and was the 2020 artist-in-residence for Shipwright Theatre Company, where she developed the script In The Eyes of The Fire. A graduate of Nova Scotia Community College's Music Arts Program, Natasha combined her love of puppetry, music, and scriptwriting to curate the puppet cantata Freedom Runs, which has been live-streamed and viewed over 1,500 times on the Halifax Public Libraries website.

Under the guidance of distinguished mentor Evelyn C. White, Natasha will be working on the sequel to Freedom Runs, which depicts the hardships of those escaping chattel slavery through the Underground Railroad to Canada, particularly Nova Scotia. Created with the backing of the Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre (PARC), Freedom Runs 2 addresses what happened after arrival in Nova Scotia. Narrated by a grandmother and grandson, this puppet cantata incorporates vignettes of actual people and their heartaches and struggles as they find Canada not as free as they imagined.

2024/25 Jampolis Cottage Writers-in-Residence Read More »

Meet the 2024 MacLeod Mentorship participants

Program News

WFNS is pleased to announce the 10 writers participating in the 2024 Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program as apprentices and mentors:

Fiction

Theo Feehan-Peters (recipient of the Charles R. Saunders Prize) is a software developer by trade who lives in Windsor, Nova Scotia. After discovering creative writing through game development, he has fallen in love with the craft. Theo grew up in the United States, but Canada has always been his home—particularly Cape Breton, where his parents are from. Theo’s Saunders Prize-winning submission is an excerpt from his speculative novel-in-progress, Paradise, a loose retelling of the war in Heaven from Lucifer’s perspective, set in a cyberpunk dystopia ruled by angels.

Theo’s mentor is Tom Ryan, the author of several books, including the multiple award winning YA mystery Keep This to Yourself. His adult mystery debut The Treasure Hunters Club (Simon & Schuster) will be released in October, 2024.

Fiction

Dana Mount teaches English and Environmental Studies at Cape Breton University. Her novel-in-progress follows a university student who accidentally gets a summer job in an animal research lab.

Dana’s mentor is Chris Benjamin, the author of five books, including his most recent hitchhiking memoir, Chasing Paradise: A hitchhiker’s search for home in a world at war with itself. His short-story collection, Boy With A Problem, was shortlisted for the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction; his novel Drive-by Saviours was longlisted for Canada Reads.

Memoir

Storme Arden is a painter and photographer working on a memoir chronicling recent adventures with celiac disease, incurable cancer, and a PTSD-producing ICU experience with the rare virus, Guillain-Barré.

Storme’s mentor is Donna Morrissey, originally from The Beaches in Newfoundland. She studied at Memorial University in St. John’s and lived in various parts of Canada before settling down in Halifax, where she now lives. She has written 7 best selling novels and has received awards in Canada, the US, and England.

Memoir

Forty years after leaving England, Elizabeth Jeha returned to her homeland from Halifax to help her elderly parents and found herself sharing the last year of their lives with their extraordinary caregiver. Her memoir project, Care For Me, is an exploration of how we care for our elderly and their caregivers, identity, and the restorative power of place when memory is reunited with the land which formed it.

Elizabeth’s mentor is Sandra Phinney, a prolific feature writer; the author of four nonfiction books; and a teacher of several online writing courses and in-person workshops. In her spare time, she paddles in the wilderness.

Poetry

Janelle Levesque is an emerging poet based in Halifax. Her work explores themes of love, loss, and liminality, capturing the immediacy of life through the intimacy of language. Her poems have been published in 7 Mondays and Open Heart Forgery. She is currently working on her first poetry chapbook.

Janelle’s mentor is Alice Burdick, who lives in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. She is a cookbook editor, and a poet. Her most recent book is The East Coast Christmas Cookbook (Formac Publishing), and she has new book of poetry forthcoming in 2024.

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Meet the recipients of the 2024 Emerging Writers Prizes

Award News, Program News

Congratulations to the 2024 recipients of WFNS’s three Emerging Writers Prizes!

The Charles R. Saunders Prize (valued at $4000) encourages literary creation in speculative fiction and in nonfiction by emerging writers of marginalized backgrounds—in short, writing by someone like Charles R. Saunders at the beginning of his career.
The Elizabeth Venart Prize (valued at $1700) recognizes the unique barriers to literary creation faced by women and other marginalized genders—in particular, the lack of time and space imposed by systems of gendered labour and gendered childrearing.
The Senator Don Oliver Black Voices Prize (valued at $5000) recognizes the barriers to literary creation and recognition faced by Black and African Nova Scotian writers—who have been and still are marginalized by systemic inequality, including within Canadian publishing.

Theo Feehan-Peters

2024 Charles R. Saunders Prize

Theo Feehan-Peters is a software developer by trade who lives in Windsor, Nova Scotia. After discovering creative writing through game development, he has fallen in love with the craft. Theo grew up in the United States, but Canada has always been his home—particularly Cape Breton, where his parents are from.

Theo's prize-winning submission is an excerpt from his speculative novel-in-progress, Paradise, a loose retelling of the war in Heaven from Lucifer's perspective, set in a cyberpunk dystopia ruled by angels. He is developing this manuscript through a five-month Alistair MacLeod Mentorship with author Tom Ryan.

Janice Sampson

2024 Elizabeth Venart Prize

Janice Sampson attended the University of King's College in Halifax, NS, and has lived her whole life on the beautiful south shore of Nova Scotia. The beach is one of her favourite places. The library is a close second as she loves books, slightly dismayed when a good one ends. She enjoys fiction and non-fiction and reads constantly.

Writing continuously since grade school, Janice has attended many creative writing workshops and joined several wonderful writers' groups. It is only recently that she submitted her stories to share with readers, just deciding she has a story to tell.

She is overjoyed and thrilled to win the Elizabeth Venart Prize. Her youthful aspiration was to be an author; being selected will give her the encouragement to pursue her dream.

Habiba Diallo

2024 Senator Don Oliver Black Voices Prize

Habiba Diallo is the author of #BlackInSchool (University of Regina Press, 2021). She was a finalist in the 2020 Bristol Short Story Prize, the 2019 Writers' Union of Canada Short Prose Competition, and the 2018 London Book Fair Pitch Competition. Habiba is an advocate and activist in support of women's maternal health. The Federal Government of Canada recognized her as an outstanding woman in 2019.

Habiba's prize-winning submission is an excerpt from her debut novel-in-progress, which captures the life of a young woman who must try to forgive to free herself from the burden of loss.

Meet the recipients of the 2024 Emerging Writers Prizes Read More »

BMO supports Black Voices Prize

Program News

The Honorable Don Oliver (right) receives BMO’s investment in the Black Voices Prize from Marc Champoux (left), Regional President of BMO. (Photo courtesy of Nicola Davison)

MEDIA RELEASE

HALIFAX, May 26, 2023 – BMO is investing $100,000 in the Senator Don Oliver Black Voices Prize, to support a new $5,000 annual prize to be awarded to emerging Black Nova Scotian writers. The prize will be administered by the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia.

The Senator Don Oliver Black Voices Prize will support and encourage the creation of literary work by Black writers from Atlantic Canada whose writing shows promise and career-advancing merit. The prize will amplify the voices of Black writers who are historically marginalized by systemic inequality, including within the publishing world.

“I wanted to create something that could be an incentive to those Black writers who have the potential and talent to rank among tomorrow’s leading writers,” says Senator Oliver, who has also contributed personally to the prize endowment. “It is my hope that the prize will encourage young Black writers to find their voices and share their stories with the world.”

In creating the prize, Senator Oliver wanted the prize money to be substantial. The $5,000 prize money will finance the time, space, and professional development required to write, revise and edit, and/or submit work for publication.

“BMO is proud to join Senator Oliver, an author himself and an inspiration to so many of us in Atlantic Canada, in supporting a prize so-well aligned with our bank’s Purpose, to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life”, said Marc Champoux, Regional President, BMO Private Wealth, Atlantic. “This is all about expanding access to opportunity and progress for Black writers, while lifting up valuable and unique contributions to Atlantic Canada’s rich literary culture.”

Applications for the inaugural prize will be accepted through the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia website and awarded by the end of the year.

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The Senator Don Oliver Black Voices Prize was officially launched on Friday, May 26, at BMO Financial Group’s Atlantic Regional Headquarters (Nova Centre, Halifax). (Photos courtesy of Nicola Davison.)

Throughout his life, The Honorable Dr. Don Oliver, CM, ONS, KC, has been a tireless spokesman for diversity, pluralism, fairness, and equality, for which he was awarded five honorary doctorate degrees from Canadian universities. Now retired, he has been many things during his career including successful businessman, lawyer, professor of law, farmer, and Senator. The first Black man appointed to the Senate of Canada, he served with distinction from 1990 to 2013. He resides at his beloved farm in Pleasant River, Queens Co., NS, reading, writing and meeting with friends. His memoir, A Matter of Equality: The Life’s Work of Senator Don Oliver, was published in 2021 by Nimbus Publishing.

BMO Financial Group is the eighth largest bank in North America by assets, with total assets of $1.15 trillion as of January 31, 2023. Serving customers for 200 years and counting, BMO is a diverse team of highly engaged employees providing a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management, global markets and investment banking products and services to 12 million customers across Canada, the United States, and in select markets globally. Driven by a single purpose, to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life, BMO is committed to driving positive change in the world, and making progress for a thriving economy, sustainable future and more inclusive society.

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is a nonprofit charity founded on the collaborative philosophy of “writers helping writers.” The WFNS has an annual membership of 700 writers at all career stages, who are engaged in a diverse range of forms, genres, and writing practices.

For more information, please contact:

Marilyn Smulders, Executive Director, Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, 902-423-8116, director@writers.ns.ca

Hannah Webster, BMO Media Relations, 416-881-9532, hannah.webster@bmo.com

BMO supports Black Voices Prize Read More »

Budge Wilson Short Story Prize

Silver Donald CameronEssay Prize

Rita Joe Poetry Prize

Joyce Barkhouse Middle-Grade & YA Fiction Prize

Budge Wilson Short Story Prize shortlist

Nova Essay Prize shortlist

Rita Joe Poetry Prize shortlist

Joyce Barkhouse Middle-Grade & YA Prize shortlist

Michelle Porter

Trevor Silver

Christine Wu

Les Tyler Johnson

Amy Saunders

Tracey Pinder

Jennifer Stewart

Carol Bruneau

Melissa Goertzen

Evelyn C. White

Roberta McGinn

Elaine McCluskey

Nailah Tataa

Julian Mortimer Smith

Nailah Tataa

Jaime Jacques

Natasha Thomas

Cory Lavender

Janelle Levesque

K.R. Byggdin

Asher Cookson

Jesse Nervais

Natasha Thomas

Fiction

Fiction

Memoir

Memoir

Poetry

Theo Feehan-Peters

Janice Sampson

Habiba Diallo

Simultaneous Submissions

Recommended Experience Levels

Budge Wilson
Short Story Prize

Silver Donald Cameron
Essay Prize

Rita Joe
Poetry Prize

Joyce Barkhouse
Middle-Grade & YA Fiction Prize