Program News

In 2020, with pandemic conditions prohibiting the annual Celebration of Emerging Writers, we’re celebrating the graduates of the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program by sharing their work with you in video form, illustrated and animated by Nova Scotia visual artists. View all their videos here.

Bev Shaw reading “Undertow,” with animation by Anna Quon

Brad Donaldson reading “Away,” with illustration by Patrick McWade

Joanne Gallant reading an excerpt from her memoir, with videography by Catherine Bussiere

Angela Bowden reading “Black Boy Guilty” and “The Belly of the Beast,” with artwork by Doretta Groenendyk

Sandra Murdock reading “No is a Complete Sentence,” with illustration by Marijke Simons

Katie Cameron reading “Anticipatory Grief” and “Fences,” with animation by Paton Francis

Sue Murtagh reading “Lost Purse,” with illustration by Belle DeMont

We’re proud to present our virtual Poetry in Motion Celebration for 2020 — on the theme “journeys” — featuring video readings of all ten selected poems by, of course, the poets themselves: Sue Goyette, Asha Jeffers, Nanci Lee, Vanessa Lent, Tiffany Morris, Nolan Natasha, Lorri Neilsen Glenn, Anna Quon, Samantha Sternberg, and Evelyn C. White.

You can also purchase all ten poems as a postcard set ($10 plus shipping). All proceeds from postcard sales will support the endowment for our new Nova Scotia Poetry Award.

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) is thrilled to announce the names of the ten poets who will have their writing featured as part of this year’s Poetry in Motion. This year, we received over 120 submissions from emerging and established writers across the province. The theme for this year’s Poetry in Motion is journeys.

The ten poets selected for this year’s project are

• Lorri Neilsen Glenn
• Sue Goyette
• Asha Jeffers
• Nanci Lee
• Vanessa Lent
• Tiffany Morris
• Nolan Natasha
• Anna Quon
• Samantha Sternberg
• Evelyn C. White

The final selection of poems was made by a jury consisting of two Nova Scotian poets, Jaime Forsythe and Sylvia D. Hamilton, and Karen Dahl from Halifax Public Libraries.

The WFNS thanks the jury for contributing their time and expertise to this selection. We would also like to thank all the writers who took the time to submit their work to this year’s project.

A public poetry art project, Poetry in Motion displays short poems (and excerpts from longer poems) on transit ads in buses throughout the Halifax Regional Municipality.

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is grateful to Arts Nova Scotia for their funding of Poetry in Motion and to the Halifax Regional Muncipality and Halifax Public Libraries for their partnership in realizing this project.