Skip to content
WFNS logo ltrmark sticky 100px
WFNS logo ltrmark sticky 100px

Events

Read by the Sea Literary Festival

Date/Time:
at - at
Location:
Pictou
Link:
https://www.ReadbytheSea.ca
Calendar:
Organizational event

Read by the Sea is a summer literary festival featuring readings by outstanding Canadian authors. The festival includes WordPlay, a fun-filled mini festival for children of all ages; OnWords, an event for middle-grade and young adult readers; Wordstock, a series of literary and storytelling shenanigans; and Main Stage, a day of author readings and Q&A.

June 20, 2025

  • Writers workshop will be hosted by Marjorie Simmins (In Search of Puffins, Pottersfield Press)
  • WordPlay authors are Kevin Sylvester (Hockey Super Six, Scholastic Canada) and Joan Marie Galat (DCB)
  • OnWords authors are Basil Sylvester (Night of the Living Zed, HarperCollins Canada) and Jean Mills (After the Wallpaper Music, Pajama Press)

June 21, 2025

  • Main Stage authors are David A. Robertson (All the Little Monsters: How I Learned to Live with Anxiety, HarperCollins Canada), Vernon Oickle (Nine Crows for a Kiss, Moose House Publications), Charlene Carr (We Rip The World Apart, HarperCollins Canada), and Myna Wallin (Ekstasis Editions)

We do hope you’ll come out to meet these fabulous Canadian authors and show your support! Thanks to Indigo, Chapters, and Coles (Coles Highland Square) for agreeing to be our event bookseller once again!

More announcements will start being made very quickly now, we just wanted to ensure those eager readers had as much time as possible to read the authors’ books in advance!

Read by the Sea Literary Festival Read More »

Book launch: Bind

Date:
Time:
-
Venue:
Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia
Location:
1113 Marginal Rd, Halifax. More info
Link:
https://bwlpublishing.ca/moulton-donalee/
Calendar:
Member event

This is a book launch for a new mystery set in Nova Scotia: Bind. We’ll do a reading, have a quiz, eat some munchies, and sell a book or two. But mostly we’ll have fun.

donalee Moulton’s first mystery book, Hung out to Die, was published in 2023. A historical mystery, Conflagration!, was published in 2024. It won the 2024 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense (Historical Fiction). donalee has two new books coming out in 2025, Bind and Melt, the first in a new series, the Lotus Detective Agency. A short story “Swan Song” was one of 21 selected for publication in Cold Canadian Crime. It was shortlisted for an Award of Excellence. Other short stories have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines. donalee’s short story “Troubled Water” was shortlisted for a 2024 Derringer Award and a 2024 Award of Excellence from the Crime Writers of Canada. donalee is an award-winning freelance journalist. She has written articles for print and online publications across North America including The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Lawyer’s Daily, National Post, and Canadian Business. As well, donalee is the author of The Thong Principle: Saying What You Mean and Meaning What You Say and co-authored the book, Celebrity Court Cases: Trials of the Rich and Famous.

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia office is a wheelchair-accessible venue with a wheelchair-accessible, non-gendered washroom. For assistance finding the WFNS office door, see our map of the area.

Book launch: Bind Read More »

dART Speak

Date:
Time:
-
Venue:
The Dart Gallery
Location:
127 Portland Street, Dartmouth. More info
Link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/498535712311932
Calendar:
Organizational event

Share your writing with us or just come listen. Poetry, fiction, nonfiction all are welcome!

What can you expect?
Doors open around 6:45 for this PWYC event. Slot signup on-site. This is a great place to practice public reading and test out new work in a friendly group of like-minded creatives. We always have a good time, lots of applause and laughs.

The bar is open, and there’s limited (order-in) food service.

The venue is mostly on one level but there are three stairs to get to the washroom. The front door isn’t automatic, please knock if you need assistance!

dART Speak Read More »

Atlantic Book Awards Gala

Date:
Time:
-
Link:
https://atlanticbookawards.ca/
Calendar:
Organizational event

Join us for the literary event of the season — the Atlantic Book Awards Gala with emcee Amy Smith of CBC Nova Scotia. Five book awards will be presented, including the J.M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award, the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children’s Literature, the APMA Award for Best Atlantic Published Book, the Alistair MacLeod Award for Short Fiction, and the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. The winner of the Atlantic Legacy Award will also be announced.

Booksellers Bookmark and Woozles will be on site. Delectable nibblies. Cash bar.

Atlantic Book Awards Gala Read More »

Nova Scotia Book Awards Gala

Date:
Time:
-
Link:
https://novascotiabookawards.ca/
Calendar:
Organizational event

Join with us as we celebrate books written and published in Nova Scotia. We’ll present several Nova Scotia book awards, including the Maxine Tynes Nova Scotia Poetry Award, the Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award, the George Borden Writing for Change Award, the Dartmouth Fiction Award, and the Margaret & John Savage First Book Awards (Fiction and Nonfiction).

King’s Co-op Bookstore will be on site with all nominated titles. Cash bar.

Nova Scotia Book Awards Gala Read More »

Book launch: In Search of Puffins

Date:
Time:
-
Venue:
Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia
Location:
1113 Marginal Rd, Halifax. More info
Link:
https://nimbus.ca/store/in-search-of-puffins-stories-of-loss-light-and-flight.html
Calendar:
Member event

Join Marjorie Simmins for the launch of In Search of Puffins: Stories of Loss, Light and Flight (Pottersfield Press, 2025). The event includes a reading and book signings with cash sales.

In Search of Puffins: Stories of Loss, Light and Flight is the third memoir in a series that began with Coastal Lives and Year of the Horse. In it, author Marjorie Simmins honours her late husband, Silver Donald Cameron, and all those who recreate themselves after loss. It’s also a profoundly optimistic book, believing in the healing powers of friendship, laughter, and time.

Marjorie Simmins is an award-winning author, journalist, and teacher. She has written five nonfiction books and has written for newspapers and magazines across Canada and in the United States. Now based in Truro, Nova Scotia, Simmins offers writing workshops in person, around the Maritimes and across Canada, as well conducting as Zoom workshops, from Coast to Coast (always hoping to find Northern writers).

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia office is a wheelchair-accessible venue with a wheelchair-accessible, non-gendered washroom. For assistance finding the WFNS office door, see our map of the area.

Book launch: In Search of Puffins Read More »

dART Speak

Date:
Time:
-
Venue:
The Dart Gallery
Location:
127 Portland Street, Dartmouth. More info
Link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/498535712311932
Calendar:
Organizational event

Share your writing with us or just come listen. Poetry, fiction, nonfiction all are welcome!

What can you expect?
Doors open around 6:45 for this PWYC event. Slot signup on-site. This is a great place to practice public reading and test out new work in a friendly group of like-minded creatives. We always have a good time, lots of applause and laughs.

The bar is open, and there’s limited (order-in) food service.

The venue is mostly on one level but there are three stairs to get to the washroom. The front door isn’t automatic, please knock if you need assistance!

dART Speak Read More »

Literary Trivia

Date:
Time:
-
Venue:
Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia
Location:
1113 Marginal Rd, Halifax. More info
Link:
https://writers.ns.ca/workshops-events/literary-trivia/
Calendar:
WFNS Events

Writer meet-up. In-person (Halifax).

Literary Trivia Read More »

Atlantic Legacy Award nomination deadline

Date:
Time:
All Day
Link:
https://atlanticbookawards.ca/the-atlantic-legacy-award-2/
Calendar:
Organizational event

The Atlantic Book Awards Society seeks nominations for the 2025 Atlantic Legacy Award. This award honours individuals who have made a lasting contribution to the development of the literary arts in Atlantic Canada, people who have gone above and beyond the call of duty and who have, through innovation, risk-taking, self-sacrifice, and/or creativity, provided opportunity or inspiration (or both) for those sharing Atlantic Canadian stories through writing and publishing.

Atlantic Legacy Award nomination deadline Read More »

1113 Marginal Road

Halifax, NS B3H 4P7

902 423 8116

contact@writers.ns.ca

Privacy Policy

 

Instagram Facebook Bluesky Youtube
Menu

Operational Investors

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.

© Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, 2025. All rights reserved.

Scroll to Top
WFNS logo ltrmark sticky 100px

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