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AfterWords Literary Festival

Date/Time:
at - at
Location:
various venues in Halifax
Link:
https://afterwordsliteraryfestival.com/festival-2025/
Calendar:
Community event

Seventh Annual AfterWords Literary Festival
Saturday November 1 to Sunday November 9

Writers and readers meet at the seventh annual AfterWords Literary Festival, with a full week of events in venues around Kjipuktuk/Halifax.

From our opening Kids’ Day/Journée jeunesse at Halifax Central Library, to our closing night conversation with radio host and best-selling author Terry O’Reilly at The Bus Stop Theatre, from brunch at The Carleton with David A. Robertson and Jesse Wente to a rousing talk about poetry with Sue Goyette, Billy-Ray Belcourt, and katherena vermette, from a screening of a new documentary by poet Asiah Sparks to a midweek party at Cafe Lara—this year’s festival brings together more than fifty writers in Halifax for readings, conversations, workshops, and more. Tickets are on sale now. Find the full lineup and buy tickets on our website https://afterwordsliteraryfestival.com/.

The AfterWords Literary Festival is sponsored by University of King’s College, Starboard Wealth Planners, Dalhousie University, The Halifax Independent School, and Rosie Porter Realtor, along with funders J&W Murphy Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, Canada, Nova Scotia, Arts Nova Scotia, Halifax. None of this work would be possible without these amazing supporters.

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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 and 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.

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 information, strategies, and skills that suit their career stage. 

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 you’re uncertain of your experience level with regard to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca