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Cabot Trail Writers Festival

Date/Time:
at - at
Venue:
Colaisde na Gàidhlig / The Gaelic College
Location:
51779 Cabot Trail, St. Ann's. More info
Link:
https://www.cabottrailwritersfestival.com/
Calendar:
Community event

Our weekend festival unfolds over three days in St. Ann’s and surrounding communities, a rural region of Unama’ki (Cape Breton), Nova Scotia.

Over its 18 years, the Cabot Trail Writers Festival has hosted such literary luminaries as Jane Urquhart, Jesse Thistle, Shelagh Rogers, Omar El Akkad, David Chariandy, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Eleanor Wachtel, Desmond Cole, Kate Beaton, George Elliott Clarke, Lynn Coady, Lawrence Hill, Lisa Moore, Madeleine Thien and Ann-Marie MacDonald, but we also make it a priority to showcase local and emerging writers. The readings and conversations and workshops and forest walks we share together conjure the warmth and intimacy of a community gathering, as we welcome in old friends and new.

The land around us is an inspiration for our festival, as it is a character in all our stories. This is an island of readers and of writers, a place where storytelling is no more confined to the page than fiddling is confined to the stage.

Our festival aims to create a home for all these readers and writers and anyone else who cares to join us, connecting and building community between us all, at a lively, and inspiring celebration of the incredible richness of all our many stories and the transformative power of reading and of words.

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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, writing for 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.

Occasionally, WFNS uses the phrase “emerging and established writers/authors” to mean ‘writers and authors of all experience levels.’

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 info, strategies, and skills that suit their experience. 

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 uncertain about your experience level with respect to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca