Events held by other NS literary & arts organizations, festivals, indie bookstores, and other groups
Scholarships support emerging Nova Scotian artists undertaking artistic development studies. This application deadline (5pm Atlantic) is for studies beginning in fall/winter.
NS Talent Trust Scholarships Read More »
The Atlantic Book Awards Society board has the mandate “to promote and acknowledge excellence in Atlantic Canadian writing and book publishing through an annual awards ceremony and related events.” During the upcoming AGM, the board will review last year’s festival and look ahead to this year’s festival, May 29 to June 5.
Interested in attending? Please email atlanticbookawardsfestival@gmail.com
Atlantic Book Awards Society AGM Read More »
Connect with HRM’s Poets Laureate as a finale to National Poetry Month! Poet Laureate Anna Quon and Youth Poet Laureate Asha Abdosh will share selections from their work and engage in conversation about their practice, their interest in poetry, and their connections to community.
Two Poets Talking: A Conversation Between Poets Laureate Read More »
Shean Poets & Writers invite you to an afternoon of poetry. Put a poem in your pocket and bring it along. Be it haiku or lyric, free verse or rhyme, traditional or modern, funny or sad, seasoned or shy, we’d love to have you join us. Questions: tpmvfh@gmail.com
Open Mic Poetry at Judique Historical Society Read More »
Join Read by the Sea for another edition of Books on the Breeze, this time with national best-selling author, screenwriter, and columnist Lesley Crewe!
Lesley will be reading from her recent work Death & Other Inconveniences (Vagrant Press 2024), followed by a Q&A session.
This reading is free and open to the public.
Books on the Breeze is presented by Read by the Sea in partnership with the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia and the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library, and supported by Arts Nova Scotia and the Access Copyright Foundation.
Books on the Breeze: Lesley Crewe, Reading and Q&A Read More »
Join Read by the Sea for another edition of Books on the Breeze, this time with national best-selling author, screenwriter, and columnist Lesley Crewe!
Lesley’s workshop “Yikes! I Want to be a Writer!” will be a cozy get-together where she shares what she has learned from two decades of writing experience.
This workshop is free to attend. Please register by emailing rjreadbythesea@gmail.com.
Books on the Breeze is presented by Read by the Sea in partnership with the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia and the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library, and supported by Arts Nova Scotia and the Access Copyright Foundation.
Books on the Breeze: Lesley Crewe, Workshop Read More »
Canadian Independent Bookstore Day (CIBD) is the annual day when readers, writers, illustrators, publishers, and others come together to celebrate indie bookstores across Canada. By joining the celebration, you are advocating for independent businesses, supporting a flourishing bookselling community, and investing in Canadian culture.
We will have a brand new scavenger hunt for the kids. Completed scavenger hunts will get a free picture book, while supplies last. See the first table upon entering for details and prizes.
Customers with purchases of over $50- (before taxes) will get their choice of a mystery book, while supplies last. (Mystery books are different from our Blind Dates books. Mystery books have the genre on the front along with a quote from inside the book.)
We will also have a table set up with 20% off new local books as marked.
We will also be participating with 8 other HRM Independent Bookstores in a “passport” that day. (See the main event.)
We hope to see you Saturday, April 26th, between 10am and 6pm!
CIBD at Dartmouth Book Exchange Read More »
Canadian Independent Bookstore Day (CIBD) is the annual day when readers, writers, illustrators, publishers, and others come together to celebrate indie bookstores across Canada. By joining the celebration, you are advocating for independent businesses, supporting a flourishing bookselling community, and investing in Canadian culture.
Those in the Halifax Regional Muncipality (HRM) area can participate in the HRM Independent Bookstore Day Passport!
How does the Passport work?
Visit all 9 of the participating HRM bookstores in person and get a sticker, stamp, or signature from each store. Once you have completed your postcard, bring it to one of the participating stores nearest you by Sunday, May 4th, to be entered in the draw. Each store will have a draw for a tote bag full of swag! No purchase necessary.
Canadian Independent Bookstore Day (HRM) Read More »
Spring ForeWord, a four-day mini-festival in Halifax, is presented by AfterWords Literary Festival and sponsored by the King’s Co-op Bookstore.
AwkWord: True stories, told live in front of an audience
With Catherine Bush, Vinh Nguyen, Fazeela Jiwa, Monica Njoku, Stephanie Domet, and Carole Rankin
Hosted by Stephanie Domet, this raucous night features true stories told candidly and off the cuff. Snacks are on the house. The bar is open. Laughs are guaranteed.
Friday, April 25
7:00PM – 9:00PM (Doors open at 6:30PM)
Cafe Lara (2347 Agricola Street, Halifax)
Tickets: $10.00
Double Poetry Launch
With Christine Wu, Jessica Bebenek, and Clare Goulet
Friday, April 25
7:00PM – 8:30PM
Trident Booksellers & Cafe (1256 Hollis St, Halifax)
Free to attend
Independent Bookstore Day
Saturday, April 26
All Day
We love our local independent bookstores, and we support them every day, but on Independent Bookstore Day we show them a bit of additional love. Our Spring ForeWord bookseller is the King’s Co-op Bookstore—hard to find, in the basement of the New Academic Building at the University of King’s College—but worth the search, every time.
Writing Characters, Writing the World
A fiction workshop with Catherine Bush
When writing fiction, we face the challenge of bringing characters to life and moving them through a lively world. This workshop will consider how we can use point-of-view, techniques of imaginative noticing, and keeping our characters and the world in motion to create liveliness and life-like-ness on the page. The workshop will involve a variety of in-class prompts. Be prepared to be playful and exploratory. Space is limited in this workshop.
Saturday, April 26
10:00AM – 12:00PM
Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (1113 Marginal Road, Halifax)
Tickets: $25.00 (If price is a barrier, please email info@afterwordsliteraryfestival.com)
Saturday Night at Spring ForeWord
With Vinh Nguyen, Mélikah Abdelmoumen, Fazeela Jiwa, Chad Lucas, Rebecca Thomas, Sue Goyette, Grayer Parsons, Eris Davis, and Asha Abdosh
We’re celebrating our second annual Youth Mentorship Program with readings from Grayer Parsons, Eris Davis, and Halifax Youth Poet Laureate Asha Abdosh, along with their mentors Chad Lucas, Rebecca Thomas, and Sue Goyette. After an intermission featuring snacks, we’ll welcome Vinh Nguyen and Mélikah Abdelmoumen in conversation with Fazeela Jiwa. Read about Vinh’s new book, The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse, and Mélikah’s new book, Baldwin, Styron, and Me, and join us for this night of readings, conversation, and celebration.
Saturday, April 26
6:30PM – 9:00PM (Doors open 6:00PM)
Park Place Theatre, 5480 Point Pleasant Drive (in Point Pleasant Park, lower parking lot)
Tickets: $10.00
Sunday Night at Spring ForeWord
With Emma Donoghue, K.R. Byggdin, and Jaime Burnet
Emma Donoghue returns to AfterWords, with her new book The Paris Express. Based on an 1895 disaster that went down in history when it was captured in a series of surreal, extraordinary photographs, The Paris Express is a thrilling ride and a literary masterpiece that captures the politics, fears, and chaos of the end of the nineteenth century. Emma joins award-winning writer and festival fave K.R. Byggdin in conversation. And to start the night, Jaime Burnet reads from her highly anticipated second novel, Milk Tooth.
Sunday, April 27
7:00PM – 9:00PM (Doors open 6:30PM)
Park Place Theatre, 5480 Point Pleasant Drive (in Point Pleasant Park, lower parking lot)
Tickets: $10.00
On Writing
With Emma Donoghue
Hear all about Emma Donoghue’s writing practice and process, while enjoying lunch at The Carleton, Halifax’s legendary and award-winning entertainment venue. This wide-ranging conversation, hosted by Stephanie Domet, will explore every aspect of the writer’s work. Though this conversation will be of particular interest to writers, readers are equally welcome and will find much to chew over. Yes, lunch pun intended. In fact, lunch is included in the ticket price, and will be served throughout the event.
Monday, April 28
Doors Open at 11:30AM. Conversation and lunch from 12:00PM to 1:00PM, followed by book sales and signing.
The Carleton (1685 Argyle Street, Halifax)
Tickets: $35.00 (includes lunch; vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options available)
Spring ForeWord mini-festival Read More »
Come out to our first Open Mic for writers on Thursday, April 17 at 7-8:30pm.
Any style of writing goes, by new or experienced writers. Feel free to try out your original writing on a small live audience — or just come listen! Light refreshments will be served.
Email canninglibrary@gmail.com to be added to the list of readers!
Open Mic at Canning Library Read More »
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:
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.
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.
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
