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WFNS Calendar

Days of the Week
Time of Day
Venues
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Tue
10

New Budget Now rally

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Message to WFNS members from Executive Director Oriana Duinker: Call to action: oppose the defunding of Nova Scotian arts, heritage, and culture Additional note from WFNS staff: This rally against the proposed provincial austerity budget will be for all affected groups across the province. It will rely on a critical mass of people showing solidarity […]
Thu
26

Raddall Reading: David Huebert in Conversation with Alexander MacLeod

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David Huebert, author of Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award-winning novel Oil People + Alexander MacLeod, author of Light Lifting and Animal Person
Wed
01

Making the Everyday Magical / Making the Magical Everyday (virtual) with Julian Mortimer Smith

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2-week workshop begins.
Tue
21

Speculative Realism (Halifax) with David Huebert

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3-night workshop begins.
Wed
29

Shelf Indulgence book club (virtual) with Jon Tattrie

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Free virtual book club, with guest host Jon Tattrie leading discussion of Charles R. Saunders’s Imaro.
Wed
06

Trans Writers Fiction Intensive (virtual) with K.R. Byggdin

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5-week workshop begins. Registration open & free for NS trans, non-binary, & Two-Spirit writers.
Thu
08

Emerging Writers Prizes

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Submission deadline for WFNS’s annual prizes recognizing barriers to literary creation.
Thu
08

Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program

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Application deadline for WFNS’s annual mentorship program.
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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