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Finding Your Voice: A Writers’ Retreat with Marjorie Simmins

Date/Time:
September 19, 2025 - September 21, 2025
Venue:
Thinkers Lodge National Historic Site
Location:
249 Water Street, Pugwash. More info
Calendar:
Member event

A three-day retreat on the shores of the Northumberland Strait. Open to emerging and established writers. Includes one-on-one chats with author and journalist Marjorie Simmins to identify your writing strengths and goals, as well as group discussions related to the craft of non-fiction. Lots of time for beach walks, the Farmers’ Market, and exploring the seaside town. For more details: mls@marjoriesimmins.ca

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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