WFNS logo ltrmark sticky 100px
WFNS logo ltrmark sticky 100px

Novel Study led by Tricia Snell: ‘The Wall,’ Marlen Haushofer

Date:
Time:
-
Location:
Virtual
Link:
https://soapstone.org/study_groups.html
Calendar:
Member event

NOVEL STUDY GROUP:
Reading The Wall by Marlen Haushofer
Six Saturdays: Feb 21 thru March 28, 2026
2 – 4 pm AST
via Zoom (recorded & available to participants for 3 wks)
$75 (US$ because the workshop is offered through a Portland, Oregon nonprofit called Soapstone, that supports women writers)
Limited to 16 participants

Austrian writer Marlen Haushofer’s mesmerizing novel, The Wall, has become a feminist classic. It was originally published in 1963, translated into English and published by a small press in 1990, and reissued by New Directions in 2022. An excellent film adaptation was released in 2022, but don’t watch it before reading!

On a holiday with friends in the Austrian Alps, the novel’s unnamed protagonist becomes sealed off from the rest of humanity by an invisible, uncrossable wall. As the story unfolds, she turns inward to her forest enclosure and her animal community, which includes a loving dog Lynx, a cat Pearl, and a cow Bella. Anyone who loves animals, ecology, and ethical questions will love this book.

Your job as a study group participant: read the book and show up on Zoom for two-hour Saturday classes, for six weeks (Feb 21-Mar 28, 2026, 2-4pmAST). Tricia’s job as facilitator: ensure everyone enjoys the discussion, which will go deep into the story, language, subjects, and context of this amazing novel.

Texts: The Wall, by Marlen Haushofer (translated by Shaun Whiteside), 248 pages, published by New Directions on June 21, 2022, available in bookstores and online.

To register: Send an email to soapstonewriting@gmail.com. Once you receive a reply saying there’s room in the group, you can arrange payment & secure your spot.

BIO: Tricia Snell (www.triciasnell.com) is a Nova Scotian writer and teacher. Stories of hers have been longlisted for the CBC’s Short Story Prize, read on NPR’s Sound of Writing, and included in literary magazines & anthologies. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing/Fiction from George Mason University. She lives in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

Scroll to Top
WFNS logo ltrmark sticky 100px

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 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