Come celebrate community with three fabulous local authors!
Moderator Nicole Johnson leads a thought-provoking discussion with panelists Dr. Carolyn G. Thomas (The Underground Railroad to Nova Scotia), Dr. Claudette Bouman (Failing Forward in Saarland), and Charlene Carr (We Rip the World Apart).
Together, these authors discuss the writing process, their publishing journeys, and how their lived experiences influence their work.
Light refreshments will be served. Books will be available for purchase.
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
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.
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!
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.
Agricola Street Books (2684 Agricola St, Halifax)
Atlantic News (5560 Morris St, Halifax)
Carrefour Atlantic Emporium (1869 Upper Water St, Halifax)
Dartmouth Book Exchange (1187 Cole Harbour Rd, Dartmouth)
Egghead Books (5696 Roberts St, Halifax)
Otis and Clementine’s (5209 St. Margaret’s Bay Rd, Upper Tantallon)
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.
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)
An abandoned house with shadowy windows, a hand that floats in the air, a grey lady that vanishes… these are the “things” that have been witnessed along Nova Scotia’s shores. Join storyteller Cindy Campbell-Stone for this spine-tingling performance of unexplained encounters in folklore. Advanced registration will be required by purchase of a $10 gift certificate to monitor our numbers.
Sweet Ride at Bluenose Lodge
A new play with music by Reid Campbell and Laurel Darnell
Bluenose Lodge, in partnership with Flying Fish Theatre, is pleased to announce eight performances of Sweet Ride.
Inspired by Ann Barry‘s 2017 book, Sweet Ride is the true story of a “grand adventure” taken in the summer of 1943. Four young women embark on a journey by bicycle from Blockhouse, Nova Scotia, to see their musical hero, Don Messer. They realize their dream, sitting in the studio audience during Mr. Messer’s live radio broadcast at the CFCY Studio, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
Set during the height of World War Two, the adventure recounts 400 miles on one-speed bicycles, blistering heat, torrential rain, roadside aid provided by soldiers and the rides at the Bill Lynch Carnival. Two actors, two musicians, one period bicycle and eight songs tell this charming tale of perseverance in pursuit of a dream.
April 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th (5:45pm – roughly 9pm)
&
April 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th (5:45pm – roughly 9pm)
Dinner & show package includes three course meal & gratuities
$115.00 per person plus hst
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
