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Speculative Realism (Halifax) with David Huebert

What are the limits of the real? How do fiction writers exploit and explore these limits, testing the boundaries of what feels real in fiction? Drawing on some literary examples (Marilyn Robinson; Virginia Woolf), this workshop will offer participants tangible tools for enhancing their atmospheres and settings and making stories zing. The workshop will include some theoretical group conversation, some participant-driven exercises, and some take-home tools.

David Huebert is the author of the short story collections Peninsula Sinking (Biblioasis) and Chemical Valley (Biblioasis) and the debut novel Oil People (Penguin Random House). His writing has won the CBC Short Story Prize and the Alistair MacLeod Short Fiction Prize and has been a finalist for the Journey Prize, the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and the Amazon Canada First Novel Award. His novel, Oil People, has been called “lyrical,” “elegant,” and “wildly hallucinatory” and recently received the 2025 Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award.

Recommended experience level: Emerging fiction writers and early-career fiction authors (About recommended experience levels)

Participant cap: 12

Location: CFNS Atrium adjoining the WFNS Office (1113 Marginal Rd, Halifax, NS)
    [This is a wheelchair-accessible venue with a wheelchair-accessible, all-gender washroom.]

Dates of 3-night workshop: Tuesday, Apr 21 + Wednesday, Apr 22 + Thursday, Apr 23, 2026 (7:00pm to 9:00pm Atlantic)

Registration for 2026 General Members: $149

Registration for non-members: $214 (includes 2026 General Membership in WFNS)

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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