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Spring ForeWord mini-festival

Date/Time:
at - at
Link:
https://afterwordsliteraryfestival.com/spring-foreword/
Calendar:
Community event

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)

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Simultaneous Submissions

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) administers some programs (and special projects) that involve print and/or digital publication of ‘selected’ or ‘winning’ entries. In most cases, writing submitted to these programs and projects must not be previously published and must not be simultaneously under consideration for publication by another organization. Why? Because our assessment and selection processes depends on all submitted writing being available for first publication. If writing selected for publication by WFNS has already been published or is published by another organization first, copyright issues will likely make it impossible for WFNS to (re-)publish that writing.

When simultaneous submissions to a WFNS program are not permitted, it means the following:

  • You may not submit writing that has been accepted for future publication by another organization.
  • You may not submit writing that is currently being considered for publication by another organization—or for another prize that includes publication.
  • The writing submitted to WFNS may not be submitted for publication to another organization until the WFNS program results are communicated. Results will be communicated directly to you by email and often also through the public announcement of a shortlist or list of winners. Once your writing is no longer being considered for the WFNS program, you are free to submit it elsewhere.
    • If you wish to submit your entry elsewhere before WFNS program results have been announced, you must first contact WFNS to withdraw your entry. Any entry fee cannot be refunded.

Prohibitions on simultaneous submission do not apply to multiple WFNS programs. You are always permitted to submit the same unpublished writing to multiple WFNS programs (and special projects) at the same time, such as the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program, the Emerging Writers Prizes, the Jampolis Cottage Residency Program, the Message on a Bottle contest, the Nova Writes Competition, and any WFNS projects involving one-time or recurring special publications.

Recommended Experience Levels

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) recommends that participants in any given workshop 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. The “Recommended experience level” section of each workshop description refers to the following definitions used by WFNS.

  • 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, and writing for children and young adults) 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.

For “intensive” and “masterclass” creative writing 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