Just My Type

This Valentine’s Day, the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is helping you share your love (and wow your beloved) by offering custom, typewritten poems!

  • $10 for a heartfelt haiku (3 lines)
  • $20 for a swoonworthy sestet (6 lines)
  • $40 for a wild-eyed, windswept sonnet (up to 14 lines)

Live-typed poems will be available from poets at the following farmers’ markets, with cash accepted for orders. Pick up your completed poem when you finish shopping—or have it mailed to your beloved (or yourself) at the end of the day.

  • Feb 8: Halifax Brewery Market (312-1496 Lower Water St, Brewery Square, Halifax), with poems composed by Lindsey Harrington & Aren Morris
  • Feb 8: Wolfville Farmers’ Market (24 Elm Ave, Wolfville), with poems composed by Blanca Baquero, Ami McKay, & Angela Reynolds
  • Feb 13: Lunenburg Farmers’ Market (17 Green St, Lunenburg), with poems composed by Michelle Elrick

Poems can also be ordered online (see form and donation button below). Your poem will be composed by Jen Colclough, Lindsey Harrington, Dea Toivonen, or Andy Verboom, transcribed via typewriter, and mailed to your beloved (or yourself) on Feb 12.

All funds raised will be directed towards the Maxine Tynes Nova Scotia Poetry Award.

Order online
Extended order deadline: Feb 9

Please complete your purchase first, then return to this page to submit the below form. If ordering multiple poems, submit the form once for each poem.

Your name will be included with your mailed poem.
If you'd like us to include a nickname instead, please put your full name in parenthesis—"Nickname (Full Name)"—so we can match your poem with your donation.
Please identify your beloved's relationship to you. (You may also enter "myself.")
Please enter three key words.
E.g., eye colour, hair texture, smell, etc.
Include name, PO Box or street address, city/town, and province.
Please note that we can mail poems only to Canadian addresses.
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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 firstcopyright 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