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Oliver-Craig Black Writers' Retreat

For questions about this retreat, contact program lead Andy Verboom at communications@writers.ns.ca

The Oliver-Craig Black Writers’ Retreat (two weeks in length) is open to permanent residents of Nova Scotia. Successful applicants are provided with free, shared residence; an honorarium of $500; and the instruction, mentorship, and advice of a distinguished Black or African Nova Scotian author.

This retreat aims to amplify the voices of Black and African Nova Scotian writers, who have been and are marginalized by systemic inequality, not least of all within Canadian publishing.

Held at Jampolis Cottage in Avonport, NS, each retreat offers two emerging or early-career Black or African Nova Scotian writers some of the best elements of a writing residency, a creative writing workshop, and a literary mentorship:

  • Two weeks of free, shared residence and groceries at Jampolis Cottage in Avonport, NS
  • An honorarium of $500
  • 10 group workshops led by the mentor
  • 5 one-on-one feedback and advisory sessions with the mentor
  • Written feedback from the mentor on work(s)-in-progress
  • Plenty of unstructured time to focus on writing and to connect with fellow Black and African Nova Scotian writers

The Oliver-Craig Black Writers’ Retreat is a tribute to the friendship between the Oliver and Craig families and is generously funded by the Honourable Don Oliver (CM, ONS, KC) and The Craig Foundation, founded by Joan and Jack Craig.

Meet the Honourable Don Oliver
Joan and Jack Craig, founders of the Craig Foundation
2025 Mentor Wanda Taylor

(Photo by Marsman Photographic)

2025 Oliver-Craig Retreat mentor: author, screenwriter, journalist, and professor Wanda Taylor.

Wanda Taylor is an award-winning author, screenwriter, journalist, and college professor. She writes both fiction and nonfiction across children’s, YA, and adult markets. Wanda is also a former CBC television producer and has written and produced content for film, television, and documentaries. Her other work can be found in publications and anthologies across Canada, the US, and the UK. As a former Acquisitions Editor, Wanda championed many emerging authors and stories. She continues to mentor writers through her work as a freelance editor, as sensitivity reader for book publishers, as a mentor for the Writers Union of Canada’s BIPOC Writers Connect program, and through her regular work as Faculty/Mentor for the MFA Writing and Publishing Residency Program at King’s College in Halifax.

In addition to the MFA program, Wanda is an Adjunct Professor for the Journalism program at King’s. She also teaches courses in screenwriting, journalism, and documentary filmmaking in Toronto. Wanda’s middle-grade nonfiction book, Birchtown and The Black Loyalists, is listed as one of the top Black history books for youth. Her recent middle-grade novel, The Grover School Pledge, was winner of the Northern Lights Award in the US and is a 2024/25 Hackmatack Award shortlisted nominee. Earlier in 2024, Wanda developed and facilitated a workshop called Black Voices, Black Stories through King’s College’s non-credit program, aiming to bring emerging Black writers together in a shared cultural space to take their works-in-progress to the next level.

In September, 2024, Wanda released two books in the Amazing Canadian Women series with Beech Street Books. Her next two titles are set for release in December, 2024, with HarperCollins and in February, 2025, with Nimbus Publishing. Wanda is currently co-writing a new book with visual artist and writer Paige Pettibon from Salish First Nation in Seattle, Washington. She is a member of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia and The Writers’ Union of Canada and is Vice President of the Canadian Non-Fiction Collective (CNFC). Wanda has won numerous awards for her work, including the prestigious Women of Excellence Award for Arts and Culture.

To be considered for the Oliver-Craig Black Writers’ Retreat, the applying writer must meet the following criteria.

  • You must be Black, African Nova Scotia, and/or African Canadian.
  • You must be a permanent resident of Nova Scotia, meaning that you have lived in Nova Scotia full-time for at least the past twelve (12) months and that you file your personal income taxes in Nova Scotia. (Out-of-province post-secondary students and seasonal residents are ineligible.)
  • You must be an emerging or early-career writer who has not published more than two (2) book-length literary projects, including traditionally published, partner- or hybrid-published, and self-published projects.
  • You must be 19 years of age of older by the current application deadline.

(At this time, we are not accepting applications from participants of past Oliver-Craig Retreats. If you attended the retreat in a previous year, we strongly encourage you to apply instead for a Sponsored Residency at Jampolis Cottage.)

Oliver-Craig Retreat application packages must contain all components listed below and must be submitted by the application deadline. Each application package must be submitted as a single digital document (in .doc or .pdf format) with a file name as follows: FirstName LastName – Oliver-Craig Retreat (where “FirstName” is your given name and “LastName” is your family name or chosen surname). Incomplete, late, non-digital, or misnamed application packages are ineligible.

A. ‘Cover letter’—that is, personal responses up to 2 pages total (single-spaced; in 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial font) to the following questions. All questions must be answered within these 2 pages, but the length of any particular response is up to you. Please start a new paragraph for each response.

  1. How long have you been writing creatively?
  2. Summarize your creative writing activity for the past twelve months.
  3. Describe the work(s)-in-progress that you would like to continue, complete, revise, or otherwise develop during the retreat (including number of pages drafted). If describing a single work-in-progress, it should be long-form fiction, nonfiction, or poetry (i.e., a book-length manuscript or collection). If describing short-form fiction, nonfiction, or poetic works-in-progress, please include a number appropriate to the retreat’s length.
  4. Outline the next steps for your work(s)-in-progress.
  5. How do you prioritize creative writing in your life?
  6. What do you hope to gain from this writers’ retreat?

B. Writing sample from the work(s)-in-progress of 8 to 10 pages (double-spaced for prose; single-spaced for poetry; in 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial font). Poetry samples may use others fonts only if typeface is integral to the project.

If you require assistance in completing or submitting an application (whether technical, accessibility-related, or otherwise), please contact communications@writers.ns.ca as early as possible in your application process. Such assistance may extend up to one week after the application deadline has passed, but the initial request for assistance must be received by the application deadline.

All applicants will be notified of results within three weeks of the application deadline.

After application packages have been processed to ensure they are complete and eligible, they will be shared with a peer assessment jury (composed of three professional authors contracted by the WFNS). If your application is successful, your application package will then be shared with the retreat mentor.

All application packages will be assessed based on the following criteria, weighted equally:

  • the merit of the writing sample,
  • the applicant’s commitment to their writing, as determined by the cover letter, and
  • the applicant’s capacity to benefit from the retreat, as determined by the writing sample and cover letter.

Applications are accepted only through the form at the bottom of this page. Please note that completing the application form is the final step in our recommended application checklist:

☐ Ensure your eligibility.

☐ Ensure your application package is complete and correct. In the event of an error, please contact our office to explain the issue before submitting a revised application package. No application package or revised application package can be accepted after the program deadline, so we encourage you to apply early.

☐ Pay the $21 Sponsored Retreat application fee. This fee covers some of the administrative and assessment costs for each application. As such, this fee cannot be refunded under any circumstance, including incomplete, ineligible, or unsuccessful applications. The application fee is $14 for WFNS members. If you are a member in good standing, please ensure you log in to your member account before checkout to apply your member discount. WFNS General Membership is open to anyone who writes, regardless of writing experience or place of residence.
Pay application fee online

To pay fee by phone, call us between 9am and 4pm on weekdays at 902 423 8116 with your credit card details.

To pay fee by mail, send a cheque (payable to “Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia”) post-dated for no later than the application deadline.

☐ Complete and submit the online application form, visible at the bottom of this page when applications are being accepted. After clicking the “Submit application” button, please wait until the green confirmation message appears (confirming that your form has been successfully submitted) before exiting this page.

If the application fee presents a barrier, please contact communications@writers.ns.ca before applying. Funds are available to help underwaged writers with application fees.

Applications closed on Feb 20, 2025

For the 2025 Oliver-Craig Retreat, running August 3 to 16, 2025

Applications were be accepted from writers working in any genres of fiction and nonfiction

Application form

If it is discovered that any of these declarations is false, your application will be ineligible.
If the name you commonly use or publish under differs from your legal name, please include your legal name in parentheses—i.e., "Common Name (Legal Name)." If you are selected to participate in the retreat, your legal name will be required for honorarium payment.
Must include city/town, province, and postal code.
Click or drag a file to this area to upload.
• Your application package must be a single digital file (.doc or .pdf format) that contains all components identified in the above section "2. Application package."
• Your application package must use a file name as follows: [Your Name] – Oliver-Craig Retreat.
• Any incomplete, misnamed, or file-unreadable application package may be deemed ineligible.
We recognize that students, the underwaged, and those on fixed incomes may require additional assistance—above the $500 honorarium—to defray the expense of travelling to/from Jampolis Cottage. Consideration for this fund will not be divulged to the peer assessment jury and will in no way impact the assessment of your application.
Indicate the method by which you paid the Sponsored Retreat application fee, details of which are given in the above section "4. Application checklist & fee." Fee payment must be sent before you submit your application.

For general questions or further information, please contact program lead Andy Verboom (communications@writers.ns.ca) at least two weeks before the application deadline. Requests for technical, accessibility, or financial application assistance can be received only until the application deadline.

1113 Marginal Road

Halifax, NS B3H 4P7

902 423 8116

contact@writers.ns.ca

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Operational Investors

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is based in Kjipuktuk, in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship,” which Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) Peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725. The treaties do not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognize Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) title and establish the rules for an ongoing relationship between nations.

© Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, 2025. All rights reserved.

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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