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Sponsored Residency

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

Sponsored Residencies (one to four weeks in length) are primarily open to permanent residents of Nova Scotia; the Atlantic Indigenous Writer’s Residency is open to permanent residents of any Atlantic Canadian province (NB, NL, NS, or PEI). Each successful applicant is provided with free, private residence and a $2000 honorarium. Low-residency and split-residency options are available to accommodate writers with work and care commitments.

Each successful applicant must undertake at least one week of free residency at Jampolis Cottage but is encouraged to undertake up to four weeks. If undertaking two, three, or four weeks, the successful applicant may split these weeks into two separate periods (e.g., two 1-week periods, a 1-week period plus a 2- or 3-week period, or two 2-week periods). The number of weeks undertaken does not affect the honorarium amount.

Six Sponsored Residencies will be offered between May 24, 2026, and March 27, 2027:

  • Atlantic Indigenous Writer’s Residency for an Indigenous writer living in Atlantic Canada (NB, NL, NS, or PEI), sponsored by Amanda Peters, author of The Berry Pickers and Waiting for the Long Night Moon
  • DAWN Residency for a trans, two-spirit, and/or non-binary Nova Scotian writer, sponsored by The DAWN Fund
  • Delmore “Buddy” Daye Residency for a Black and/or African Nova Scotian writer, sponsored by the Delmore “Buddy” Daye Learning Institute
  • Robert Pope Foundation Residency for a Nova Scotian writer applying to work on a poetry project, sponsored by the Robert Pope Foundation
  • Two Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) Residencies, for which all Nova Scotian applicants are eligible

Sponsored Residency applications are considered by an independent peer assessment jury (composed of three professional authors contracted by WFNS), with results returned within eight weeks of the application deadline. Once notified, successful applicants have two weeks to finalize their residency dates.

To be considered for a Sponsored Residency, the applying writer must meet the following criteria.

  • For most Sponsored Residencies, 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. For some Sponsored Residencies, you may be a permanent resident of Atlantic Canada, meaning that you have lived in one or a combination of the four Atlantic provinces (NB, NL, NS, or PEI) full-time for at least the past twelve (12) months. (In both cases, out-of-province post-secondary students and seasonal residents are ineligible.)
  • You must be 19 years of age of older by the current application deadline.
  • You must submit only one application to the current Sponsored Residency application deadline. Your one application will be considered for all residencies that you are eligible to receive, including the WFNS Residencies.

Sponsored Residency applications may include collaborative projects, but an individual applicant must apply and will be considered on their own merit for any residency, associated honorarium, and requested travel assistance.

  • The applicant’s collaborators are exempt from the first and third eligibility requirements above (the permanent residency requirement and the sole application requirement) but must be 19 years of age or older by the current application deadline.
  • If an application including a collaborative project is successful, the applicant’s collaborators are welcome to stay at Jampolis Cottage for a portion or the entirety of the applicant’s residency at no charge; however, no honorarium or travel assistance can be offered to the collaborators.

Sponsored Residency 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: [Your Name] – Sponsored Residency. Incomplete, late, non-digital, or misnamed application packages are ineligible.

A. Literary CV/resume up to 1 page in length (single-spaced; in 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial font)

  • Include relevant education (degrees, literary workshops, mentorships, etc.); publications & accomplishments (awards, previous residencies, etc.); public presentation experience (readings, performances, panels, exhibitions, etc.); and/or teaching/instruction experience.
  • Emerging writer applicants may supplement their literary CV/resume with a letter of support (of up to one additional page) from an established or professional author who is familiar with their work.

B. Letter of intent up to 1 pages in length (single-spaced; in 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial font)

  • Indicate how many weeks (from one to four) you intend to stay at Jampolis Cottage if your application is successful. Please briefly identify any barriers to your staying for the full four weeks.
  • Describe the project(s) you will work on and the goals you aim to accomplish. Provide a detailed work plan (with daily or weekly breakdown) for the week(s) you intend to stay at Jampolis Cottage. Include mention of any project collaborators who may join you for any portion of the residency.
      • If you intend to stay at Jampolis Cottage for less than four weeks, also provide a detailed plan (of up to half an additional page) for the work you will undertake on the project(s) at home. Describe how you will use a relevant portion of the honorarium (approximately $500 per at-home week) to create time and space for this work.
  • Please identify any barriers to literary creation and/or recognition that you face or have faced (personal, social, political, financial, etc.).
  • Please describe what receiving a Sponsored Residency would mean for you (e.g., its impact on your project[s], on your writing practice, on your writing career, etc.).

C. Writing sample from the work-in-progress of 8 to 10 pages (double-spaced; in 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial font)

  • Poetry samples may be single- or double-spaced, as suits your intended presentation. Poetry samples may use other fonts only if typeface is integral to the work-in-progress.
  • If your work-in-progress is still in the planning stages, please submit previously completed work that best resembles the proposed project and include a description (of up to one additional page) of the relationship between that relevant sample and the work-in-progress.

All applicants will be notified of results within eight weeks of the Sponsored Residency application deadline. Please do not inquire about the status of your application during the assessment period.

Successful applicants are required to immediately submit the residency periods possible within their schedules and then to confirm final residency dates within two weeks of the notification date.

After application packages have been processed to ensure they are complete and eligible, they are shared with an independent peer assessment jury (composed of three professional authors contracted by WFNS).

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

  • the merit of the writing sample,
  • the impact of the proposed residency, as determined by the letter of intent, and
  • the applicant’s capacity for successfully undertaking the proposed residency, as determined by the literary CV/resume and any accompanying letter of support.

Upon notification, successful applicants will be required to submit ‘preferred’ and ‘possible’ residency weeks. The preferred residency weeks of all successful applicants are considered when creating a final residency schedule for the program year. If a successful applicant is unable to undertake any residency weeks during the available periods, WFNS reserves the right to select an alternative eligible applicant for the residency based on the recommendations of the peer assessment jury.

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:

  1. Ensure your eligibility.
  2. Ensure your application package is complete and correct. In the event of an error, contact WFNS to explain the issue before submitting a revised application package. Unless application assistance is being provided by WFNS staff, no application package or correction can be accepted after the program deadline.
  3. Pay the $50 Sponsored Residency application fee. This fee covers most but not all of the assessment costs for each application. As such, this fee cannot be refunded under any circumstance, including incomplete, ineligible, or unsuccessful applications. This fee is $37.50 for those with current WFNS General Membership, which is open to anyone with an interest in creative writing, regardless of writing experience or place of residence.
Pay application fee online

If you are a current General Member, login before checkout to apply your member discount.

To pay fee by phone, call us between 10am and 3pm 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.

  1. 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 you see the confirmation message (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.

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. Application assistance may extend up to one week after the program deadline, but the initial request for assistance must be received by the deadline.

Applications closed on Feb 20, 2025

For Sponsored Residencies to be undertaken between May 25, 2025, and March 28, 2026

Applications will be accepted Jan 5 to Feb 12, 2026

For Sponsored Residencies to be undertaken between May 24, 2026, and March 27, 2027

Application form

Declarations of eligibility

If it is discovered that any of the below declarations is false, your application will be ineligible and/or any offer of a Sponsored Residency will be rescinded.

Application details

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 awarded a Sponsored Residency, 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) containing all components identified in the above section "2. Application package."
• Your application package must use a file name as follows: [Your Name] – Sponsored Residency.
• 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 $2000 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 Residency application fee, details of which are given in the above section "4. Application checklist & fee." Any 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.

Investors

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is grateful to Amanda Peters, The DAWN Fund, the Delmore “Buddy” Daye Learning Institute, and the Robert Pope Foundation for their ongoing investments in Sponsored Residencies.

The DAWN Fund logo
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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