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Elaine McCluskey

BIOGRAPHY
Elaine McCluskey has written three novels and four short-story collections, all set in Atlantic Canada. Rafael Has Pretty Eyes won the Alistair MacLeod Award for Short Fiction in 2023. McCluskey’s latest novel,  The Gift Child, was released by Goose Lane Editions in March 2024. McCluskey has published over sixty short stories nationally and internationally. Valery the Great won the Other Voices short fiction contest; Bad Boys won the Pottersfield Portfolio contest. The Watermelon Social was a finalist for The Journey Prize and Something Pretty, Something Nice placed second in the Fish international short-story contest in Ireland. McCluskey’s stories have appeared in The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review, The Dalhousie Review, Gaspereau Review, Room, Other Voices, Pottersfield Portfolio, Riddle Fence, among others. She graduated from Dalhousie and the University of Western Ontario (MA) and lives in Dartmouth, with her husband, a photojournalist. They have two children.

AWARDS

Winner of the Alistair MacLeod Award for Short Fiction in 2023 for Rafael Has Pretty Eyes.

Winner of the H.R. (Bill) Percy Award given out by the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia for Going Fast.

Final three in Journey Prize Stories contest 2004 for The Watermelon Social.

Second place in the Fish Publishing Short Story Contest 2013, Cork, Ireland, for Something Pretty, Something Nice.

Winner of Other Voices Short Fiction Contest 2005 for Valery the Great.

Winner of Pottersfield Portfolio’s Compact Fiction Contest for Bad Boys.

Winner of the Saturday Night diamond contest.

Longlisted three times for the CBC short story contest.

Longlisted three times for the ReLit Awards.

Finalist for John and Margaret Savage First Book Award.

Honorable Mention Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick Contest 2008: David Adams Richards Prize for The Houdini.

Honorable Mention Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick Contest 2008 for The Favorite Nephew.

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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 and 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.

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 information, strategies, and skills that suit their career stage. 

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 you’re uncertain of your experience level with regard to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca