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Gina N. Brown

BIOGRAPHY
Gina N. Brown has written two novels: Lucy McGee’s Moment of Truth in 2021 (set in Halifax and Dartmouth); and The Sugar Bowl Feud (set in a fictitious town in NS) in 2024. She also edited and published a memoir for her late husband, Robert Crockett.

A graduate of the Mount St. Vincent University public relations program, she pursued a career in music, film, advertising, museums, education and special events. Her freelance writing includes travel and lifestyle articles in Canadian Living Magazine, the Globe and Mail, the Chronicle Herald and Saltwire. Examples of her published pieces can be found at novaheartmedia.com.

Gina has attended writing workshops and retreats at the Arvon Foundation in England; Taddle Creek at the University of Toronto; and Master Classes at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto. She also co-founded writer groups in Toronto, and in Halifax, now in its 11th year. As a creative writer, she’s placed as a finalist or notable entry in five international writing competitions.

In 2019, after a lengthy career as a marketing specialist, she launched an independent publishing platform, NovaHeart Media. In addition to her writing, she offers writing workshops for new and established writers and provides consulting services for independent writers. As a way of giving back and engaging with the community, she has mentored more than a dozen youth and emerging writers.

Gina has traveled to 35 countries and has lived in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Birmingham, England. In 2004, she returned to her home port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she loves to swim, skate, canoe, hike, cycle, and do yoga.

PUBLICATIONS

Articles in the Chronicle Herald/Saltwire (subscription required)

Siblings give each other grief over Mom’s estate

Adoption: the lies that bind

Indulging in the Maritime tradition of a ‘Strawberry Supper’

Post on LinkedIn

Good Grief: how I found stories for my novel without really trying

Guest Writer in The Mirimachi Reader

Why I Wrote This Book Issue #33

Articles in the Globe and Mail

A leap of faith on Baffin Island

Grime and Punishmentlies that bind

AWARDS

  • Women of Excellence Awards, for Communications and Public Relations. Canadian Progress Club, Halifax

  • Creative Writing – Finalist, Semi-finalist or Honourable Mentions for screenplays, travel and memoir writing: The Short Skinny, American Gem, the British Short Screenplay, Anything But Hollywood, Travel & Transitions Writing, and CBC’s Emerging Screenwriters’ competition.

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Halifax, NS B3H 4P7

902 423 8116

contact@writers.ns.ca

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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.

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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