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Heidi Tattrie Rushton

BIOGRAPHY
Heidi Tattrie Rushton writes fiction for children and adults. Her middle‑grade novels, Pet Tales and its sequel Pet Project, follow a group of friends in Nova Scotia trying to make a difference in their community by helping people and pets in need. Pet Tales was a finalist for the 2025–26 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award.

Heidi has worn many hats over the years—freelance reporter, international recruiter, preschool teacher, marketer, and animal care technician. Each experience has added new stories to her notebook, along with a few real‑life pets who have a habit of sneaking onto her pages. Luckily, none have recognized themselves yet!

She lives in Fall River, Nova Scotia, with her husband, two children, and a menagerie of tiny pets, including a cat-sized dog, two fish, and a snail.

 

PUBLICATIONS

Pet Project (2026)

Good for Goodness’ Sake (2025)

Pet Tales (2024)

Playground Adventure Guide: A journal and activity book to track playgrounds visited and record family memories (2023)

Numerous magazine and newspaper articles

AWARDS

2025-2026 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award Nominee

2021 WFNS Joyce Barkhouse Writing for Children Prize for an excerpt from the then-unpublished Pet Tales

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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, writing for 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.

Occasionally, WFNS uses the phrase “emerging and established writers/authors” to mean ‘writers and authors of all experience levels.’

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 info, strategies, and skills that suit their experience. 

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 uncertain about your experience level with respect to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca