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Jean Mills

BIOGRAPHY
Jean Mills has a background in teaching (college Communications/Writing; Grade 6 Language Arts) and professional writing and editing. Her first two novels, Wild Dog Summer and The Legacy, were part of the Nelson Canada novel study program for middle school Language Arts. Her most recent book is Larkin on the Shore (Red Deer Press, October 2019) set in Nova Scotia and telling the story of a troubled teen who is reluctantly spending her summer at her grandmother’s house in a small town on the Northumberland Strait. School Library Journal says: “Beautifully written, with vivid imagery of the Nova Scotia shore, this is a truly moving story of finding oneself after trauma.” Her previous YA novel, Skating Over Thin Ice (Red Deer Press, 2018) was nominated for the Ontario Library Association 2019 Forest of Reading Red Maple Fiction award. The novel was also named to the USBBY 2019 Outstanding International Books List. Her upcoming YA novel, The Legend, will be published in 2021. Jean can lead workshops in creative writing, general writing skills, as well as offer presentations (in person or virtually) about her books, the writing life and the publishing process. She divides her time between Guelph, Ontario, and Pugwash, Nova Scotia.

PUBLICATIONS

Books for Young Readers:

Busted (Orca Books/Orca Anchor, 2026)
After the Wallpaper Music (Pajama Press, 2024)
Wingman (Orca Books/Orca Soundings, 2024)
Bliss Adair and the First Rule of Knitting (Red Deer Press, 2023)
The Legend (Red Deer Press, Spring 2022)
Larkin on the Shore (Red Deer Press, January 2020)
Skating Over Thin Ice (Red Deer Press, 2018)
Joey and the Fire Hall Ghost (Caramel Tree, 2013)
Andrew and the Babysitter (Caramel Tree, 2012)
The Ugly Duckling (Caramel Tree, 2012)
The Legacy (Nelson Canada Education, 1991)
Wild Dog Summer (Nelson Canada Education, 1990)

Short Stories:
“Right Defense” in I’M HERE: YA Stories of Identity (Red Deer Press, 2025)
“Class Trip” (Spacesports & Spidersilk, July 2014)
“John Rae: Explorer” (Kayak Mag, September/October 2013)

Essays:
“The roots of her story” (The Globe and Mail, April 2008)

AWARDS

2026 Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection (Busted)

2024 Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection (Wingman, After the Wallpaper Music)

2020 Whippoorwill Award (Larkin on the Shore)

2019 OLA Forest of Reading Red Maple Fiction Award – Nominee (Skating Over Thin Ice)

2019 USBBY Outstanding International Books List (Skating Over Thin Ice)

2009 Barbara Novak Award for Humour/Memoir Writing (“The roots of her story”)

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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