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J. P. Smith

BIOGRAPHY
Despite school years in Halifax (Dalhousie ’63) and working years in Montreal (Dawson College) Ray Smith has always considered Mabou, Cape Breton, home. Retired from teaching in 2007, he now lives in Mabou in the house built by his grandfather – who also built as his store the building which is now The Red Shoe Pub. He has two exemplary sons, Nicholas and Alexander.

“A brilliant stylist” (Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature), he nonetheless has no Smith style: each of his seven books is unique. Somewhat over half the work is comic, often hilariously so. Although usually set in Canada with Canadian characters, the books reflect his extensive travel and international perspective. Important sections of his work are set in Iceland, Venice, Edinburgh, Paris, Zurich, and Germany, and other languages appear often. A dramatic performer, Smith has done over 250 readings of his work in North America and in a dozen European countries. Many of the stories and chapters have been published separately in journals and anthologies. Smith has also published criticism, reviews, travel pieces, etc, in newspapers, magazines, journals, and on radio in Canada and Europe. He was writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta (1986-87) and Canada-Scotland Writing Fellow in Edinburgh (1987-88). A Night at the Opera won the Hugh MacLennan Best Fiction Award in 1992. Charles Foran recently sent Century to the prime minister as number 78 on Yann Martel’s project, What is Stephen Harper Reading?

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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