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Jessica Joy Hiemstra

BIOGRAPHY
Jessica Joy Hiemstra is a visual artist, writer and designer living in Gunning Cove, Shelburne County, Mi’kma’ki.  When she’s not gardening or writing, she’s drawing. She especially loves to make hand-drawn animations.  At the moment she’s making drawings to accompany 41 short poems from writers across the country. These poems, edited by herself and Gillian Sze, will be published by Baseline Press in 2027. A book of essays, written in conversation with the art of Claire Wilks, is expected with Exile Editions in 2026. On the back of that book it says: don’t tell me I cannot love. 

PUBLICATIONS

Books

Drawn to Claire, Exile Editions, 2027

Loneliness,  Edited with Gillian Sze, Baseline Press, 2027

Moonsnails Dream of Deer, Anstruther Press (Manifesto chapbook series), 2026

Blood Root, Icehouse Poetry (Goose Lane Editions), 2025

Charlie in Spring, screen-printed and bound in Nepal, 2024

While the Forest is Sleeping, screen-printed and bound in Nepal, 2023

The Thinking Heart: The Etty Drawings (1983 – 1984), Baseline Press & Exile Editions, 2022

Eric and Eloise, printed and bound in Nepal (2017)

The Holy Nothing, Pedlar Press, 2016

Translating Horses; the line, the thread, the underside, Edited with Gillian Sze, Baseline Press, 2015

Self Portrait Without a Bicycle, Biblioasis, 2012

Apologetic for Joy, Goose Lane Editions, 2011

Anatomy for the Artist, Greenboathouse Press, 2009

Excerpts from Gerald, God, and the Chickens, Frog Hollow Press, 2008

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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