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K.V. Johansen

BIOGRAPHY
Originally from Kingston, Ont., K.V. Johansen studied English and History at Mount Allison, received a Master’s in Medieval Studies from the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, and another Master’s in English, from McMaster. She writes mostly epic fantasy, as well as fantasy and science fiction for young readers; she has also written short stories and literary criticism for adults. Ancient and Medieval history and languages are one of her main interests. Johansen taught workshops at the spring 2010 MASC Young Authors and Illustrators Conference in Ottawa. She has worked with the elementary or elementary/intermediate sessions of Writers in Electronic Residence (WIER) over a number of terms and has visited schools from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario, to Austria and Macedonia. She has in the past written a large number of articles for the Nova Scotia based farm magazines Rural Delivery and Atlantic Beef Quarterly, as well as other non-fiction. She was the editor of Stalin Versus Me, the final volume of the late Donald Jack’s triple Leacock-Award-winning Bandy Papers series (Sybertooth 2005). Johansen currently lives in Sackville, NB.

AWARDS

Selected by Voya for their annual list of the year’s Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, April 2007; Nightwalker: The Warlocks of Talverdin, Book One.

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Winner of the 2008 Ann Connor Brimer Award; Nightwalker: The Warlocks of Talverdin, Book One.

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2008 Snow Willow Awards finalist; Nightwalker: The Warlocks of Talverdin, Book One.

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Ontario Library Association’s Best Bets for Children list; Nightwalker: The Warlocks of Talverdin, Book One.

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Selected by the Ontario Library Association as one of the top ten children’s books of 2006; Torrie and the Firebird.

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Shortlisted for the Canadian Association of Children’s Librarians 2007 Book of the Year for Children Award; The Cassandra Virus.

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Shortlisted for the 2006 Harvey Darton Award; Quests and Kingdoms.

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Winner of the 206 Lilla Sterling Award; Torrie and the Pirate-Queen.

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2006 Silver Birch Award finalist; Torrie and the Pirate-Queen.

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2006 Diamond Willow Award finalist; Torrie and the Pirate-Queen.

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Winner of an NB. Lieutenant-Governor’s Children’s Literacy Award; Pippin and the Bones.

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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