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Magi Nams

BIOGRAPHY

Magi Nams is an award-winning nature writer, aspiring novelist, and author and indie publisher of the travel memoir trilogy Cry of the Kiwi: A Family’s New Zealand Adventure. She holds a B.Sc. in zoology and an M.Sc. in plant ecology and has published scientific papers, written wildlife-related material for government agencies and conservation organizations, and published dozens of magazine articles in the children’s nature magazine Ranger Rick. She has also published poetry and has broadcast personal essays on CBC Radio.

Magi is a keen gardener, birder, hiker, traveller, and piano student. Check out her books and latest travel and outdoor adventures at maginams.ca. Magi lives in a 177-year-old farmhouse near Tatamagouche with her wildlife biologist husband.

Books: Cry of the Kiwi trilogy: Once a Land of Birds, This Dark Sheltering Forest, Tang of the Tasman Sea  

AWARDS

Trudy Farrand/John Strohm Magazine Writing Award for best writing for children in Ranger Rick magazine, 1994. Presented by the National Wildlife Federation.

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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