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Melanie Furlong

BIOGRAPHY
Melanie Furlong is full-time journalist who writes for Fine Lifestyles magazines across Canada and the U.S. She freelanced for nearly 15 years for a wide range of North American publications including the Canadian Healthcare Network, The Rotarian, Latitudes In-Flight Magazine, Canadian Contractor, Meetings and Incentive Travel, The Chronicle Herald, The Medical Post, East Coast Living, Atlantic Progress, Nature Canada and Living Healthy in Atlantic Canada.

She was mentored in the 2009/2010 Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia’s Mentorship program by Stephens Gerard Malone. She has studied fiction with Gwen Davies, Russell Barton, Valerie Compton and the Gotham Writers Workshop in NYC.

Melanie holds a Bachelor of Arts from Acadia University, where she majored in Spanish, as well as a Bachelor of Education Teaching English as a Second Language from Brock University. She taught English to adults and children in Finland, England, the Czech Republic and Canada for more than five years before embarking on a writing career.

She published her first novel, The Last Honest Man in Havana, with CreateSpace in August 2015.

She blogs at melaniefurlong.wordpress.com.

AWARDS

Winner of the 2009 Atlantic NEW CULTURES Award from Dalhousie University.

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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