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Melanie Mosher

BIOGRAPHY
In grade two, Melanie received a silver dollar for winning an essay contest and she has been fascinated with writing ever since. She has many freelance articles to her credit and her first picture book was published by Fifth House Publishers in May 2014. Her YA novel, Goth Girl, was published in April 2017 by Nimbus Publishing and A Beginner’s Guide to Goodbye, a middle-grade novel, was published in June 2020, again with Nimbus Publishing. A Beginner’s Guide to Goodbye was a finalist in the TD Canadian Children’s Literature award and nominated for the Hackmatack Award. It won the “It Made me Feel” Award presented by Digitally Lit. Her fourth book, a middle-grade novel entitled Bertie Stewart is Perfectly Imperfect, was published by Nimbus in 2024, and was nominated for the Silver Birch Fiction Award.

PUBLICATIONS

2024, Bertie Stewart is Perfectly Imperfect, Nimbus Publishing. Middle-grade novel

2020, A Beginner’s Guide to Goodbye, Nimbus Publishing. Middle-grade novel

2017, Goth Girl, Nimbus Publishing. YA

2014, Fire Pie Trout, Fifth House Publishers. Picture Book

many magazine articles in various publications including Saltscapes, East Coast Living, At Home on the North Shore, Our Children, Ask, Appleseeds, Zamoof!

AWARDS

“It made me feel” Award for A Beginner’s Guide to Goodbye, presented by Digitally Lit

TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award finalist for A Beginner’s Guide to Goodbye.

Hackmatack shortlist for A Beginner’s Guide to Goodbye.

Canadian Children’s Book Centre recommended reading: Fire Pie Trout, Goth Girl, A Beginner’s Guide to Goodbye, Bertie Stewart is Perfectly Imperfect

Silver Birch Fiction Award nominee: Bertie Stewart is Perfectly Imperfect

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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