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Michael Haynes

BIOGRAPHY
As a novice hiker, Michael was constrained by the limited accurate information available about local trails. During his own explorations he began keeping notes, and sharing his observations with family and friends. With their encouragement, in 1995 he wrote and Goose Lane published Hiking Trails of Nova Scotia (7th Edition), in cooperation with the Canadian Hostelling Association.

Since then, Michael has written ten guides on hiking and biking trails in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Québec, and Ontario. He has been a regular contributor to CBC Radio in Halifax, Sydney and Ottawa. In addition to his books and radio appearances, Haynes has published numerous articles about Canada’s outdoors, both locally and nationally.

Michael has hiked in every province in Canada, numerous states in the U.S., Australia, and several countries in Europe and Asia. He tries to walk every day, but when not hiking, he orienteers, runs, bikes, cross-country skis, and otherwise keeps active.

In addition to writing about trails, Michael also works in trail development and active transportation.  He has been a member of the consulting teams that have produced trail plans for communities such as Sault Ste. Marie, Chatham-Kent, and North Grenville, and active transportation/bike plans for Oromocto, Corner Brook, Lunenburg, and Essex County. Michael has also presented at numerous Canadian trail workshops, and at Australian, and American national trail conferences.

He currently resides in Nova Scotia.

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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