WFNS logo ltrmark sticky 100px
WFNS logo ltrmark sticky 100px

Norma Shephard

BIOGRAPHY
‘Why We Remember‘

The personal and domestic side of war is often revealed in War letters. My presentations on the importance of firsthand accounts and the digitalization of hand-written accounts is ideal for Remembrance Day observations and/or Canadian History studies. Access to my full media kit on the book Dear Harry; A Canadian War Story Told Through Letters, can be found here.

‘Social History Relevance Revealed Through Material Artifacts’ 

As the director of the Mobile Millinery Museum, I have been educating students, seniors, and others on Canadian Social History through the use of those most personal of historic artefacts: clothing and accessories. Examples of the available presentation topics, which we adapt for student audiences, can be seen in the Museum Presentations Information Kit.

PUBLICATIONS

    • (New Edition) Dear Harry; A Canadian War Story Told Through Letters – release date: Nov. 8, 2025
    • (Previous Edition) Dear Harry; the Firsthand Account of a World War I Infantryman
    • Accessorizing the Bride; Vintage Wedding Finery Through the Decades 
    • 1000 Hats 
    • In Step with Fashion; 200 Years of Shoe Styles
    • Lingerie; Two Centuries of Luscious Design
    • Darlings of Dress; Children’s Costume 1860 – 1920
    • T-Shirts – A HIStory and HERitage of Pop Culture

 

 

 

 

 

AWARDS

Canadian Achievers’ Award for Entrepreneurship – 1985

Scroll to Top
WFNS logo ltrmark sticky 100px

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