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Rosalie Osmond

BIOGRAPHY
Rosalie Osmond is a writer and lecturer who was educated at institutions in three countries (Acadia University, Bryn Mawr College, and Cambridge University) and has spent her life divided between the two sides of the Atlantic. She has taught English literature in universities in both Canada and the U.K. In 2009 she and her husband returned to her hometown of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, thus giving a certain symmetry to an otherwise rather haphazard career.

She has published five books—three histories of ideas and two works of fiction—as well as numerous articles, both academic and popular. At present she is working on a sequel to her first two novels. Since winning the 2019 Rita Joe Poetry prize, she has also been encouraged to continue writing poems.

She has three children and six grandchildren, all of whom love to visit Nova Scotia in the summer. When not writing she is usually engaged in one or her other two passions—music and gardening.

PUBLICATIONS

Broken Symmetry (Lunenburg, N.S.: Nevermore Press, 2019)

Waldenstein (Woodstock, On: Seraphim Editions, 2013)

Imagining the Soul: A History (Stroud, Glos: Sutton Publishing, 2003)

Changing Perspectives: Christian Culture and Morals in England Today (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1993)

Mutual Accusation: Seventeenth-Century Body and Soul Dialogues in their Literary and Theological Context (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990)

Numerous articles, both academic and popular.

AWARDS

Rita Joe Poetry prize, 2019

Short-listed Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award, 2014

Short-listed Jim Connors Dartmouth Book award, 2020

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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