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Sarah Mian

BIOGRAPHY
Sarah Mian’s debut novel, When the Saints (HarperCollins), is about a dysfunctional family in rural Nova Scotia. It won the Jim Connors Book Award, the Margaret & John Savage First Book Award, and was a finalist for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. After completing the film adaption, she is currently working on a second novel, a ghost story titled, The World in Awful Sleep.

PUBLICATIONS

SELECT PUBLICATIONS:

MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE, Before You Go

AUBADE, Boularderie Island Press, Uncle Fowler’s Letters of Love

HARPERCOLLINS, When the Saints

EMAILS FROM INDIA, Seraphim Editions, Palace of Winds

FLARE MAGAZINE, I’m the Man

SUBTERRAIN MAGAZINE, The Thread

FILLING STATION, Tributary

THE VAGRANT REVUE OF NEW FICTION, Town of Gamble

THE NEW QUARTERLY, Why I Cried At Your Wedding

AWARDS

WINNER, Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award 2016

WINNER, Margaret and John Savage First Book Award 2016

FINALIST, Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour 2016

EASTERN SEMI-FINALIST, Canada Writes 2009

FINALIST, Writers Union of Canada Short Prose Competition 2009

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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