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Nova Scotia Student Membership

A Nova Scotia Student Membership offers all the benefits of General Membership in the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia—but for free! To be considered for a Student Membership, you must meet the following criteria.

  • You must be joining the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) for the first time.
  • You must be a current student at a Nova Scotian post-secondary institution, whether full- or part-time. This includes out-of-province and international students. You will need a photo of your current, unexpired student ID to complete the application.
  • You must be 30 years of age or under.

Application form

If the name you commonly use or publish under differs from the name on your student ID, please include your student ID name in parentheses—i.e., "Common Name (Student ID Name)." Beyond this application, your student ID name will not be associated with your WFNS membership.
A personal email address (e.g., @gmail.com) is preferred, as institutional email servers (e.g., @dal.ca) may flag necessary WFNS communications as spam/junk.
You must be 30 years of age or under.
Student ID: Upon clicking "Apply," you will receive an automated email at the address you entered above. To complete your application, please reply to the automated email with a photo of your current, unexpired student ID attached.

If you have not received this automated email within 10 minutes, please check for it in your spam/junk folder (or the Promotions tab of your Gmail account). You may follow up on your application at contact@writers.ns.ca.
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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