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Meet the 2026 MacLeod Mentorship participants

WFNS is pleased to announce the 8 writers participating in the 2026 Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program as apprentices and mentors:

Norman Ho

Apprentice in sci-fi

Manuscript synopsis: Norman's Charles R. Saunders Prize-winning manuscript, The Neroli Rescue, is a socio-political survival sci-fi about miners from diverse backgrounds trapped underground after a catastrophic collapse on a distant asteroid mining colony. It about what happens when systems fail: how corporate responsibility and socio-political power structures fracture, and how ordinary people respond.

Sylvia Gunnery

Norman Ho's mentor, Sylvia Gunnery, has published over 25 books for teens and children as well as professional resources for teachers of writing. A recipient of a Prime Minister's Teaching Award, she has presented at conferences, libraries, and schools across Canada. Sylvia’s latest publication is a short story in the Red Deer Press anthology I’m Here: YA Stories of Identity (2025).

Jessica Marsh

Apprentice in historical fiction

Manuscript synopsis: The Rise & Fall of Maya Cooper examines identity, gender, sexuality, and racism through a unique 20th century historic lens, from the perspective of Maya Cooper, a queer, biracial adolescent living in the back woods of PEI during the back-to-the-land movement of the late 1970s.

Stephanie Domet

Jessica Marsh's mentor, Stephanie Domet, is the author of two novels, Homing (winner of the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award) and Fallsy Downsies (winner of the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction). Her third novel, Birds Don’t Fly Away is in progress, and her middle grade novel, Amazing Atlantic Canadian Women, was co-written with Penelope Jackson. She is the co-founder and co-executive director of the AfterWords Literary Festival.

Pamela Sinclair

Apprentice in sci-fi

Manuscript synopsis: The Ring is about a family navigating their role in a secret society. Amy’s husband, Garret, thought he had left his family’s secrets in the past, but one night, his brother Duncan shows up with an ill-looking young man who needs their help.

Jane Doucet

Pamela Sinclair's mentor, Jane Doucet, writes irreverent novels full of humour and heart—the kind of books she likes to read herself. A seasoned journalist whose articles have appeared in myriad national magazines and newspapers, Jane self-published The Pregnant Pause (2017), which was shortlisted for a 2018 Whistler Independent Book Award. Fishnets & Fantasies (2021) and Lost & Found in Lunenburg (2023) were published by Vagrant Press. Blood Typed, Jane’s first contemporary murder mystery will be published in May, 2026.

Alexandra Vlachopoulou Horn

Apprentice in nonfiction

Manuscript synopsis: In fragmented prose, Borderlines tells the story of Anastasía who returns from Berlin to rural Greece for her grandfather’s funeral and begins to unravel the invisible borders—emotional, historical, and inherited—that have shaped three generations of her family.

Joanne Gallant

Alexandra Vlachopoulou Horn's mentor, Joanne Gallant, is a pediatric nurse and writer. Joanne’s debut book, A Womb in the Shape of a Heart (Nimbus Publishing) was released in September, 2021, and won the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award for Non-Fiction. She is currently completing her MFA at King’s Collage.

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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