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Introducing the new Nova Writes Competition

Announcements, Programs

With thanks to everyone who completed our Nova Writes survey in September and October, we’re pleased to reveal the new shape of WFNS’s Nova Writes Competition for new and emerging writers!

No longer a competition “for unpublished manuscripts,” Nova Writes is now a competition for publication. An annual, printed Nova Writes anthology will feature the winning entries in each of four categories:

  • Budge Wilson Short Story Prize (2,500 to 5,000 words)
  • Nova Essay Prize (2,500 to 5,000 words)
  • Rita Joe Poetry Prize (1,250 to 2,500 words, or 10 to 20 pages)
  • Joyce Barkhouse Middle-Grade & YA Fiction Prize (2,500 to 5,000 words)

All entrants will still receive written developmental feedback from volunteer readers, and shortlisted and winning entrants will receive additional feedback from category judges. Each winning entrant will also meet (remotely) with the judge who selects them, gaining more insight on how to revise for publication in the anthology.

Additional changes:

  • Entry cap raised: You can now enter up to three short works in each category each year.
  • Entry fee lowered: We’ve dropped the fee to $26 for a single entry, $23 each for two entries, or $20 for three or more entries. Current General Members receive 25% off their total fee.
  • Residency requirement relaxed: All current residents of Nova Scotia are now eligible to enter, including out-of-province students and seasonal residents.

If you’re a new or emerging writer, check out the full competition details and put this year’s entry deadline in your calendar: January 16!

If you’re a more established author, please help us share the news of the newly renewed Nova Writes!

1113 Marginal Road

Halifax, NS B3H 4P7

902 423 8116

contact@writers.ns.ca

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The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is based in Kjipuktuk, in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship,” which Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) Peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725. The treaties do not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognize Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) title and establish the rules for an ongoing relationship between nations.

© Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, 2025. All rights reserved.

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Recommended Experience Levels

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) recommends that participants in any given workshop 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. The “Recommended experience level” section of each workshop description refers to the following definitions used by WFNS.

  • 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, and writing for children and young adults) 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.

For “intensive” and “masterclass” creative writing 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