The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) will celebrate its 50th anniversary in September, 2026. As a part of this celebration, the 50 for 50 Contest Series encourages Nova Scotians to reflect on the rich legacy of creative writing in our province—and to contribute to that legacy by creating and sharing new work.
For questions about this program, contact program lead Oriana Duinker at director@writers.ns.ca.
WFNS will hold four 50 for 50 contests throughout 2026. Each contest will prompt Nova Scotian writers to respond—in very short-form fiction, nonfiction, or poetry—to one of two short passages by notable Nova Scotian authors.
Entries must be no more than 50 words, a limit celebrating both WFNS’s anniversary and the Nova Scotian tradition of doing very much with very little. There are no limitations with respect to genre or style.
The winning entrant of each contest will receive a $50 gift card for a Nova Scotian independent bookseller and digital publication of their winning entry on WFNS’s social media channels and website.
Writers may submit up to two entries to each contest. There is no entry fee.
Entries will be anonymized and assessed by a volunteer selection committee composed of WFNS staff, Board, and/or committee members.
50 for 50 Contest #2 invites very short-form fiction, nonfiction, and poetry responses (up to 50 words) to one of the following prompt passages. First prize is digital publication and a $50 gift card to the Block Shop Books (Lunenburg), which can be used in-person or for online orders.
Prompt A
“Take me to the end of the ocean, where waves come to rest and hug the harbor stones.”
—from Africville (2018) by Shauntay Grant
Shauntay Grant is an acclaimed poet, playwright, and author of several picture books including the forthcoming One Day We Will. Her picture book Africville won the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award and was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Awards, the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards, and the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterwork Arts Awards. Grant’s books have garnered starred reviews from School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, and others. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of King’s College. A former poet laureate for the City of Halifax, she is an associate professor of creative writing at Dalhousie University.
Prompt B
“Lying now upon the beach we see the external scars on ourselves and on each other and are stirred to the memories of how they occurred.”
—from “The Closing Down of Summer” (in As Birds Bring Forth the Sun & Other Stories, 1986) by Alistair MacLeod
Alistair MacLeod (1936 – 2014) was a novelist, short story writer, and academic. His powerful and moving stories vividly evoke the beauty of Cape Breton Island’s rugged landscape and the resilient character of many of its inhabitants, the descendants of Scottish immigrants, who are haunted by ancestral memories and who struggle to reconcile the past and the present. MacLeod has been praised for his verbal precision, his lyric intensity and his use of simple, direct language that seems rooted in an oral tradition. MacLeod’s 1999 novel No Great Mischief was voted Atlantic Canada’s greatest book of all time and won several literary prizes, including the 2001 International Dublin Literary Award.
50 for 50 Contest #1 invited very short-form fiction, nonfiction, and poetry responses to passages by El Jones and Dr. Afua Cooper.
Ramona Eloise’s poem “together,” a response to El Jones’s passage, was selected as the winning entry. Ramona will receive a $50 gift card to King’s Co-op Bookstore (Halifax).
Ramona Eloise is an Acadian multidisciplinary artist, from Kespukwitk / southwest Nova Scotia, whose growing body of work carries themes of coastal landscape, heritage, relationships, health, language, and the human body. She creatively expresses herself in her mother tongue, Acadian French, and in English—at times merging the two.
The selection committee extended honourable mentions to Laura MacMillan and Tiffany Briand Boudreau.
Prompt A
“We still believe freedom is more than a word”
—from “Emancipation Day Poem” by El Jones
El Jones is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Politics and Cultural Studies at Mount Saint University in Halifax. She was the Nancy’s Chair in Women’s Studies at MSVU from 2017-2019, and was the fifth Poet Laureate of Halifax. El is a journalist and poet who performs internationally and whose work has been featured on CBC, the Globe and Mail, and the Washington Post. Her book, Abolitionist Intimacies (Fernwood Press, 2022) was the winner of the Evelyn Richardson prize for non-fiction. El works with prisoners and refugees, and works in the areas of justice studies, animal ethics, and human rights.
Prompt B
“Even warrior women sometimes have to don
dresses of green silk
and put away, for a while at least, their martial garb…”
—from Copper Woman and Other Poems by Afua Cooper
Dr. Afua Cooper is a leading scholar, author, and poet whose groundbreaking work has redefined the study of Black Canadian history. Her book The Hanging of Angélique—nominated for a Governor General’s Award—exposed the story of an enslaved Black woman executed in 1734 Montreal. A founder of the Black Canadian Studies Association, Dr. Cooper also established Dalhousie University’s Black and African Diaspora Studies Minor. She served as the seventh Poet Laureate of Halifax and was awarded the Portia White Prize in 2020 in recognition of her body of work. Dr. Cooper continues to champion historical truth, social justice, and creative expression through her scholarship and art.
Entries accepted Mar 13 to May 14
For 50 for 50 Contest #2
To enter the current 50 for 50 contest, writers must meet the following criteria.
- You must be a current resident of Nova Scotia, meaning that you live in Nova Scotia on the date of entry.
- Seasonal residents are eligible, including any post-secondary student from another province or country who is a current student of a Nova Scotian institution and a current resident of Nova Scotia (as defined above).
- You must be 19 years of age or older by the current entry deadline.
To be eligible for contest consideration, each entry must meet the following criteria.
- Your entry must respond to one of the two prompt passages selected for the contest.
- Your entry must be no more than 50 words in length, excluding the name of the prompt author name and the title of the piece.
- Your entry must be submitted via the form at the bottom of this page as .doc, .docx, or .pdf file.
- Your entry must include, at the very top of the page, the author of the prompt passage it responds to. (E.g., “Shauntay Grant” or “Alistair MacLeod.”) If your entry responds in some way to both prompts, select the author whose passage your entry responds to best.
- Your entry must not include your name anywhere in the text or file name.
Multiple submissions are permitted.
- You may submit up to two distinct entries to each 50 for 50 contest. Each entry may respond to different prompt passages or the same prompt passage. Each entry must be submitted as a separate file.
Simultaneous submissions are not permitted.
- You may not submit writing that is currently being considered—or has been accepted—for future publication by another organization.
- The writing submitted to WFNS may not be submitted for publication to another organization until the WFNS program results are communicated. Results will be communicated to you by email. Once your writing is no longer being considered for the WFNS program, you are free to submit it elsewhere.
- If you wish to submit your entry elsewhere before WFNS program results have been announced, you must first contact WFNS to withdraw your entry. Any entry fee cannot be refunded.
Prohibitions on simultaneous submissions do not apply to multiple WFNS programs. You are always permitted to submit the same unpublished writing to multiple WFNS programs and special publications at the same time.
Entries must be suitable for a general, all-ages audience.
- No explicit sexuality.
- No graphic violence.
- No racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and/or other discriminatory language.
Submission form
When the below form is successfully submitted, it will be replaced with a confirmation message.
Partners
The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is grateful to King’s Co-op Bookstore and Block Shop Books for their partnership in realizing the 50 for 50 Contest Series.
