Coffee Chats
Launched in 2020, the Coffee Chats program enables WFNS members at all career stages to seek advice and inspiration from professional authors.
Coffee Chats provide writers with affordable, subsidized access to the advice of professional authors on a wide range of topics related to the writing life, such as overcoming creative blocks and challenges, establishing healthy writing practices, and planning for publication opportunities. The aim of the program is to help newer writers solve creative problems, to point them toward strategies for professional growth, and to educate them about the literary landscape.
Each Coffee Chat is an informal, half-hour advisory session with a participating member of the WFNS Writers’ Council. It allows a more established author to share their experiences and opinions with a newer writer, who can draw on and benefit from these experiences to better plan their writing practice and to overcome issues they might be struggling with in their current writing. The conversation will be most successful if both participants bring their best selves, establish a safe and inclusive space for discussion, and focus on inspiration and creativity.
The program fee for advice-seeking writers is $40; advisors are compensated $65 for the 30-minute conversation, with the difference subsidized by WFNS.
Once a Coffee Chat scheduling request & fee have been received, WFNS confirms an advisor’s availability; arranges a mutually convenient date and time; schedules a meeting via phone or Zoom; and then confers payment to the advisor.
Coffee Chats emphasize flexibility and the natural flow of conversation, but we encourage advice-seeking writers to make the most of the conversation by planning three to five topics for discussion. We also ask each writer to respect the time of their advisor by keeping an eye on the clock and beginning to wrap up discussion a few minutes before the 30-minute conversation ends.
If an advice-seeking writer or an advisor is unhappy with the results of a Coffee Chat, they are encouraged to contact WFNS (communications@writers.ns.ca), which will mediate any dispute and handle any necessary refund.
To determine if a Coffee Chat is the best approach for you, please consult the following eligibility terms:
- Coffee Chats are conducted only by phone or by the free-to-use Zoom video conferencing platform; they are not conducted in person. This eliminates travel time and expense..
- Advisors are not expected to provide advice, answer questions, or review writing before or after a Coffee Chat. This ensures advisors are free from intended or unintended pressure to perform uncompensated labour.
- Advice-seeking writers may not directly contact advisors before or after a Coffee Chat. This ensures advisors spend minimal time responding to scheduling requests. Repeatedly or unwantedly contacting an advisor (or potential advisors) may result in cancellation of any scheduled Coffee Chat and/or in loss of access to the Coffee Chats program.
- WFNS may decline any Coffee Chat that is requested for a purpose outside the aim of the program, which is to help newer writers solve creative problems, to point them toward strategies for professional growth, and to educate them about the literary landscape. This limitation ensures best use of the funds available to subsidize Coffee Chats. Purposes outside the scope of Coffee Chats include compensating an advisor retroactively (i.e., for advice already given); obtaining detailed feedback on written material (see instead our Manuscript Review Program); conducting a medium- or long-term mentorship (see instead our MacLeod Mentorship Program); interviewing potential literary service providers (such as contract editors or publicists); and pitching manuscripts to potential publishers. If your request is declined, your scheduling fee will be refunded.
If you wish to seek writing advice or services outside of the above terms, you must negotiate compensation with any potential advisor directly. Because such an arrangement cannot be vetted or supervised by WFNS staff, it cannot be subsidized through the Coffee Chats program. However, WFNS (communications@writers.ns.ca) is happy to pass on a request for such an arrangement to a writer you’re interested in working with.
Make note of three potential advisors from the profiles below. If searching for advisors with experience in a particular genre of writing, you may type the genre into the search bar.
A.J.B. (John or Jay) Johnston
A.J.B. (John) Johnston is the author or co-author of books and museum exhibits, as well as articles in scholarly journals, magazines and newspapers. He was made a chevalier of France’s Ordre des Palmes Académiques in recognition of his body of work on Louisbourg and other French colonial topics. The best known of his history books is Endgame 1758, which won a Clio award from the Canadian Historical Assocation and was short-listed for the Dartmouth Book Award.
His two latest books, his 20th and 21st, will appear in 2020. First up will be Kings of Friday Night: The Lincolns (Nimbus). Then it will be Ancient World, New World: Skmaqn—Port-la-Joye—Fort Amherst (Acorn), co-authored with Jesse Francis.
In 2018, John released The Hat, a YA novel that offers a 21st-century take on the Acadian Deportation, and Something True, which was inspired by the real-life adventures of Katharine McLennan in late 19th and early 20th-century Cape Breton and in France during the First World War.
In 2017, he was Writer-in-Residence at the Center for the Writing Arts in Fairhope, Alabama. Back in 2016, John participated as a mentor to emerging writer Linda MacLean in the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program. From mid-April to mid-May 2017 he combined with Sal Sawler and Norma Jean MacPhee to offer sessions for the WFNS entitled “So You Want to be Published” in Halifax, Antigonish, Wolfville, Sydney and Yarmouth.
John has written three novels in the Thomas Pichon series: Thomas, A Secret Life in 2012; The Maze in 2114 and Crossings in 2015.
Back in 2013, Ni’n na L’nu: The Mi’kmaq of Prince Edward Island (Acorn), won three awards: “best-published Atlantic Book”, best PEI Non-Fiction, and a PEI Heritage Award. The French version of the book, Ni’n na L’nu: Les Mi’kmaq de l’Ile-de-Prince-Édouard, is now available from La Grand Marée (Tracadie Sheila, NB).
Released in 2015 was Grand Pré, Landscape for the World (Nimbus), co-written with Ronnie-Gilles LeBlanc.
Most of his books are available as e-books.
John writes exhibits as well, including the “Vanguard: 150 Years of Remarkable Nova Scotians” for the Nova Scotia Museum and the ground floor of the Black Cultural Centre. The award-winning travelling exhibition Ni’n na L’nu: The Mi’kmaq of Prince Edward Island opened at the Confederation Centre in Charlottetown and then travelled to the Museum of Canadian History in Gatienau, Quebec and other subsequent venues. More recently, John developed the storyline and texts for the revitalization of the Colchester Historeum in Truro. That exhibit opened officially in early 2016.
More information on John can be found at ajbjohnston.com and on Facebook at A J B Johnston, Writer. John is on Twitter at @ajbjohnston and on Instagram at AJBJohnston.
John donates his papers to the Beaton Institute of the Cape Breton University.
A.J.B. (John or Jay) Johnston
Adam Foulds
I am a poet and novelist originally from the UK, now a Canadian resident. I’ve published four novels and a poetry collection and bunch of other things. I’ve won a number of literary awards, including being shortlisted for the Booker Prize. I’ve taught creative writing at workshops and universities in Britain, Canada, and elsewhere.
Adam Foulds
Coffee Chat scheduling requests are accepted only through the form at the bottom of this page. Please note that completing the request form is the final step in our recommended scheduling request checklist:
☐ Ensure your eligibility. To request a Coffee Chat, you must be a current General Member of WFNS. General Membership is open to anyone who writes.
☐ Select three potential advisors.
☐ Pay the $40 scheduling fee. This fee covers administration of the scheduling request and the Coffee Chat itself. If we are unable to schedule a Coffee Chat for you, the fee will be refunded in full.
To pay fee by phone, call us between 9am and 4pm on weekdays at 902 423 8116 with your credit card details.
To pay fee by mail, send a cheque (payable to “Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia”) post-dated for no later than the request submission.
☐ Complete and submit the form at the bottom of this page. After clicking the “Submit scheduling request” button, please wait until the green confirmation message appears (confirming that your form has been successfully submitted) before exiting this page.
REQUESTS ACCEPTED YEAR-ROUND
Scheduling request form
This form includes all information required for expedient requests of potential Coffee Chats advisors. As such, we do not consider any Coffee Chats advisory requests not submitted through this form. If the form itself is a barrier, please call us (902 423 8116) so that we may complete it on your behalf.
