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Launched in 2020, the Coffee Chats program enables WFNS members at all career stages to seek advice and inspiration from professional authors.

For questions about this program, contact program lead Linda Hudson at wits@writers.ns.ca.

Coffee Chats provide writers with affordable 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 an advice-seeking writer is $65. This full amount is conveyed to their advisor after their advisory session.

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, 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 for advisors and those seeking advice.
  • 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. 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 administered through the Coffee Chats program. If you send a query to contact@writers.ns.ca, we’ll be happy to forward it to any WFNS member that you’re interested in privately contracting.

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

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Requests accepted year-round

The below form includes all information required for expedient requests of potential advisors.
We cannot accept scheduling requests by other means (e.g., email or phone).

Scheduling fee

The scheduling fee of $65 covers the Coffee Chat advisor’s compensation, with no portion retained by WFNS. If we are unable to schedule a Coffee Chat for you, the scheduling fee will be refunded in full.

Pay scheduling fee online

To pay fee by phone, call us between 10am and 3pm 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.

Scheduling request form

When the below form is successfully submitted, it will be replaced with a confirmation message.

You must be a General Member to participate in this program. General Membership is open to anyone who writes.
Potential advisors are listed in the "Advisor profiles" tab above.
E.g., specific publishing strategies, writing practices, or methods for overcoming creative blocks and challenges.
E.g., "Monday evenings, Tuesday evenings, or Wednesday afternoons" or "Saturday or Sunday before 5pm"
Indicate the method by which you paid the Coffee Chats scheduling fee detailed above. Fee payment must be sent before you submit this form.
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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