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Alistair MacLeod
Mentorship Program

The Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program was made possible by the late Alistair MacLeod, who generously donated the protégé portion of his 2001 Portia White Prize to the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia to ensure the continuation of its mentorship pilot program. Alistair MacLeod's passing on April 20, 2014, was mourned by the Atlantic literary community, but we continue to lean on and grow from his books, his teaching, his steadfast friendships, and his commitment to his home province.

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

Since 2001, the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program has supported the development of emerging writers in Nova Scotia who are on the cusp of professional publication and who are committed to their writing and creative development. It is a disciplined, focused, and supportive one-on-one apprenticeship program through which writers expand and hone their craft.

Through this program, WFNS pairs professional authors with emerging writers, matching the experience and craft of mentoring authors’ with the project goals and manuscripts of apprentice writers. Writers from across Nova Scotia — with projects in all genres of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and writing for children or young adults — are welcome to apply.

The program helps emerging writers overcome barriers to their growth and development, provides mentoring authors with an opportunity to refine their mentorship and instructional skills, and reaffirms the creative conviction of everyone involved.

Hear about the impact of the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program first-hand.

Carmel Mikol (host of Hyacinth Podcast) interviews 2016 participants Carol Bruneau (mentor) and Nicola Davison (apprentice) about the benefits of the program and how it helped them write two award-winning novels.

Mentors and apprentices work together over a four-month period—February, March, April, and May—meeting regularly and conducting follow-up exchanges via email. These relationships are enriched through regular apprentice-only and program-wide meetings.

  • Each mentor-apprentice pair meets weekly, bi-weekly, or every three weeks (for 16 to 17 hours total), with the precise schedule determined by the pair.
  • All apprentices meet monthly (for 4 meetings total) to discuss their challenges, share their progress, and develop a supportive writing network.
  • All mentors and apprentices in the program meet in late January (to review program details and begin scheduling), in mid March (to check in at the program’s mid-point), and in mid May (to prepare for the capstone event).

Meetings are generally conducted virtually, though any mentor-apprentice pair has the option of meeting in-person.

The Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program concludes in early June with in-person and video readings by apprentices, performed and screened as part of WFNS’s annual public Celebration of Emerging Writers in Halifax.

WFNS promotes this reading and the mentorship participants widely in order to encourage public engagement with new writers and showcase the program’s role in building capacity in Nova Scotia’s writing community.

There is no cost to an apprentice beyond WFNS General Membership dues and the program application fee—but the benefit of sustained work with a professional author provides value long after the program has ended.

WFNS reserves at least two literary mentorships each year for writers from equity-deserving communities.

This includes but is not limited to writers who have faced marginalization on the basis of their ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or disability. Prioritization of equity-deserving writers depends on applicants’ voluntary self-identification.

WFNS also reserves at least two literary mentorships each year for recipients of Nova Scotia Talent Trust literary scholarships. When scholarship holders are accepted to the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program, they contribute their scholarship amount to the program and WFNS covers the remaining expense of their mentorship.

“Pre-professional” (i.e., emerging) writers who have lived in Nova Scotia for at least two years are eligible to apply for Talent Trust scholarships in the literary discipline. When preparing the budget for your Nova Scotia Talent Trust scholarship application, enter the expense of a four-month Alistair MacLeod mentorship as $2000, which is the amount a mentor is compensated.

Please note that applying to the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program with a Talent Trust scholarship in hand requires advanced planning:

  1. Apply to the Talent Trust for a literary scholarship for “fall/winter studies,” for which the annual deadline is May 1.
  2. Apply to WFNS’s Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program, for which the annual deadline is in early October.

If a Talent Trust scholarship holder applies but is not accepted for a MacLeod mentorship, WFNS staff will assist them in identifying and contacting authors who would be suitable to provide a private mentorship, which can be supported by their scholarship award.

The below table summarizes how a Talent Trust scholarship impacts your application to the MacLeod Mentorship program.

You didn't apply or aren't eligible for a Talent Trust scholarship.You applied but didn't receive a Talent Trust scholarship.You applied and did receive a Talent Trust scholarship.
When applying for a MacLeod mentorship......you'll apply as usual.

If accepted, you'll undertake the mentorship at no cost to you.		...you'll apply as usual.

If accepted, you'll undertake the mentorship at no cost to you.		...you'll apply as usual but receive priority consideration for two reserved mentorships.

If accepted, you'll contribute your Talent Trust scholarship amount to the MacLeod program.

If not accepted, we'll assist you in identifying and contacting authors who would be suitable to provide a private mentorship, funded in part or in whole by your scholarship amount.
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The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is grateful to the Nova Scotia Talent Trust for its partnership in promoting the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program.

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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Simultaneous Submissions

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) administers some programs (and special projects) that involve print and/or digital publication of ‘selected’ or ‘winning’ entries. In most cases, writing submitted to these programs and projects must not be previously published and must not be simultaneously under consideration for publication by another organization. Why? Because our assessment and selection processes depends on all submitted writing being available for first publication. If writing selected for publication by WFNS has already been published or is published by another organization first, copyright issues will likely make it impossible for WFNS to (re-)publish that writing.

When simultaneous submissions to a WFNS program are not permitted, it means the following:

  • You may not submit writing that has been accepted for future publication by another organization.
  • You may not submit writing that is currently being considered for publication by another organization—or for another prize that includes publication.
  • 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 directly to you by email and often also through the public announcement of a shortlist or list of winners. 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 submission do not apply to multiple WFNS programs. You are always permitted to submit the same unpublished writing to multiple WFNS programs (and special projects) at the same time, such as the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program, the Emerging Writers Prizes, the Jampolis Cottage Residency Program, the Message on a Bottle contest, the Nova Writes Competition, and any WFNS projects involving one-time or recurring special publications.

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