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Apply for Mentorship

For questions about this program, contact program lead Linda Hudson at wits@writers.ns.ca. Please reach out at least one week before the current application deadline.

To be considered for the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program, writers must meet the following criteria.

  • You must be an established resident of Nova Scotia, having lived in Nova Scotia full-time for the 12 months prior to the date of application. (Out-of-province post-secondary students and seasonal residents are ineligible.)
  • You must be an emerging writer in the form of writing for which you seek mentorship, meaning that you have not published a book-length literary project within that form, including all genres and sub-genres within that form and including traditionally published, partner- or hybrid-published, and self-published projects.
    • In the context of the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program, WFNS considers five primary literary forms: fiction, graphic novel, nonfiction, poetry, and writing for young adults (YA) or middle-grade readers. At this time, we cannot arrange for mentorships in other forms.
    • WFNS reserves the right to determine whether you will benefit from mentorship given your non-book-length (e.g., periodical or anthology) publications and other experience in the form for which you seek mentorship. If you are uncertain of your eligibility, please contact us.
  • You must be 19 years of age or older by the current application deadline.
  • You must submit only one application for the current application deadline.

In addition to the above criteria, writers must be available for following program-wide meetings and capstone event.

2027 program-wide meetings:

  • Thursday, Jan 21 (10am – 11am), virtual
  • Thursday, Mar 25 (10am – 11am), virtual
  • Thursday, May 20 (10am – 11am), virtual

2027 capstone event:

  • Celebration of Emerging Writers, Wednesday, June 9 (7pm – 9pm), in-person (Halifax)

Any participant unable to attend the capstone event is required to submit a pre-recorded video reading in advance.

MacLeod Mentorship applications must contain all components listed below and must be submitted by 11:59pm on the current application deadline. Your application package must be attached to the application form as a single digital document (in .doc, .docx, or .pdf format) with a file name as follows: [Your Name] – Mentorship.

A. ‘Cover letter’ up to 1 page in length (single-spaced; in 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial font)

The cover letter is composed of personal responses to the following questions. All questions must be answered within this 1 page, but the length of any particular response is up to you. Start a new paragraph for each response.

  1. Provide an ‘elevator pitch’ for your work-in-progress: identify its form (e.g., fiction, nonfiction, poetry, writing for middle-grade readers, or writing for young adults) and any relevant genres or sub-genres, and briefly describe its narrative and/or themes.
  2. How long have you been actively developing your work-in-progress? How many pages have you drafted? How many pages have been through a revision process?
  3. What specific goals do you hope to achieve during the mentorship? What are your most significant creative challenges with your work-in-progress?
  4. How will you prioritize your work-in-progress during the mentorship? Please also identify any barriers to literary creation and/or recognition that you face or have faced (personal, social, political, financial, etc.).

B. Writing sample from the work-in-progress of 8 to 10 pages (double-spaced for prose; in 12-pt Times New Roman or Arial font)

  • Poetry samples may be single- or double-spaced, as suits your intended presentation. Poetry samples may use other fonts only if typeface is integral to the work-in-progress.
  • You may include a description (of up to one additional double-spaced page) summarizing the work-in-progress from which the sample is excerpted and/or providing necessary context for the excerpt. Include any such description at the beginning of the writing sample.

The application form also asks whether you belong to an equity-deserving community and whether you’d like to be considered only for a scholarship seat, only for a paid seat, or for either type of seat.

All applicants will be notified of results by mid December. Please do not inquire about the status of your application during the assessment period.

After applications have been processed to ensure they are complete and eligible, they are shared with an independent peer assessment jury (composed of three professional authors contracted by WFNS). All application packages will be assessed based on the following criteria, weighted equally:

  • the merit of the writing sample,
  • the potential impact of a mentorship, as determined by the ‘cover letter,’ and
  • the applicant’s capacity for successfully undertaking a mentorship, as determined by the ‘cover letter.’

The jury’s selection of apprentices will be final. In order to accommodate availability and other factors, the final selection of a mentor for an apprentice writer will be made by WFNS staff.

The apprenticing fee ($2250) is due upon acceptance of a seat in the MacLeod Mentorship Program. 

Instalment plans are available by request. In all cases, at least 50% of the apprenticing fee ($1125) must be paid before the first program-wide meeting in late January, with the balance due before the second program-wide meeting in late March. (Precise dates for these meetings are listed in the above section 1, “Eligibility criteria.”)

Applicants to the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program must submit a ‘cover letter’ (i.e., personal responses to questions about their writing) and a writing sample. Beyond submitting both of the necessary documents on time, what can writers do to strengthen their applications?

Preparing to apply:

The Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program is intensive, requiring each apprentice to commit significant time and effort to researching, revising, editing, and drafting new material for their work-in-progress. This kind of concentrated effort depends on your available time, motivation, and willpower, of course—but it also depends on preparing yourself and your work-in-progress to benefit from the unique range of feedback that a dedicated mentor can provide. Your work-in-progress should be fully conceived (even if you don’t have a completed draft), and you should have a grasp of its genre and themes.

Writing the cover letter:

Peer assessors will use your cover letter to estimate your “capacity for successfully undertaking a mentorship” as well as “the potential impact of a mentorship” on your work-in-progress and your writing career, which are two of the three criteria for apprentice selection. Specifically, they’ll look to your cover letter to determine

  • whether you have already demonstrated commitment to completing the work-in-progress, including whether you have already sought and incorporated feedback on the work-in-progress;
  • whether you are developed enough as a writer to benefit from the guidance of a mentor (as opposed to support from peers in a writing group or from a book coach or writing accountability buddy), including whether you can set realistic and manageable goals for the mentorship period;
  • whether your work-in-progress is at the right developmental stage to benefit from the feedback of a mentor (as opposed to the early-stage feedback provided by a first reader or the late-stage feedback provided by a copy editor);
  • whether a MacLeod Mentorship in particular would provide significant support in your completion of the work-in-progress and/or a strong foundation for your further writing career development, including whether you’ve encountered creative or social barriers that a mentorship could address or alleviate.

If your application is successful, WFNS staff will also use your cover letter to assist in matching you with a suitable mentor.

Choosing and revising the writing sample:

Peer assessors will use your writing sample to gauge the artistic “merit” of your work-in-progress, which is one of the three criteria for apprentice selection. A writing sample is not meant to be average but extraordinary, so ensure it is your best writing—or becomes your best writing through revision!

Extended deadlines: applications accepted Aug 27 to Oct 15, 2026

For MacLeod Mentorships to be undertaken in 2027

Application fee and form are visible below whenever applications are being accepted

Application fee

The application fee of $50 (or $37.50 for those with current WFNS General Membership) covers most but not all of the assessment costs for each application. As such, this fee cannot be refunded under any circumstance, including incomplete, ineligible, or unsuccessful applications.

If the application fee presents a barrier, please contact wits@writers.ns.ca before applying. Funds are available to help underwaged writers with application fees.

Pay application 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 current application deadline.

Application form

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

Declarations of general eligibility

By applying to participate in the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program, you make each of the following declarations:

• I am an established resident of Nova Scotia, having lived in Nova Scotia full-time for the 12 months prior to the date of application.
• I am an emerging writer in the form of writing for which I seek mentorship, having not published a book-length literary project in this form.
• I am 19 years of age or older.
• This is my only application to the current application deadline.
• If I am selected for a mentorship, I will be available to participate in the 2027 program-wide meetings (conducted virtually on the mornings of Jan 21, Mar 21, May 20) and the 2027 capstone event (conducted in Halifax on the evening of June 9).
• My application package and work-in-progress are 100% human-created. No part of my application package or my work-in-progress has been generated or modified by so called "AI," including LLMs (large language models) and other exploitative, copyright-violating algorithmic technologies.

If it is discovered that any of the above declarations is false, your application will be ineligible.
The fee for a participating apprentice is $2250 (payable through instalments), of which $2000 is conveyed to their mentor and $250 is retained by WFNS to defray administrative expenses. Each scholarship covers this apprenticing fee in full.
If the name you commonly use or publish under differs from your legal name, please include your legal name in parentheses—i.e., "Common Name (Legal Name)." If you perform at the Celebration of Emerging Writers, your legal name will be required for honorarium payment.
Must include city/town, province, and postal code.
Drag & Drop Files, Choose Files to Upload
• Your application package must be a single digital file (.doc, .docx, or .pdf format) that contains all components identified in the above section "2. Application Package."
• Your application package must use a file name as follows: [Your Name] - Mentorship.
• Incomplete, misnamed, or file-unreadable application packages may be deemed ineligible.
If the form of your work-in-progress is not listed above, please contact wits@writers.ns.ca to ensure its suitability for the program.
Indicate the method by which you have paid the Mentorship Program application fee, which is detailed immediately above this application 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