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Celebration of Emerging Writers

The Celebration of Emerging Writers is an annual reading series that brings together recipients of our Emerging Writers Prizes (announced in January), graduates of our Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program (announced in February), and winners of our Nova Writes Competition (announced in March).

The Emerging Writers Prizes, MacLeod Mentorships, and Nova Writes Competition support the development of Nova Scotia’s emerging and early-career writers by financing writing time and providing access to the mentorship and feedback of established writers. In introducing these newer writers to the public, the Celebration of Emerging Writers provides them with a chance to be seen and heard, gives the public an opportunity to recognize their achievements, and allows us all to celebrate the growth of Nova Scotia’s writing communities.

Past events in this series

2025

Featured Nova Writes Competition winners: C.C. Bligh (Joyce Barkhouse Middle-Grade & YA Fiction Prize), Susie DeCoste (Rita Joe Poetry Prize), L.M. Hicks (Silver Donald Cameron Essay Prize), and Sophia Lindfield (Budge Wilson Short Story Prize)

Featured Emerging Writers Prizes recipients: Jaime Jacques (Elizabeth Venart Prize), Nailah Tataa (Charles R. Saunders Prize), and Natasha Thomas (Senator Don Oliver Black Voices Prize)

Featured Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program graduates: Melissa Goertzen (nonfiction essays), Roberta McGinn (science fiction), and Jennifer Stewart (literary fiction)

2024

Featured Nova Writes Competition winners: Blue Bailey (poetry), Kyle Hooper (short fiction), and J.P. Smith (short nonfiction)

Featured Emerging Writers Prizes recipients: Habiba Diallo (Senator Don Oliver Black Voices Prize), Theo Feehan-Peters (Charles R. Saunders Prize), and Janice Sampson (Elizabeth Venart Prize)

Featured MacLeod Mentorship graduates: Storme Arden (memoir), Theo Feehan-Peters (fiction), Elizabeth Jeha (memoir), Janelle Levesque (poetry), and Dana Mount (fiction)

2023

Featured Nova Writes Competition winners: Andrea Reynolds (short fiction), Elizabeth Collis (short non-fiction), Jennifer Overton (writing for children), and Nicholas Selig (poetry).

Featured MacLeod Mentorship graduates: Nadia Aumeerally (fiction), Monika Dutt (nonfiction), Hollis Holden (poetry), Andrea Hubley (poetry), Michelle Samson (fiction), and J.P. Smith (fiction).

2022

In celebration of the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program’s 20th anniversary, past program participants shared remarks and remembrances.

Featured MacLeod Mentorship graduates: Claudette Bouman (memoir), Susan LeBlanc (fiction), Mary Feehan (fiction), and Nayani Jensen (YA fiction).

2021

Featured Nova Writes Competition winners: Kate Burnham (nonfiction), Lindsey Harrington (poetry), Bob Mann (fiction), and Heidi Tattrie Rushton (children’s writing).

Featured MacLeod Mentorship graduates: Robert de la Chevotiere (fiction), Justyne Leslie (poetry), Lori McKay (YA fiction), Martha Mutale (poetry), Danica Roache (fiction), and Nicolas Paquette (YA fiction).

2020

With pandemic conditions preventing the annual Celebration of Emerging Writers, we celebrated the graduates of the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program by sharing their work with you in video form, illustrated and animated by Nova Scotia visual artists.

Featured MacLeod Mentorship graduates: Angela Bowden (poetry), Katie Cameron (poetry), Brad Donaldson (fiction), Joanne Gallant (memoir), Sandra Murdock (memoir), Sue Murtagh (fiction), and Bev Shaw (fiction).

Featured visual artists: Catherine Bussiere, Belle DeMont, Paton Francis, Doretta Groenedyk, Patrick McWade, Anna Quon, and Marijke Simons.

2019

Featured Nova Writes Competition winners: Susan Drain (fiction), Karen Kelloway (children’s literature), Rosalie Osmond (poetry), and Ariel Watson (non-fiction).

Featured MacLeod Mentorship graduates: Sean Bedell (fiction), K.R. Byggdin (fiction), Judy Kaiser (fiction), and Vanessa Lent (fiction).

2018

Featured Nova Writes Competition winners: J Lorraine Campbell (poetry), Mary Verna Feehan (fiction), Margaret MacQuarrie (non-fiction), Susan Walsh (fiction), and Muriel Zimmer (non-fiction).

Featured MacLeod Mentorship graduates: Bretten Hannam (fiction), Bethany Lake (fiction), Laura Redman (fiction), and Allison Richard (fiction).

2017

Featured Nova Writes Competition winners: Melissa Friedman (non-fiction), Brenda MacLennan-Dunphy (fiction), Amanda Peters (fiction), Jana Traff (poetry), and Laureen Van Lierop (children’s literature).

Featured MacLeod Mentorship graduates: Louise Cameron (fiction), Caira Clark (poetry), and Amanda Peters (fiction).

2016

Featured Atlantic Writing Competition winners: Abena Amoako-Tuffour (poetry), Anne Bishop (fiction), Jenni Blackmore (young adult fiction), Linda McLean (non-fiction), Sue Murtagh (fiction), and Mary Pike (children’s literature).

Featured MacLeod Mentorship graduates: Nicola Davison (fiction), Erin Beth Langille (fiction), Chad Lucas (young adult fiction), Linda McLean (fiction), and Lindsay Wilson (fiction).

The Celebration of Emerging Writers began in 2016. This year featured winners of the Nova Writes predecessor program, the Atlantic Writing Competition. Prior to 2016, Mentorship Program graduates read at the WFNS Annual General Meeting, while Atlantic Writing Competition winners read at the Word on the Street literary festival. Prior to 2011, Atlantic Writing Competition winners read at the WFNS Gala Celebration of Writers and Writing.

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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 and 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.

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 information, strategies, and skills that suit their career stage. 

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 you’re uncertain of your experience level with regard to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca