50th Anniversary Composition Project

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) and the Nova Scotia Choral Federation (NSCF) are both turning 50 years old in 2026. In celebration of this shared anniversary—and the rich, often entwining histories of music and storytelling in Nova Scotia—WFNS and NSCF are partnering on the 50th Anniversary Composition Project, which will commission new choral works that set Nova Scotian poetry to music.

For questions about this program, contact program lead Oriana Duinker at director@writers.ns.ca.

WFNS invites submissions, from Nova Scotian professional artists, of unpublished short poems (up to 1 page) on the themes of voice, home, or belonging.

WFNS’s peer assessment process will provide a shortlist of six poems, with assessment prioritizing writers from equity-deserving communities.

The two composers selected by NSCF (detailed below) will act as final judges, choosing two poems from this shortlist to set to music. The writer of each chosen poem will receive an honorarium of $400.

Simultaneously, NSCF invites portfolio submissions from Canadian composers. NSCF’s peer assessment process will select two composers, each of whom will set to music one poem from the WFNS shortlist.

The selected composers are expected to choose poems from the shortlist that resonate with them, align with their composition styles, and suit either an upper voice choir or a lower voice choir.

Completed compositions—the text of the chosen poems and the music they are set to—will be added to NSCF’s music lending library and made available for free to choirs across Nova Scotia. Both completed compositions will be performed at NSCF’s capstone 50th anniversary event in June, 2027.

The shortlist of Composition Project poems will be announced by the end of August, 2026.

All submitted poems will be anonymized and assessed by a peer assessment jury based on the following criteria, weighted equally:

the merit of the poem,
the translatability and adaptability of the poem for a choral composition, and
the poem’s response to the thematic briefs, as outlined below.

To submit to the Composition Project, 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 submission deadline. (Out-of-province post-secondary students and seasonal residents are ineligible.)
You must be a professional artist, literary other otherwise, according to Arts Nova Scotia’s criteria.
You must be 19 years of age or older by the submission deadline.

To be eligible for consideration, poems must meet the following criteria.

Your poem must be no more than 1 standard page in length (i.e., an 8.5″ x 11″ page with 12pt or larger font).
Your poem must be unpublished.
Your poem must not include your name anywhere in the text or file name.
Your poem should respond to one or more of the following thematic briefs, each of which is open to broad interpretation: Voice (e.g., finding your voice, expressive voice, authentic voice, physical voice, collective voice, and not having a voice); Home (e.g., ideas of Nova Scotian identity, culture and landscape, being away from home, and making a home); and Belonging (e.g., ideas of acceptance, safety, stability, and collective identity.

Multiple submissions are permitted.

You may submit up to three distinct poems to the 50th Anniversary Composition Project. Each poem must be submitted as a separate .doc, .docx, or .pdf file. Please submit all poems using a single submission form.

Simultaneous submissions are not permitted.

You may not submit writing that is currently being considered—or has been accepted—for future publication by another organization.
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 to you by email. 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 submissions do not apply to multiple WFNS programs. You are always permitted to submit the same unpublished writing to multiple WFNS programs and special publications at the same time.

Entries must be suitable for a general, all-ages audience.

No explicit sexuality.
No graphic violence.
No racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and/or other discriminatory language.

Submissions accepted June 19 to July 16

For the 50th Anniversary Composition Project

Submission form

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

Declarations of eligibility

By submitting to the 50th Anniversary Composition Project, 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 submission deadline.
• I am a professional artist according to Arts Nova Scotia's criteria (link opens in a new tab).
• I am 19 years of age or older.
• My submitted poem or poems are my sole, original work and unpublished in any format—whether traditionally, partner-/hybrid-, or indie-/self-published, whether in part or in whole, whether in print or digitally.
• My submitted poem or poems are 100% human-created. No part of my poem or poems 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, any poems you submit will be deemed ineligible.

to Name Brief

Have you read and understood the above declarations? *

Declarations read and understood

Name *

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 your poem is chosen for a composition, your legal name will be required for honorarium payment.

Email *

Phone *

Address *

Address Line 1

City

State / Province / Region

Postal Code

Country

Brief biographical note *

Please write in the third person (i.e., using your name and pronouns rather than "I"). If your poem is shortlisted, this bio will be published alongside the announcement. This bio may be edited for clarity, brevity, or formatting (e.g., italicization of titles).

Website / URL (optional)

Please enter a URL where readers can find more information about you, more of your writing, or a social media profile. If your poem is shortlisted, this bio will be published alongside the announcement.

If you belong to any of these equity-deserving communities, please consider self-identifying.

Indigenous (Mi’kmaq as well as other First Nations, Métis and Inuit)
Black and/or African Nova Scotian
Racialized people of Asian, Latin American, Middle Eastern, or mixed racial descents
Artists who are Deaf, partially deaf, or hard-of-hearing
Artists who have disabilities
Artists who have mental illness or are Mad-identifying

Poems submitted by members of any of these equity-deserving communities will be marked for prioritization by WFNS's peer assessment jury. Please note that the list of equity-deserving communities above is not meant to be exhaustive but to reflect the communities of particular concern to this project's funder, Arts Nova Scotia.

Before uploading your submission file(s):

Ensure each poem is no longer than 1 standard page (8.5" x 11" with at least 12pt font).
Ensure each poem is contained in a separate .doc, .docx, or .pdf file.
Ensure your name does not appear within the poem file(s), whether in text or in file name.

One, two, or three poems *

Drag & Drop Files, Choose Files to Upload You can upload up to 3 files.

Investor & partner

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia thanks Arts Nova Scotia for supporting this special project and the Nova Scotia Choral Federation for its partnership in conceiving and delivering the 50th Anniversary Composition Project.