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Coffee Chats advisor

Jessica Joy Hiemstra

Jessica Joy Hiemstra is a visual artist, writer and designer living in Gunning Cove, Shelburne County, Mi’kma’ki.  When she’s not gardening or writing, she’s drawing. She especially loves to make hand-drawn animations.  At the moment she’s making drawings to accompany 41 short poems from writers across the country. These poems, edited by herself and Gillian Sze, will be published by Baseline Press in 2027. A book of essays, written in conversation with the art of Claire Wilks, is expected with Exile Editions in 2026. On the back of that book it says: don’t tell me I cannot love. 

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Melissa Kuipers

Melissa Kuipers (she/her) is a writer of fiction and creative non-fiction. Her book, The Whole Beautiful World, was published in 2017 with Brindle & Glass. Her fiction has been published in literary journals such as Joyland, Ryga, Ex-Puritan, and The Rusty Toque. She has personal essays in publications like The New Quarterly, Room, Plough, and The Ottawa Arts Review. She has taught creative writing extensively, both in high school and universities, has mentored emerging writers and has led multiple writing workshops. She received her Masters in the Field of Creative Writing from University of Toronto.

Raised on a chicken farm in Southern Ontario/Anishinabewaki, Melissa now resides in eastern Nova Scotia/Epekwitk aq Piktuk with her husband and two children.

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Gina N. Brown

Gina N. Brown has written three novels: Pickled in Love (2025), The Sugar Bowl Feud (2024) and Lucy McGee’s Moment of Truth (2021). She also edited and published a memoir for her late husband, Robert Crockett.

A graduate of the Mount St. Vincent University public relations program, she pursued a career in music, film, advertising, museums, education and special events. Her freelance writing includes travel and lifestyle articles in Canadian Living Magazine, the Globe and Mail, the Chronicle Herald and Saltwire. Examples of her published pieces can be found at novaheartmedia.com.

Gina has attended writing workshops and retreats at the Arvon Foundation in England; Taddle Creek at the University of Toronto; and Master Classes at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto. She also co-founded writer groups in Toronto, and in Halifax, now in its 12th year. As a creative writer, she’s placed as a finalist or notable entry in five international writing competitions.

In 2019, after a lengthy career as a marketing specialist, she launched an independent publishing platform, NovaHeart Media. In addition to her writing, she offers writing workshops for new and established writers and provides consulting services for independent writers. As a way of giving back and engaging with the community, she has mentored more than a dozen youth and emerging writers.

Gina has traveled to 35 countries and has lived in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Birmingham, England. In 2004, she returned to her home port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she loves to swim, skate, canoe, hike, cycle, and do yoga.

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Heidi Tattrie Rushton

Heidi Tattrie Rushton has been a freelance reporter, event planner, international recruiter, and preschool teacher. Like her Pet Tales protagonist, she has experience working at an animal shelter, was a kid-activist through her writing, and rides the roller coaster of life with anxiety. She lives with her husband, two children, and a menagerie of tiny pets, including a cat-sized dog, two fish, and a snail.

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Cory Lavender

Cory Lavender is a poet of African Nova Scotian and European descent living in the Kespukwitk district of Mi’kma’ki (Southwest Nova Scotia). His chapbooks are Lawson Roy’s Revelation (Gaspereau Press, 2018) and Ballad of Bernie “Bear” Roy (knife | fork | book, 2020). His work has appeared in journals such as Grain, Prairie Fire, Riddle Fence, and The Fiddlehead, and in Watch Your Head: Writers and Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis (Coach House Press, 2020). His full-length collection of poems Come One Thing Another (Gaspereau Press, 2024) won the 2025 Maxine Tynes Nova Scotia Poetry Award.

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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