Coffee Chats advisor

Sue Goyette

Sue Goyette lives in Halifax and has published four books of poems, The True Names of Birds, Undone and outskirts from Brick Books, and Ocean, published by Gaspereau Press in April 2013. Her novel, Lures (HarperCollins), was published in 2002.

Sue has been nominated for several awards including the Governor General’s Award for Poetry, the Pat Lowther, the Gerald Lampert, the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, the Dartmouth Book Award and the Acorn-Plantos Award for People’s Poetry. Selections of her work won the 2008 CBC Literary Prize for Poetry, the 2010 Earle Birney Award and the 2011 Bliss Carman Poetry Award. She is the recipient of a Nova Scotia Established Artist Award as well as the Pat Lowther and Atlantic Poetry Awards.

Her poetry has appeared on the Toronto subway system, in wedding vows and spray-painted on a sidewalk somewhere in St. John, New Brunswick. Sue has taught at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Sage Hill Experience and currently teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Dalhousie University.

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Renée Hartleib

Renée Hartleib is an author, writer, and writing mentor based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Her greatest passion is to help others connect with themselves and bring their creative dreams to life. Her first book, Writing Your Way: A 40-Day Path of Self-Discovery, was published in 2022. And her second book, Solo Camino: An Empowering Guide for Women was published in 2025.

As a writing mentor, Renée considers it an honour to work one-on-one with writers who are completing book drafts or who require a sensitive and thorough review of completed manuscripts.

Renée has also worked as a professional writer and editor for nearly 20 years. Her client list is long and has included the CBC, the National Film Board, the IWK Health Centre, Farmers Cooperative Dairy Limited, The Shaw Group, Saint Mary’s University, and Dalhousie University.

If you join Renée’s online community, you’ll receive inspiring blog posts on a variety of topics.

As a current member of the WFNS Board of Directors and a graduate of both the Humber School of Writers and the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program, Renée is proud to be part of the vibrant writing community of Atlantic Canada.

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Alison DeLory

Alison DeLory is a writer, editor, teacher, and communications professional. She is currently the Associate Director, Writing & Publishing with the University of King’s College’s MFA program. Prior to this she was Director, Advancement Communications with Dalhousie University (2020 – 2026).

Books

Author, Making it Home, Nimbus Publishing (2019) (Finalist for Rakuten/Kobo Emerging Writer Prize) (novel)
Author, Scotia Sinker, Sketch Publishing (2015) (early chapter book)
Anthology contributor, Becoming Fierce: Teen Stories IRL, Fierce Ink (2014) (young adult)
Author, Lunar Lifter, Bryler Publishing (2012) (early chapter book)
Managing Editor, Take as Directed, ECW Press (2010) (nonfiction adult)

Magazines

Editor, Dal Magazine (2025 – 2026); editorial panel, Dal Magazine (2021 – 2026)
Editor, Tidings, University of King’s College (2018 – 2020)
Editor, Folia Montana, Mount Saint Vincent University (2011 – 2014)
Atlantic Canada Correspondent, Chatelaine Magazine (2009 – 2011)
Associate Editor, The Medical Post (2001 – 2007)

Teaching Experience

University of King’s College, 8-week non-credit writing workshops

Organizational Storytelling (2025)
Fiction Fundamentals (2021)

Mount Saint Vincent University, credit courses in Communication Studies (2013 – 2019)

Persuasive Writing
Strategic Writing
Intro to Writing and Editing
Creative Nonfiction
Mass Media and Public Opinion

Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) (2016 – 2017)

Media Literacy

Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia

Creative Nonfiction workshop (2016)
The Braided Essay workshop (2015)

Writers in the Schools (WITS)

Classroom visits grads primary to 9 (2010 – 2018)

Selected Writing Samples

Quickening the pulse of biomedical innovation, Dal Magazine (2026)
International rights scholar says look at history to understand our political present, Dal News (2024)
Cindy Blackstock: Indigenous children are worth fighting for, Dal News (2022)
For me, Sable Island feels like another dimension, CBC (2017)
Finding beauty in unexpected places after my friend’s death, Globe and Mail (2016)

Judge

Evelyn Richardson Nonfiction Award, Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (2017)
CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize (2016)

Education
MPR (MSVU), BPR (MSVU), BAA in Journalism (TMU), Leadership Badge (Dalhousie)

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Carol Bruneau

Carol Bruneau is the author of eleven books: four short story collections, After the Angel Mill (1995), Depth Rapture (1998), A Bird on Every Tree (2017), shortlisted for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Dartmouth Book Award; and Threshold (2024); one nonfiction book, No Ordinary Magic: the Art of Laurie Swim (2023), shortlisted for the APA Best Book Published in Atlantic Canada Award; and six novels. These include Brighten the Corner Where You Are (2020), nominated for the IMPAQ Dublin Literary Award; A Circle on the Surface (2018), winner of the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction; These Good Hands, a novel based on the life and art of Camille Claudel; Glass Voices (2007), named a Globe and Mail Best Book, German translation Glasstimmen (2010); Berth (2005); and Purple for Sky (2000), US edition A Purple Thread for Sky (2001), winner of the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Dartmouth Book Award.

In numerous starred reviews, Bruneau has been praised by Quill & Quire as a master of the short story form and “a first-class storyteller who uses words magically” (Quill & Quire), and by bestselling author Lesley Crewe as “a marvel.”

Giller-Prize shortlisted author Leo McKay Jr. calls Bruneau’s most recent collection “stories of great power and insight,” and says, “Bruneau illuminates her fictional world with a light so clear and bright that in it we can see into the shadows of our own world, into the usually unuttered spaces between human action and intent, between what we mean to each other and our usually inadequate attempts to articulate that meaning. And the source of that light,” he notes, “is Bruneau’s powerfully controlled language…every sentence perfect unto its purpose.”

She has been writing since childhood; her professional writing career spans thirty years. Her stories, reviews and articles have appeared nationwide in anthologies, print and online journals and newspapers.

She has appeared at various literary festivals including TIFA (Toronto International Festival of Authors), the Vancouver Writers’ Festival, Eden Mills, the Northrop Frye Festival, the Cabot Trail Authors’ Festival, the Lunenburg Literary Festival, the Margaree Literary Festival, Read-by-the-Sea, FogLit, AfterWords Literary Festival and the Winterset Festival.

The recipient of four Canada Council grants in support of her fiction, Bruneau has been Writer in Residence at Acadia and Dalhousie Universities, and taught writing for the arts for many years at NSCAD University. Having led workshops throughout the Maritimes and mentored new and emerging writers through the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program since the program’s inception, she continues to teach workshops in fiction writing at various levels for the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia.

Bruneau lives and works in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, Mi’kmaki/Nova Scotia.

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Lesley Choyce

Lesley teaches part-time at Dalhousie University, runs Pottersfield Press and has published over 86 books for adults and kids. His Young Adult novels concern things like skateboarding, surfing, racism, environmental issues, organ transplants, and rock bands. Lesley surfs year round in the North Atlantic and is considered the father of transcendental wood-splitting. He’s worked as a rehab counsellor, a freight hauler, a corn farmer, a janitor, a journalist, a lead guitarist, a newspaper boy and a well-digger. He lives at Lawrencetown Beach overlooking the ocean. He also hosts a nationally syndicated TV talk show on Vision TV. His recent novel, Cold Clear Morning, is currently being developed as a feature length movie. In 2002, Goose Lane Editions published Choyce’s best-selling circumferential history book, The Coasts of Canada. That same year, his animal epic film, The Skunk Whisperer, was broadcast across Canada and heralded at the Maine International Film Festival. Along with the Surf Poets, he has released two poetry/music albums, Long Lost Planet and Sea Level.

To read excerpts from Lesley’s books and download free samples of his music, visit www.lesleychoyce.com.

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Jan L. Coates

Jan Coates lives in Wolfville, NS with her husband and their Golden Irish, Charlie. She has two married children and four granddaughters and loves visiting schools through the Writers in the Schools (WITS) program. Jan’s interest in writing for children grew out of her own love of words and stories and a passion for helping kids become lifelong readers and writers.

In her free time, Jan can be found on the badminton or pickleball court, travelling, at the gym, the cottage, or thrift shopping. Her first picture book, Rainbows in the Dark (Second Story Press, 2005) has been translated into Spanish, Catalan, and Braille, with Korean and Brazilian rights also sold. She has also written 20 ESL illustrated chapter books for Caramel Tree, a Korean-based English Language School publisher.

Her debut novel, A Hare in the Elephant’s Trunk (Red Deer Press, 2010), was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award (Children’s Text) in 2011, as well as an Ann Connor Brimer Award finalist. She has also written five middle grade novels; The Hermit (Nimbus, 2020); Say What You Mean (Nevermore, 2019); Talking to the Moon (Red Deer, 2018),The Power of Harmony (Red Deer, 2013), also a Brimer finalist, and Rocket Man, a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers (Red Deer, 2014). Jan’s picture books include: Jessie and Me: Hat People (author/illustrator, Camp Triumph, PEI), The Pocket Pig (author/illustrator) Pandamonium Publishing 2022), Anna Maria & Maestro Vivaldi (Red Deer, 2022), Dancing with Daisy (Running the Goat, 2019); Karissa & Felix (self-published, as both author and illustrator, 2019); A Halifax Time-Travelling Tune (Nimbus, 2018), Sky Pig (Pajama Press, 2016), The King of Keji (Nimbus, 2015), and Rainbows in the Dark (Second Story Press, 2005). Her current passion (other than learning to illustrate and creating soul smiles, her greeting cards) is a work of creative non-fiction for young readers about Canadian landscape painter (and all-around interesting person) Doris McCarthy (1910 – 2010) (Sutherland House, 2026)

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Laura Best

Laura lives in East Dalhousie, Nova Scotia with her husband, Brian. A member of the Parkdale/Maplewood Museum Society, Laura has a strong interest in local history, and participates in the school group program at the museum. At the age of ten, she wrote her first play and she’s been writing ever since. She is also a member of CANSCAIP.

Laura’s first young adult novel, Bitter, Sweet, was published in 2009 and was short listed for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People. It also made the “Best Books for Kids and Teen 2011” list. Her middle grade novel, “Flying With a Broken Wing,” was name one of Bank Street College of Educations Best Books for 2015. Her book “Cammie takes Flight” was nominated for a 2018 Silver Birch Award and made the Best Books for Kids and Teens 2018 list. In 2020, Laura’s first novel for adults,“Good Mothers Don’t” was published.

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Jo Treggiari

Jo Treggiari is the best-selling, award-winning author of six thrilling books for young adults. Her 2019 novel, The Grey Sisters (Penguin Teen), was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award, a finalist for the Crime Writers of Canada Award and a finalist for the Ann Connor Brimer Children’s Literature Award. Her most recent book, Heartbreak Homes, a murder-mystery, was the winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence, and a finalist for the 2023 Ann Connor Brimer Award and the 2023 Dartmouth Book Award.

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Emma FitzGerald

Emma FitzGerald was born in Southern Africa to Irish parents and grew up in Vancouver. She has studied both art and architecture, and is the author of Hand Drawn Halifax. She has also illustrated numerous children’s books; EveryBody is Different on EveryBody Street by Sheree Fitch, A Pocket of Time by Rita Wilson, City Streets are for People by Andrea Curtis, and Two Crows by Susan Vande Griek. She lives and draws in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

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Jacqueline Halsey

Originally from the UK, Jacqueline has lived in Nova Scotia, for over thirty years. She has written seven highly acclaimed books, mostly inspired by her love of history, the ocean, and all things maritime.

Her latest book, Joe and the Wreck of the Tribune is based on the true story of a boy know throughout history as Joe Cracker, a thirteen-year- old orphan fisher-boy risked his life to save the survivors of a ship wrecked at the mouth of Halifax Harbour. Her middle-grade novel Piper was short listed for the 2019 prestigious TD Geoffrey Bilson award for Children’s Historical fiction. Peggy’s Letters is available on Tumble Books.

Jacqueline has an art college background, a degree in English and before becoming a full-time writer, worked for many years in the Youth Services department of the Alderney Gate Library in Dartmouth. As part of an imaginative team of programmers, she created and presented literary based programs for children of all ages.

Her love of hiking, splashy boat rides, history, beaches, and taking care of the environment led her to join the “Friends of McNabs Island Society.” She now sits on the Board, takes part in the massive annual beach clean-up and leads groups of visitors on interpretive hikes around the beautiful, historic island in Halifax harbour.

Jacqueline has taken part in the Writer’s in the School programs for over a decade. She is inspired by the students she meets and enjoys sharing her perspective of seeing history through the eyes of a child.

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