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Fiction (adult)

Francene Gillis

Welcome to my profile. I am who I am, or am I… a paradoxical enquiry worth pondering. “What is most personal is most universal,” –Alistair MacLeod, yet another truth. And the mosaic—picking up pieces and putting them back together again into people who are stronger and better than before—those are the fulcrums, the wheels, and philosophies that drive my writing. I hope you will find information of interest that leads to a partnership or invitation. In brief…I am looking for publishers, freelance writing projects, possible editing depending on genre, and educational and human-interest writing for a fair fee of course as I am now retired, not through choice but injury. That you can read about in my upcoming memoir plus published by OC Publishing this June 22, 2025. Lots more on that on my Facebook page, instagram and soon to be website. I love writing and have been doing so since the tender age of 14. My first poem written at 16 was dedicated to my nine-year-old brother who drowned below our house. I am a professional writer living in Cape Breton, and I am working on several writing projects with the hope of being published in a much bigger circle. Following are highlights of my career thus far: Columnist: 30 plus years with a weekly newspaper: The Inverness Oran; Author: A Rose In November, collection of human interest stories, (1994); English teacher and Educator: 30 plus years, high school for the last 23 and as a substitute prior, while working in adult education and literacy; Masters in Education: Multicultural Diversity, Administration & Leadership, St. Francis Xavier University, 2013; Tribes Trained & Piloted …(2013–2015) Program created by Dr. Jeanne Gibbs, 2006 to help educational institutions and businesses become more successful; Winner of several national, regional writing and educational awards; Reviewer Pearson Canada of educational materials designed for grade nine students; Freelance Editor of several weekly and monthly rural magazines; Worked on several Nova Scotia Department of Education committees…Literacy Success 11 & 12, Advanced English 12 Pilot, Provincial Advisory Board, Grade 12 Provincial Exam; Presenter: Numerous conferences through Literacy, Adult Education, and Public School System such as ATENS Conference 2013, Strait Regional Inservices, Provincial Literacy Conferences; Consultant: (1994–1997) through my own business prior to coming back into the public education system, specializing in education, literacy, editing, and writing; Worked with CCLOW (Canadian Congress Learning Opportunities for Women) writing a chapter in a collective resource for female adult learners across Canada on issues such as self-esteem, confidence, motivation, and upgrading; Mentored by author Alistair MacLeod; I am presently working on a war book that tells the story of four brothers who fought in the Second World War from the time they were boys in rural Canada their struggles after enlisting as boys who become soldiers, and men, and which unlike other war books follows them to their deathbed whether in the war or after. The stories are funny, and serious, and devastating, and deal with battles on and off the frontlines. Called Momma Cried, it will be published this fall by Cape Breton Soul Food Publishing. I also have a fictional manuscript that evolved from true feature stories with men who were sexually abused called Truth Be Told looking for a home and publication in 2026. It is necessary for those silenced too long to be heard. It carries and awareness and educational piece that needs coverage. I also have collections of short stories, educational materials for high school students and teachers, a collection of poems, and several book length manuscripts. I would very much like to work with other professional writers or editors, and to fine a reputable agent for my writing. I would like to branch out as a columnist for human-interest or educational magazines. I guess now that I’m feeling better I wanna do everything because for eight years I could not until I found the right therapies and support and education, thus the memoir where did I go coming out in June. My intent, my hope with all of these books is to be a voice for those silenced too long because of invisible injuries, being different, and those who are called to step up to the plate and be courageous when they are anything those but. Please check me out on my other social platforms. Take care, Francene Gillis

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Patrick d’Entremont

Patrick d’Entremont is a former newspaper and magazine columnist who, now in retirement, writes literary fiction set in rural Nova Scotia, based on his childhood growing up in the 1960s. Readers have said these stories evoke laughter and tears, with their snappy dialogue, distinct characters, and unique and vivid settings.

His debut novel, “Eating Grass (Manger de l’herbe)” is being published by OC Publishing and is due to be released in July, 2026. It is the story of a teenager in an Acadian village in the late sixties who—once exposed to the world around him via television and U.S. radio stations—starts questioning everything about himself and his upbringing.

A sequel set in the university years, and a prequel outlining the backstory, are current works in progress.

Patrick grew up in West Pubnico, a fishing community founded by returning exiles following the Acadian expulsion of 1755. His stories show how growing up in this milieu shaped who he became as an adult, a coming-of-age reminiscing that seems to resonate with many people, whether or not of Acadian descent.

www.patrickdentremont.com

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Kate Inglis

KATE INGLIS is an author living on the south shore of Nova Scotia. Her fourth book, Notes for the Everlost: A Field Guide to Grief  won the Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Literary Award. She also writes children’s fiction, including award-nominated novels — her fifth and most recent picture book, A Great Big Night was awarded a Kirkus star and was nominated for the national David Booth Children’s and Youth Poetry Award. Kate’s work has been featured in poetry anthologies, and she also co-authored a best-selling book on the craft of photography.

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Natalie Corbett

Natalie Corbett Sampson grew up in the big city and moved to Nova Scotia to attend Acadia University where she met a boy. She completed post graduate studies at Dalhousie University and became a Speech Language Pathologist. Now Natalie’s day job as an SLP allows her the opportunity to work with awesome kids and their families, while her rest-of-the-time job lets her release pent up creativity and frustration by pounding the Mac keys to create alternate truths.

Natalie’s books include: Game Plan (2013), Aptitude (2015), It Should Have Been a #GoodDay (2016) and Take These Broken Wings (2017). All four novels have been well received and graciously reviewed. Another book is always in the works. When she’s not working or writing Natalie spends hours on Halifax roads chauffeuring her four budding athletes and musicians to their ecclectic activities.

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Stephen Law

Stephen Law writes on his couch, in alternative coffee shops and libraries, grows garlic, mediates conflicts, faciiitates workshops, assists in refugee resettlement and raises his two daughters (not in that order). His latest novel, Under Her Skin, a story of family dysfunction, race and the experience of refugees, to be released in the Fall of 2017. (Roseway). His first novel, Tailings of Warren Peace is a social justice thriller that explores issues of Canadian mining companies, communities that struggle against them and a guy who repossesses gravestones. It is a story of love, memory, the way the past haunts us and the power of solidarity to save us.

Here is what has been said about Under Her Skin:

“Stephen Law’s writing rings with compassion and curiosity – for his characters and about the human condition. His richly-peopled Halifax is infused with detail that brings this story to life.” – Stephanie Domet, author of Falsy Downsies

“A story of emotional challenges, family conflicts and fateful decisions that can happen in any community… A must read!” – Barb Hamilton-Hinch, Dalhousie University

“This is an engrossing story with a time signature all its own. With lovely lyricism, Stephen Law bravely imagines his way under the skin and into the heart of Shaz. A compassionate and thoughtful novel, it is shot-through with moments of breathtaking writing.” – Semi Chellas, writer on the Romanoffs, Mad Men and The Eleventh Hour.

And, Tailings of Warren Peace, was named “one of the best novels of 2013” by the Charlottetown Guardian.

Atlantic Books Today named it said “it is a first rate thriller…impossible to write this off as merely a good read.”

And rabble.ca called it “…a page-turning thriller, complete with unsavoury villains and life-and-death chases through the jungle…a novel with literary ambitions that makes creative use of newspaper clippings, stock exchange data and other non-narrative text to comment on the importance of story itself.”

Check out his website: www.stephenlaw.ca for more.

​He lives in Kennetcook, Nova Scotia with his partner Evelyn Jones and their two daughters.

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Dr. Ceallaigh S. MacCath-Moran

Dr. Ceallaigh S. MacCath-Moran holds B.A. in Celtic Studies from the University of Toronto, an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from the University of Maine, and a PhD in Folklore from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. She’s also an author, poet, and musician under the names Ceallaigh S. MacCath-Moran and C.S. MacCath. Her long-running Folklore & Fiction project integrates these passions with a focus on folklore scholarship aimed at storytellers, and she brings a deep appreciation of animism, ecology, and folkloristics to her own storytelling.

Work from Ceallaigh’s two fiction and poetry collections has been shortlisted for the Washington Science Fiction Association Small Press Award, nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and nominated for the Rhysling Award. Recently, her podcast radio drama “The Belt and the Necklace,” was produced by the Odyssey Theatre in Ottawa. She’s a member of the American Folklore Society, the International Society for Folk Narrative Research, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, and many other professional societies for folklore scholars and authors.

Ceallaigh is also the CEO of Triskele Media Inc., a family-owned and operated technology company specializing in enterprise and government web applications, and she’s a Sail Canada certified celestial navigator who is learning to sail and hoping to chart her course by the stars across the ocean while she writes. Meanwhile, she lives on Cape Breton Island with her husband Sean, who hopes for the stars and the ocean too. You can find her online at csmaccath.com, folkloreandfiction.com, and linktr.ee/csmaccath.

Dr. MacCath-Moran is represented by Kelly Thomas at Serendipity Literary Agency. To inquire about her books, please write to info@serendipitylit.com.

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Carol McDougall

Carol McDougall is a writer and  advocate for early literacy.  She was born in Northern Ontario and has been active in the Nova Scotia writing community for many years.

In 2005 she was awarded the Mayor’s Award for her contribution to literature and literacy and in 2010 received the Progress Women of Excellence Award for the Arts.

In 2012 Carol received the Beacon Award for Social Justice Literature for her novel Wake the Stone Man, which was inspired by her northern roots. The novel was published in 2015 by Roseway Publishing. Wake the Stone Man was awarded the 2017 Frye Acadamy Award.

Carol’s work includes writing for children, non-fiction, fiction, essays, book reviews and video scripts and her short fiction has been published in Room and presented on CBC radio.

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Darryl Whetter

Dr. Darryl Whetter is the author of 4 books of fiction and 3 poetry collections. His collection of stories, A Sharp Tooth in the Fur, was named to The Globe and Mail’s Top 100 Books of 2003. His debut novel, The Push & the Pull, was released in Spring 2008. Origins, his 2012 collection of poems, concerns energy, evolution and extinction as they can be observed at Joggins, Nova Scotia. Professor Whetter edited the nomination dossier of the Joggins Fossil Cliffs in their successful bid for inclusion on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. He has published nearly 20 stories in journals and anthologies, including Best Canadian Stories, The Fiddlehead, PRISM, Prairie Fire,  The New Quarterly and Best Asian Short Stories 2020. In 2021, he won the Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award.

Darryl holds a PhD in English from UNB and has published or presented papers on contemporary literature in France, Sweden, Canada, Germany, the United States, India, Singapore, Australia and Iceland. Nearly 100 of his commissioned book reviews have appeared in venues such as The Toronto Star, The National Post, The Vancouver Sun, The Montreal Gazette, The Globe and Mail, and Detroit’s Metro Times. Darryl Whetter has been a professor of English and Creative Writing at various universities in Canada and was the coordinator of the creative writing program at Dalhousie from 2008-2010. In the mid-2000s, he was a regular panelist on the national CBC Radio program “Talking Books.”

His most recent books are the climate-crisis novel Our Sands, from Penguin RH (2020) and  the anthology Teaching Creative Writing in Asia, from Routledge (2021)

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Lisa Harrington

Lisa Harrington graduated from MSVU with a degree in Education. Rattled, her first novel, was published by Nimbus in 2010 and her short story, ‘A Nanna Mary Christmas’, was published in A Maritime Christmas. Lisa lives in Bedford, NS with her family. For more info visit www.lisaharrington.ca

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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