I am a poet and novelist originally from the UK, now a Canadian resident. I’ve published four novels and a poetry collection and bunch of other things. I’ve won a number of literary awards, including being shortlisted for the Booker Prize. I’ve taught creative writing at workshops and universities in Britain, Canada, and elsewhere.
Lynette Richards has been cartooning as long as she can remember, and recently published her first graphic novel Call Me Bill (Conundrum Press 2022). She is a Craft Nova Scotia Master Artisan, who lives and works in Terence Bay NS, where she operates her business Rose Window Stained Glass. She chose Stained Glass as her professional medium because it was both a trade and an art that has used sequential narration for over 1000 years!
Teresa LaBella grew up in Davenport, Iowa where the Mississippi River runs east to west. Her relentlessly Irish grandmother taught her to read fortunes with playing cards, tell a good story and brew a perfect pot of tea.
The people she interviewed as a journalist and met in her work in the arts and with nonprofit organizations colored her future fiction writing canvas and sharpened her love for storytelling.
Teresa published her first contemporary romance novel Reservations in 2013. Two more novels, Heartland and Belonging, a novella Love Unlikely and four short stories compiled for publication in Tales from Heartland complete the New Life in Love family saga series.
Her first novel in The UnMatchables romantic suspense series Danger Noted published in October 2020. Capital Strings, the author’s uniquely-Canadian political thriller, published in April 2021. Danger Revealed, the second novel in The UnMatchables series, was published by Purple Porcupine Publishing in July 2023. The author’s short story Fireflies was included for publication in the Writers on the Avenue Anthology Roads We’ve Taken, published in 2023 by Pearl City Press.
Teresa resides and writes from her home along Nova Scotia’s south shore.
Biography:
Sarah Butland is a thriving freelance writer and reporter, an author loved by enough readers to make it worthwhile and a discombobulated conundrum who loves to hear new music, tell new tales and meet new authors. The recipient of a Writers Federation of New Brunswick competition with Blood Day the Short Story, her love of writing knows no genre. With articles and book reviews published in Maritime (EDIT), AH! At Home on the North Short, Atlantic Books Today, with some work with Pictou Advocate, Butland thrives through deadlines and diversity.
As a full time employee besides, and a mother to one young book lover, Butland volunteers with the Read by the Sea Literary Festival committee, hosts local workshops and manages the Pictou County Writers – New and Experienced Facebook group, highlighting the vast amount of talent on the North Shore.
Anne Lévesque’s poetry, essays and fiction have appeared in Canadian and international journals and anthologies. She is the author of the novels ‘Lucy Cloud’ (Pottersfield Press 2018) and ‘The Secret Lives of Public Servants’ (Galleon Books 2025). She lives on the west coast of Unama’ki – Cape Breton Island.
Laura is a communication specialist and journalist in the Annapolis Valley. She is currently teaching communication to first year kinesiology students at Acadia University, focusing on writing, research and presentation skills.
Laura is also a freelance journalist for Saltwire Network, writing stories for Atlantic Canada. Her writing also appears in the Acadia Alumni Bulletin. She can also be heard as the Kentville community contact on CBC Radio, Information Morning.
Laura regularly teaches a creative non-fiction writing workshop to middle school students in the Annapolis Valley. Through this, she teaches students how to research, and then how to bring historical figures to life through creative writing.
As a public relation specialist, Laura works with Campaign for Kids, helps to raise funds for youth in financial need in Kings County. Their signature event, which Laura organizes, is Burger Wars.
She is the founder and creator of ValleyFamilyFun.ca, a website and blog dedicated to helping families find fun things to do together.
When not writing, Laura is working as a team member with Your Last Resort as a professional organizer, helping people to clear the clutter, making positive changes in their lives.
Laura lives in Kentville with her husband, David (a history professor at Acadia University), two sons (Daniel & Thomas) and 4 pets. She loves to travel and hike and is always up for an adventure!
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Allison LaSorda’s writing has been nominated for National Magazine Awards and the CBC Poetry Prize, and selected as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2021. A recipient of scholarships from the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and the Vermont Studio Center residencies, she is a contributing editor at Brick, A Literary Journal. Her work has appeared in Literary Hub, The New Quarterly, The Malahat Review, Scientific American, The Walrus, CNQ, The Globe and Mail, Southern Humanities Review, Hazlitt, and other venues. Allison lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Bruce Bishop, originally from Yarmouth, N.S., has been writing professionally since the mid-1990s, primarily for travel, tourism and leisure freelance markets. He has written and contributed to several guidebook companies over the years, especially Fodor’s, Michelin, and DK Eyewitness Guides. From 2000 to 2002, he was the elected president of the Travel Media Association of Canada.
In 2020 at the outset of the pandemic, he began writing fiction for the first time, and his debut novel Unconventional Daughters (Icarus Press) was published the same year. Based on its popular appeal, he chose to embark upon writing a trilogy, and the second novel, Uncommon Sons, was released in 2021. The final novel in the trilogy, Undeniable Relations was published in 2022.
The coming-of-age Grow up, Rory Rafferty, set in 1979 Toronto, was published in 2024. Its follow-up, Stephanie Makes a Scene, was released in May 2026. All his books are published in affiliation with Icarus Press Publishing in Fredericton, N.B.
He was one of five authors selected to read from Undeniable Relations at the Read by the Sea annual literary festival in July 2023.
Bishop is also a member of the Writers Union of Canada.
Brittni Brinn (she/they) writes science fiction and horror from a tower in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. She graduated with an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Windsor and worked in community theatre for a few years before moving to the East Coast.
Her debut novel, The Patch Project, was published by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing (2018). A revised edition and the two sequels in the post-apocalyptic trilogy followed from Adventure Worlds Press, most recently collected in The Patch Project: The Complete Omnibus edition (2025). Their weird novella Misplaced (2024) is currently available from Little Ghosts Books.
Brittni’s short stories appear in anthologies with Eibonvale Press, Little Ghosts Books, and Undertaker Books. Excerpts from their ongoing novel projects were featured in WFNS’s Hal-Con zines (2024, 2025).
The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) uses the following terms to describe writers’ experience levels:
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
