Fiction (children’s) – Page 7 – Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia

Philip Moscovitch

I am a freelance writer, editor, and audio producer with a passion for tellng stories.

My book Adventures in Bubbles and Brine (Formac, 2019) explores Nova Scotia fermentation traditions (everything from craft beer to sauerkraut) and the people reviving and reinventing them. Mollie Katzen, author of The Moosewood Cookbook and The Heart of the Plate, says it is a “beautifully written book – which is at once a travel memoir, a weave of lore, histories, and personal tales, and an inspiring recipe collection.” Author and fermentation revivalist Sandor Katz (The Art of Fermentation) calls it “a beautiful window into the culture of fermentation in Nova Scotia! Philip Moscovitch introduces us to old timers carrying on traditions, and to leaders of the province’s contemporary fermentation revival.”

I have been publishing non-fiction for more than 25 years. My work has appeared in dozens of publications, including The Walrus, Saltscapes, Reader’s Digest, The Globe and Mail, The Gazette (Montreal), Halifax Magazine, East Coast Living, The Halifax Examiner, DAL Magazine, The Coast, Atlantic Books Today, My Halifax Experience, American Craft, Atlantic Co-operator, Canadian Co-operator, Tablet, Best Health, Shambhala Sun, Concordia Magazine, Maroon and White (SMU), Queen’s Alumni Review, York U Magazine, Equinox (remember Equinox?), Farm Credit Canada Express, OpenFile, Optimyz, Canadian Screenwriter, Playback, The Big Frame, Canadian Bar Association National magazine, Les carrières de l’ingénierie, and Les carrières du droit.

I have contributed essays to the non-fiction books Dogs With Jobs, Saltlines, and Look Ahead, Get Ahead: Growing Career Opportunities for Technicians and Technologists (this one was a lot more fun than it sounds).

For five years, I was the editor of Canadian Screenwriter magazine, and I’ve been a writer and story editor for several documentaries. As an audio producer, my work has aired both regionally and nationally on CBC Radio.

While my focus is mostly non-fiction, I have also published short fiction and poetry, and for 14 years I wrote the beloved Daisy Dreamer comic for Chickadee magazine.

My interests are broad. I’ve written about everything from professional wrestling to mental health, and from food to art. My short feature Small-town Smackdown,written for The Walrus, was a National Magazine Award finalist.

I recently graduated from the University of King’s College MFA in Creative Non-fiction program, and am working on a book about new understandings of serious mental illness, as well as a longer upper-elementary fantasy graphic novel series.

In addition to my work in fiction and non-fiction, I am also available to write for organizations in the corporate, government, and non-profit sectors. My clients have included the National Film Board, the Canadian Labour Congress, and numerous independent film producers.

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Carole Glasser Langille

Carole Glasser Langille is the author of 5 books of poetry, 2 collections of short stories, 2 children’s books and a non-fiction book “Doing Time: Writing Workshops in Prison.”

Her second book of poetry, In Cannon Cave, was nominated for a Governor General’s Award in 1997, and the Atlantic Poetry Prize in 1998. “I Am What I Am Because You Are What You Are,” her second collection of short stories, was nominated for the Alistair MacLeod Award for Short Fiction. Her children’s book, Where the Wind Sleeps, was the Canadian Children’s Book Center Choice in 1996.

Several selections from Carole Glasser Langille’s book of poetry, Late In A Slow Time, have been adapted to music by renowned Canadian composer Chan Ka Nin. The production, also called Late In A Slow Time debuted at the 2006 Sound Symposium in St. John’s, Newfoundland and will be on Duo Concertante’s forthcoming CD.

Originally from New York City, where she studied with the poets John Ashbery and Carolyn Forche among others, Carole now lives in Black Point, Nova Scotia.

She has taught at The Humber School for Writing Summer Program, Maritime Writer’s Workshop, the Community of Writers in Tatamagouche, and at Women’s Words the University of Alberta. She has taught Creative Writing at Mount Saint Vincent University, Writing for the Arts at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and currently teaches Creative Writing: Poetry at Dalhousie University.

Carole has given poetry readings in Athens, Delhi, Prague, London England, New York City, Kirkcudbright Scotland, and throughout Canada. She has received Canada Council Grants for poetry, non-fiction and fiction as well as Nova Scotia Cultural Arts grants for poetry and fiction.

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Diane Carmel Léger

For 20 years, Diane lived in Victoria, British Columbia, where she taught French Immersion and wrote books in both French and English. She had the incredible luck of living in Emily Carr’s home for her first year and, for her last year in Victoria. Her family was involved in saving some of the world’s tallest trees on Vancouver Island. Both experiences inspired her award-winning books such as the bestseller, Maxine’s Tree.

She is now living near her native village of Memramcook. It was her homesickness for the Maritimes that led her to writing her first book, La butte à Pétard. Published in 1989, this popular novel is the story of a family who escaped deportation by hiding in the woods. Since 1989, this book has been studied in Canadian and Cajun schools. The augmented edition won the Hackmatack Award in 2006.

Her latest short novel, Piau’s Potato Present is a story of friendship, peace and of the poutine râpée. This tale is based on German settlers’ anecdotes about Pierre Belliveau, an Acadian from the Annapolis Valley, who saved them from starvation.

Diane’s new picture book, My Two Grandmothers, is a gently humorous story which lovingly compares her Acadian Mémére and Scottish Nannie.

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Linda Little

Linda Little’s most recent novel is Grist (Roseway 2014). Her first children’s picture book, Work and More Work, was published by Groundwood in 2015. Her previous work includes two award-winning novels: Scotch River (Penguin 2006) and Strong Hollow (Goose Lane 2001). She has published short stories in many reviews and anthologies, including The Antigonish Review, Descant, Matrix, The Journey Prize Anthology, and The Penguin Book of Short Stories by Canadian Women. She teaches seasonally at the Dalhousie University Agricultural Campus.

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Anne Louise MacDonald

Anne Louise MacDonald was born with a passion for horses and a vivid imagination. She retired in 2015 from a lifetime of working with animals. Her days are now spent enjoying her two horses and her raggedy black dog, painting, creating driftwood sculptures … and writing.

She had three well received picture books published early on. Then her first YA novel, The Ghost Horse of Meadow Green, became an international best seller and is printed in five languages. Seeing Red is a companion book, second in her ‘Hug a Horse Farm’ series, which continued with horses, kids with real-life problems and a bit of the paranormal. She also published the non-fiction self-illustrated My Natural Horses.

Over the years she has presented writing workshops for children and adults, and participated in many writing festivals and conference presentations. She is currently entertaining one on one writers retreats at her hobby farm in beautiful Antigonish County.

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Frank Macdonald

Frank Macdonald is a writer living with his partner, artist Virginia McCoy, in his hometown of Inverness, Cape Breton, returning there after fulfilling his mandatory tour of duty in plants, factories, construction work and fast food cooking in other parts of North America. He earns his living as a columnist and reporter with The Inverness Oran, a weekly newspaper, and has won journalism awards for both his humourous/satirical weekly columns and his editorial writing.

When not escaping into the works of other writers, Frank tackles his literary interests, most notably the novel. His first novel, A Forest for Calum (Cape Breton University Press) was published in 2005, and was nominated for the Dartmouth Book Award, and was long-listed for IMPAC-Dublin Award. His second novel, A Possible Madness (Cape Breton University Press-2012) was nominated for Dartmouth Book Award and was also long-listed for the IMPAC-Dublin Award.

In 2010 Cape Breton University Press published a children’s novella, T.R.’s Adventure at Angus the Wheeler’s, illustrated by artist Virginia McCoy.

In 2011, his one-act play, Her Wake won Best Canadian Production at the Liverpool International Theatre Festival.

In 2014, his third novel, Tinker & Blue was published (Cape Breton University Press).

He has also published two collections of newspaper/magazine columns, Assuming I’m Right (Cecibu 1990) and How To Cook Your Cat (Cecibu-2003). In 1992-4 Mulgrave Road Theatre produced and toured a one-man play written by Macdonald depicting a day in the life of a newspaper columnist, based on the first collection of columns and also titled Assuming I’m Right.

Macdonald has also had poems published in a number of journals, as well a short stories, and song lyrics have been arranged and recorded by musicians. Frank has given public reading on numerous occasions for numerous occasions ranging from the CBC to the school classroom.

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Jessica Scott Kerrin

Jessica grew up on the Canadian prairies, and although she enjoyed school, she had a terrible secret. She was a horrible speller. This made it tough because she really liked to write. It turns out that a lot of writers can’t spell, and Jessica figured this out when she got her first award for creative writing, back in grade three. On the trophy, her writing teacher had misspelled her name! Since then, Jessica has tried, as much as she can, to write about experiences she finds funny, like that one.

Today, she lives with her family and their hunting dog in downtown Halifax in a house so old the floors slope, and all the balls she tosses to her dog roll into one corner. Her family likes to participate in outdoor adventures in other countries such sailing, biking and hiking. In addition to writing, Jessica has managed galleries, dance schools and museums, and she has worked with artists, performers and curators. Unfortunately, her spelling has not improved!

About her newest novel, Clear Skies:

As the US/Soviet Space Race heats up in 1961, Arno wrestles with self-doubt. Are his dreams of becoming an astronomer about to explode like an extra-galactic supernova?

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Pamela Hickman

“It’s neat for kids to read about things, but the best thing is for them to muck around and discover things on their own.” – Pam on why her books are activity-based

Pamela Hickman was born and raised in Mississauga, Ontario. She holds an Honours Bachelor degree in Environmental Studies and Biology from the University of Waterloo. She was the Education Co-ordinator for the Federation of Ontario Naturalists for 7 years. During that period, Pamela wrote several education kits and other natural history material for children. In 1989, Pamela began a freelance writing career and has published over 35 books to date. She moved to Canning, N.S. with her husband and three daughters in 1992. Pamela divides her time between her writing, family and volunteer work in her community.

Pamela won the 1995 Lilla Sterling Memorial Award. In 2007, she also won the Green Prize for Sustainable Literature Award from the Santa Monica Public Library.

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Martine Jacquot

Martine Jacquot is a prolific writer who writes in French but can make presentations in either French or English. She has published over 30 books so far (novels, poetry, short-stories, essays and novels for young readers).

She has been invited to many literary events across Canada and abroad, namely to Lafayette’s book festival during the 2nd World Acadian Congress in 1999, to Tunisia to attend a panel of women writers in 2000, the International Poetry Festival in Trois-Rivières, the Northrop Frye International Literary Festival and to the Paris Book Fair in 2004 and 2006.

She did several reading tours: Tunisia in 2000, Russia and Cameroon in 2008, Morocco in 2010, Roumania in 2011, India in 2012.

She holds several degrees: BA from La Sorbonne, Paris, 3 MA degrees from La Sorbonne, Acadia and Dalhousie, a BJ from the University of Kings College and a PHD from Dalhousie University. She has studied and lived in France, England, Switzerland and Canada.

Past Vice President of the Association des Écrivains Acadiens, past president of the Conseil Culturel Acadien de la Nouvelle-Écosse, she has been on many editorial committees, member of several juries, has received creation grants and travel grants both from the Canada Council for the arts and the NS Arts Council. Her novel Les oiseaux de nuit finissent aussi par s’endormir was short listed for the Antonine-Maillet-Acadie Vie award. She was thrice finalist for the Éloizes awards, once as a writer, and twice as a cultural journalist. She was shortlisted for the France-Acadie Award three times for Au Gré du Vent (2006), Le jardin d’herbes aromatiques (2006) and Le silence de la neige (2008). She won the Award Prix Européen de l’ADELF with a special mention 2007 for Au gré du vent. She has also been chosen on 2 occasions to advise beginning authors, once by the Talent Trust of NS, once by the Association des auteurs de l’Ontario. Some of her poems and short stories have been broadcast on SRC. One of her stories was staged in Ottawa at the Théâtre Trillium. She was a member of the Board of Governors of the NS Museum for 12 years and an author in residence with the ArtsInfusion program and Fecane program

Her articles and interviews have appeared in LittéRéalité, Ancrage, Arcade, Alpha Arts magazine, Eloizes, Femmes d’Action, The Fiddlehead, Liason, Studies in Canadian Literature, Vent’d’est, Waves, Ashtarowt and Al Quds, among others. Her poems and short stories have appeared in Concerto pour huit voix, La Diversité: 15 nouvelles francophones á travers le monde, Ecphore Anthology 1987, Eloizes, Les Elytres du Hanneton, Herspectives, Liaison, Lieux d’être, Littéréalité, Les Maritimes, Mensuel, 25 Offerta Speziale, Poetry Halifax-Dartmouth, The Pottersfield Portfolio, Reflets Maritimes 2, Voices and Echoes: Stories and Poems of Women’s Spirituality, Walk through Paradise, La Poésie acadienne and Pour l’Amour de toi, among others. Some of her work is being translated into English, Russian, Portugese, Italian, Basque and Arabic.

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K.V. Johansen

Originally from Kingston, Ont., K.V. Johansen studied English and History at Mount Allison, received a Master’s in Medieval Studies from the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, and another Master’s in English, from McMaster. She writes mostly epic fantasy, as well as fantasy and science fiction for young readers; she has also written short stories and literary criticism for adults. Ancient and Medieval history and languages are one of her main interests. Johansen taught workshops at the spring 2010 MASC Young Authors and Illustrators Conference in Ottawa. She has worked with the elementary or elementary/intermediate sessions of Writers in Electronic Residence (WIER) over a number of terms and has visited schools from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario, to Austria and Macedonia. She has in the past written a large number of articles for the Nova Scotia based farm magazines Rural Delivery and Atlantic Beef Quarterly, as well as other non-fiction. She was the editor of Stalin Versus Me, the final volume of the late Donald Jack’s triple Leacock-Award-winning Bandy Papers series (Sybertooth 2005). Johansen currently lives in Sackville, NB.

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Fiction (children's)