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Fiction (YA)

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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L. E. Carmichael

Lindsey Carmichael never outgrew that stage of childhood when nothing’s more fun than amazing your friends (and correcting your teachers!) with your stockpile of weird and wonderful facts.  Her sense of wonder came in handy during her career as a scientist, and in 2006, she received the Governor General’s Medal for her PhD thesis, Ecological Genetics of Northern Wolves and Arctic Foxes.  Lindsey finds talking about science more fun than doing it, however, and now writes for kids, teens, and occasionally adults (a sense of wonder is essential for this, too).

Lindsey publishes under the name L. E. Carmichael, and her work has appeared in Dig, Highlights for Children, and National Geographic Extreme Explorer. Her 21 published science books cover everything from scoliosis to hybrid cars. Fox Talk was a Benjamin Franklin Awards Silver Medalist, and Fuzzy Forensics: DNA Fingerprinting Gets Wild holds the 2014 Lane Anderson Award for exceptional children’s science writing. When not digging up obscure or wacky details for her next nonfiction project, Lindsey’s probably working on her young adult fantasy novel.

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Allison Maher

Allison Maher is a former manager of marketing for a company that invented “spy gear”. She now resides on a small farm in rural Nova Scotia.

I, The Spy is her first juvenile novel.  I the Spy has been short listed for a Red Cedar Reader’s Choice Awared and is listed on Kayak Magazine’s Recommended Reading List.

Her second novel. Time Flies When You’re Chasing Spies, was short listed for a Hackmatack Award.

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Karen Kelloway

Website: www.karenkelloway.com or facebook page.

Karen Kelloway has woven her passion for storytelling into a career that involves books, keynote addresses and classroom visits.

Karen’s middle school novel called KEEPERS OF THE PACT (Nimbus Publishing 2023) was shortlisted as a Junior Library Guild pick and the Hackmatack Children’s Choice book award. KEEPERS OF THE PACT is on the Approved List of Resources for Nova Scotia schools.

Karen lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, CANADA, with her husband, two teenagers and  their Havanese, Chewie.  Find her at www.karenkelloway.com.

 

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Daphne Greer

Daphne, a mother of four girls has worked with individuals with special needs for over 16 years. Her first novel, Maxed Out was a nominee for the 2013 Best Quick Read by the American Library Association. Before having children she volunteered on the Adult Help Phone in Halifax which provided her with the ability to use the Kids Help Phone in Maxed Out. She loves spreading the word about this amazing service that they provide for kids in Canada. She is very comfortable working with kids and will put people at ease very quickly.  Her second YA novel, Jacob’s Landing, 2016- 2017 Hackmatack Nominee and a 2016 Silver Birch finalist is published by Nimbus. Her third novel, Camped Out sequel to Maxed Out) will be published by Orca in the fall of 2017. She has a Bachelor of Child Studies from Mt St Vincent University.

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James Leck

James Leck has worked as a high school teacher in Canada, Japan, and Kuwait. The Adventures of Jack Lime, and The Further Adventures of Jack Lime (Kids Can Press) are the first two books in a series of mysteries that will follow his teenage private eye, Jack Lime, as he solves mysteries in the fictional town of Iona. After Dark, his latest book, follows Charlie Harker as he arrives in the sleepy town of Rolling Hills just as his neighbours start turning into zombies… er, vampires… well, something strange. Currently, James lives in Dartmouth with his wife and two children.

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Melanie Mosher

In grade two, Melanie received a silver dollar for winning an essay contest and she has been fascinated with writing ever since. She has many freelance articles to her credit and her first picture book was published by Fifth House Publishers in May 2014. Her YA novel, Goth Girl, was published in April 2017 by Nimbus Publishing and A Beginner’s Guide to Goodbye, a middle-grade novel, was published in June 2020, again with Nimbus Publishing. A Beginner’s Guide to Goodbye was a finalist in the TD Canadian Children’s Literature award and nominated for the Hackmatack Award. It won the “It Made me Feel” Award presented by Digitally Lit. Her fourth book, a middle-grade novel entitled Bertie Stewart is Perfectly Imperfect, was published by Nimbus in 2024, and was nominated for the Silver Birch Fiction Award.

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Gloria Wesley

Gloria Ann Wesley is an African Nova Scotian writer. She is a graduate of St. Francis Xavier University and has taught at all grade levels. She holds an Honorary Doctorate from Mount St. Vincent University. She resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia. To My Someday Child (1975), enables her to hold the distinction of being the first published Black Nova Scotian poet. Wesley’s poetry appears in three Canadian anthologies. Her novel’s include Chasing Freedom (2011), short-listed for the Ann Connor Brimer Award. If This Is Freedom(2013) One Book Nova Scotia Award 2016. Abagail’s Wish, 2016) and Righting Canada’s Wrongs Africville (2019) Ontario Library Association’s Best Bets Award. Bringing a unique and interesting perspective about African Nova Scotians, her Black Loyalist history presentation and readings are exciting and designed for students from Grades 3-12.

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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