Genre

Thibault Jacquot-Paratte

From the Annapolis Valley. Travelled across North Amrica, Europe, India, Japan, Cameroon, Tunisia. Bachelor’s of Nordic studies from the Sorbonne in 2015, Master’s in sociology in 2017; year of study in Tromsø, Norway, Study certificates from the University of Vaasa (Fi.), and The Askov Folkehøjskole (DK.).

Started publishing poetry in 2010, has since published poetry, short stories, essays, and theatre in both English and French, in Canada, Europe and India. His first three plays were published in Paris in 2016-2017; first poetry collection in Allahabad in 2020. In 2017, co-directed and co-wrote one film (Danish-Estonian coproduction). Also a musician and a songwriter, has had the opportunity to play in Canada, France, Germany, Norway, Denmark, India and japan, and has produced multiple recordings. He has also been invited as an official poet to certain events, such as one of the official poets of the SNA at the 2019 CMA, in Moncton. His published work ranges across almost all genres – realism, fantasy, absurdism, abstract prose, poetry…

Thibault Jacquot-Paratte – Wikipedia

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Janice Landry

Janice Landry has won four national awards for her writing and work. In March 2025, Halifax West MP Lena Metlege Diab presented Janice with the King Charles III Coronation Medal from the Government of Canada for her body of work, books, and longtime mental health advocacy.

Janice is a veteran journalist and proud Haligonian. In May 2025, she is releasing her seventh book, Every Little Thing – how small acts of kindness make a big impact, following her 2023 Lyme disease diagnosis. Janice has since fully recovered and wrote this “small book with big messages” to thank society’s many and varied helpers, including some of her own. Janice’s longtime publisher is Nova Scotia’s Pottersfield Press. Her last two books, Eye of the Ocean and Silver Linings, were both bestsellers.

Janice’s biggest inspiration is her family, husband, Rob, and daughter, Laura. Through her writing, she also honours her late parents, Baz and Theresa. Janice began writing longform non-fiction to tell the gripping story of her firefighter father’s national Medal of Bravery for his part in the near-death rescue of an infant from a harrowing 1978 Halifax house fire.

For more on Janice, her writing, books, and work history: https://www.janicelandry.ca/

 

 

 

 

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Dr. G.V. Loewen

G.V. Loewen is the author of forty-seven books and is one of Canada’s leading contemporary thinkers. His non-fiction works include books in education, ethics, health, aesthetics and social theory. He recently wrote an eleven volume adventure saga for young persons and other shorter fiction works. He is a student of phenomenology and hermeneutics. Born in Victoria, January 31, 1966, Loewen was educated at the University of Victoria with a BA and MA in anthropology and at the University of British Columbia, receiving the PhD in anthropology in 1997. He held two tenure stream positions in the United States before taking up his academic position in Saskatoon, Canada, in 2005, where he was chair of the sociology department for five years and from which he retired in 2018. Over the course of his career, Loewen won two major teaching awards at two universities and was nominated for four others.

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Patrick Lacroix

A native of Cowansville, Quebec, Patrick Lacroix pursued his endless fascination with the past and earned degrees in history at Bishop’s University (Sherbrooke, Quebec) and Brock University (St. Catharines, Ontario). From 2012 to 2017, he attended the University of New Hampshire. While in the United States, he began submitting his work to academic, peer-reviewed publications and established himself as a leading historian of immigration and Franco-American history. His articles have appeared in influential history journals, including Histoire sociale/Social History, the Canadian Journal of History, the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, the Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française, and The Historian.

 

Patrick defended his Ph.D. dissertation, “John F. Kennedy and the Politics of Faith,” several years ago; his manuscript is now under review with an American university press. He has taught at Phillips Exeter Academy (Exeter, N.H.) and Bishop’s University. His courses have ranged from Classical Greece to religion in the modern United States. Amid other responsibilities, Patrick continues to share original research on a regular basis on his website and often contributes to other blogs. He also has provided historical perspective on current issues through op-eds published in the History News Network, the Montreal GazetteTime.comLe Droit, the Washington Post, and the Concord Monitor.

 

He has a special interest in writing that blends attentiveness to historical detail with lively storytelling. He lives and writes in Halifax.

 

Twitter: @querythepast

Website: querythepast.com

 

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Marcia Harding

BIO:  Marcia Pierce grew up in Lockeport, N.S.  When she was fifteen, her family moved to Liverpool where she met her future husband, Craig Harding. After completing their university education, they returned to Liverpool where they raised two children and lots of lab puppies.

Education: Acadia University – B.Sc. in Psychology (1970)   B.Ed. (1971) Honours

Mt. St. Vincent University – Masters of Education (1993) Senate Medal of Distinction

During her 33 years as an elementary school teacher, she enjoyed writing, directing and producing plays with her students.

While serving as a board member for The Astor Theatre, Winds of Change (Drama Group) and Liverpool ‘s International Theatre Festival, she co-produced several stage plays, including Mermaid’s Tale (winning entry in LITF 2014).

Helping to organize and promote fundraisers for the Astor Theatre, her proudest achievement was A TRIBUTE TO SABLE ISLAND. Zoe Lucas held the audience spellbound with her amazing SLIDES of wild horses projected on the BIG screen. Performances included sea-themed songs by soloists and the Girls Choir, readings, displays of photographs and paintings and a reception – something for everyone. Full house!   

To honour her cherished friend, Joyce Barkhouse, author of Pit Pony, Marcia produced the Pit Pony Audio Book in cooperation with actor/narrator Richard Donat.

As a certified fitness instructor, Marcia taught a variety of exercises classes in Queens County over the years. Her interests include dancing, hiking, skating, swimming, sailing, and best of all, walking Summerville Beach with her family and their dogs.

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Ray Cronin

I am a writer, curator and arts consultant living in Elmsdale, Nova Scotia. My first publication was an art review in a magazine in 1989 and I have been writing for publication ever since.

From 2001-2015 I worked at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia as Curator (2001-2007) and as Director and CEO (2007-2015). I am the founding curator of the Sobey Art Award, Canada’s premiere award for the Visual Arts. A graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (Bachelor of Fine Arts) and the University of Windsor (Master of Fine Arts), I am the author of numerous catalogue essays and articles for Canadian and American art magazines, including Canadian Art, Border Crossings, Sculpture and Espace art actuel. In 2000 I received the Christina Sabat Award for Critical Review in the Arts. I was the Visual Arts Columnist for The Daily Gleaner (Fredericton) and Here (Saint John). I am now the visual arts blogger for Halifax Magazine, with two columns a month, and the editor of Billie: Visual Culture Atlantic.

I am the author of six books of non-fiction, including Our Maud: The Life, Art and Legacy of Maud Lewis, Alex Colville: A Rebellious Mind, and Gerald Ferguson: Thinking of Painting.  I have contributed essays to over a dozen books on artists, including: Mary Pratt, John Greer, David Askevold, Graeme Patterson, Colleen Wolstenholme, Ned Pratt and Gary Neill Kennedy, among others. My e-book, Alex Colville: Life & Work, was published by the Arts Canada Institute in 2017. In 2020 they will publish two e-books by me, Mary Pratt: Life & Work and an art history of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Also in 2020, Nimbus Publishing will publish my book Nova Scotia Folk Art: An Illustrated Guide. I am the author of three Gaspereau Field Guides to Canadian Artists, with numbers 4 and 5 of that series scheduled to be published in 2019, and 6 and 7 in 2020.

My complete list of publications can be found on my website, www.raycronin.ca.

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Nicola Davison

Nicola Davison is a writer and portrait photographer, living in Dartmouth. She studied English at Dalhousie University and was on the board of directors with the WFNS from 2017 to 2020.

In 2016, she completed the Alistair Macleod Mentorship Program, polishing her first novel, In the Wake, with Carol Bruneau. It won the Margaret & John Savage First Book Award,  the Miramichi Reader’s Best First Book award and was a finalist for the Dartmouth Book Award.

Her second novel Decoding Dot Grey (Spring 2022) is a coming-of-age story about a  quirky young woman working at an animal shelter, struggling to find a connection with the world. It was nominated for a White Pine Award and won the 2023 Ann Connor Brimer Book Award for YA.

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Andrea Miller

Andrea Miller is the author of Awakening My Heart: Essays, Articles, and Interviews on the Buddhist Life (Pottersfield Press), My First Book of Canadian Birds (Nimbus Publishing), and The Day the Buddha Woke Up (Wisdom Publications). She’s also the deputy editor and a staff writer at Lion’s Roar magazine (formerly called the Shambhala Sun) and the editor of three anthologies for Shambhala Publications, including Buddha’s Daughters: Teachings from Women Who Are Shaping Buddhism in the West.

Miller has an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia, a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of King’s College, and a Bachelor of Arts in English literature from Dalhousie University. Her writing has appeared in The Best Women’s Travel Writing series, the Best Buddhist Writing series, The Chronicle Herald, The Globe and Mail, Saltscapes, The Antigonish Review, Prairie Fire, and a wide range of other publications. Miller lives in Halifax with her husband and two children.

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Jacqueline Dumas

Jacqueline Dumas’s latest novel is The Heart Begins Here, (Inanna Publications, 2018).

Her previous writing experience includes two published novels: Madeleine & the Angel (Fifth House, 1989); The Last Sigh (Fifth House, 1993); a children’s picture book: And I’m Never Coming Back(Annick Press, 1986); and a one-act play, Secrets,whichwas produced at the 2013 Edmonton International Fringe Festival.

She was born in Alberta and spent most of her working life there. She has extensive experience in the book business, including ownership and management of two Edmonton bookshops over the years, most recently Orlando Books (1993-2002), a progressive bookstore that specialized in post-colonial issues, cultural studies, feminisms, queer studies, and literature from small presses.

 

When Orlando Books closed, Dumas went back to school and obtained a Master of Education in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of Alberta. She has since taught English at Grant MacEwan University, the University of Alberta, and Dalhousie University. She has also designed and facilitated creative writing workshops and served as coordinator of the Writer-in-Exile program for the City of Edmonton.

She moved to Nova Scotia in July 2013.

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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