Genre

Meryl Cook

Meryl Cook is an author, contemporary fibre artist, speaker, creativity expert and former homeopath. She specializes in connecting people with their creativity. She shares her process for unblocking creativity as a way of finding a renewed sense of purpose and discovering your next steps in business and in life.

Since 2016 Meryl has spoken and taught creativity workshops across Canada and in the US. She holds a Masters of Science in Applied Clinical and Industrial Psychology.

Meryl’s first book One Loop at a Time, a story of rug hooking, healing and creativity, (December 2016) is the story of her reinvention through creativity. Her second book One Loop at a Time, The Creativity Workbook (November 2017), shares tools for beginning the process of reinvention through journaling and sketching.

Meryl teaches her self care framework through her popular and often sold out creativity workshops such as: Journaling to Reignite your Business (Teaching) Creativity; Journaling as a Life Skill; Creativity as Healing Energy – Design your own Healing Image; Hook a Healing Mat; Chakra Colour Love; Hooking from the Inside Out – Inspired Design for Healing Energy; and The Creativity Workbook Toolkit – Looking inside for Answers (this is a writing and sketching/journaling workshop). She works at the individual, group and corporate level.

Meryl travels and speaks widely about how to use creativity as a vehicle for self care. Her main messages are that small steps can have a massive impact if we take it One Loop at a Time, and that we all have a wisdom and a capacity within us. We can turn inside for answers. Her message is as practical as it is inspiring.

Meryl is a Council member of the International Association for Journal Writing and a member of the Writers’ Council for the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia.

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Jean Mills

Jean Mills has a background in teaching (college Communications/Writing; Grade 6 Language Arts) and professional writing and editing. Her first two novels, Wild Dog Summer and The Legacy, were part of the Nelson Canada novel study program for middle school Language Arts. Her most recent book is Larkin on the Shore (Red Deer Press, October 2019) set in Nova Scotia and telling the story of a troubled teen who is reluctantly spending her summer at her grandmother’s house in a small town on the Northumberland Strait. School Library Journal says: “Beautifully written, with vivid imagery of the Nova Scotia shore, this is a truly moving story of finding oneself after trauma.” Her previous YA novel, Skating Over Thin Ice (Red Deer Press, 2018) was nominated for the Ontario Library Association 2019 Forest of Reading Red Maple Fiction award. The novel was also named to the USBBY 2019 Outstanding International Books List. Her upcoming YA novel, The Legend, will be published in 2021. Jean can lead workshops in creative writing, general writing skills, as well as offer presentations (in person or virtually) about her books, the writing life and the publishing process. She divides her time between Guelph, Ontario, and Pugwash, Nova Scotia.

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Allison Watson

Allison Watson is the author of Transplanted: My cystic fibrosis double lung transplant story. She was born with cystic fibrosis and grew up in New Brunswick. After undergoing a double lung transplant and subsequently getting post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, she hopes her days of medical turmoil are in her past. Allison has a BSc in biology and recreational therapy from Dalhousie University. She loves board games, reading, and hiking.

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Jo Treggiari

Jo Treggiari is the best-selling, award-winning author of six thrilling books for young adults. Her 2019 novel, The Grey Sisters (Penguin Teen), was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award, a finalist for the Crime Writers of Canada Award and a finalist for the Ann Connor Brimer Children’s Literature Award. Her most recent book, Heartbreak Homes, a murder-mystery, was the winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence, and a finalist for the 2023 Ann Connor Brimer Award and the 2023 Dartmouth Book Award.

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Rita Wilson

Rita Wilson is a former elementary school teacher and author of the newly published, A Pocket of Time, a children’s book about the poet, Elizabeth Bishop’s childhood in Great Vilage, Nova Scotia.

She is currently working on a collection of poetry about the importance of place in our lives, from her vantage point on the Caribou River. She has published non-fiction in Saltscapes Magazine, poetry in various publications, and is one of the founders of Writing on Fire, promoting writing experiences for teens on the North Shore. She finds pleasure in her garden, the beach, books, her children and grandchildren, and the company of friends.

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David Huebert

David Huebert’s writing has won the CBC Short Story Prize, appeared several times in Best Canadian Stories, and was a finalist for the 2020 Journey Prize. Huebert’s first story collection, Peninsula Sinking, won a Dartmouth Book Award and was runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, among other accolades. His second story collection, Chemical Valley, won the Alistair MacLeod Short Fiction Prize, received glowing reviews, and was a finalist for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the ReLit Award. His first novel, Oil People, will be published by McClelland & Stewart in August 2024. David teaches in the MFA in Fiction at the University of King’s College in Kjipuktuk (Halifax), where he lives with his partner and their two children.

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Kate Watson

Kate Watson is a freelance writer. She is the theatre critic for Halifax’s alternative weekly newspaper The Coast. She is also a columnist and reporter for the Dartmouth/Cole Harbour and Halifax/Clayton Park weeklies.

She has written pieces for Our Children, Rural Delivery, Our Times, and Halifax Magazine, among others. She frequently does book reviews for Atlantic Books Today.

Kate also writes poetry and fiction, and has had her poems published in Ascent Aspirations and Regina Weese. She has a short story coming out in A Maritime Christmas, published by Nimbus in the fall of 2008.

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Chris Benjamin

Chris Benjamin is a freelance journalist and an author of fiction and non-fiction.

He is the author of Chasing Paradise, a memoir, and The Art of Forgiveness: Short Fiction. His previous collection of short stories, Boy With a Problem, was shortlisted for the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction. His nonfiction book, Indian School Road: Legacies of the Shubenacadie Residential School, won the Dave Greber Freelance Book Prize before being published, was listed by librarians as a Book of Influence, and recently became a Nova Scotia bestseller.

His previous book, Eco-Innovators: Sustainability in Atlantic Canada, won the 2012 Best Atlantic-Published Book Award and was a finalist for the Richardson Non-Fiction Prize. A series of short video documentaries has been made based on the book.

Chris’ novel, Drive-by Saviours, won the H.R. Percy Prize, was longlisted for a ReLit Prize and made the CBC Canada Reads Top Essential Books List.

Chris has written for a long list of magazines and newspapers in Canada and the United States. A few highlights include The Globe and Mail, Science Friday, Z Magazine, Saltscapes, Halifax Magazine, Progress Magazine, and The Coast.

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Emma FitzGerald

Emma FitzGerald was born in Southern Africa to Irish parents and grew up in Vancouver. She has studied both art and architecture, and is the author of Hand Drawn Halifax. She has also illustrated numerous children’s books; EveryBody is Different on EveryBody Street by Sheree Fitch, A Pocket of Time by Rita Wilson, City Streets are for People by Andrea Curtis, and Two Crows by Susan Vande Griek. She lives and draws in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

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Theresa Meuse

I am a Mi’kmaq member from the Bear River First Nation. After graduating from Dalhousie University in 1990, I worked for two major Mi’kmaq organizations spanning over 10 years. Spent several years after that working as a First Nation Educator and Advisor. Was fortunate to hold the position of Band Chief in our community during the term 2007 – 2009. I presently work as a Mi’kmaq Indigenous Student Support Worker for the Halifax Regional Centre of Education. My writing career began 22 years ago involving three books being published about First Nation culture – The Sharing Circle, L’nu’k and The Gathering.

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