My interest is in researching and writing historical fiction and non-fiction. My book, William Forsyth: Land of Hopes and Dreams – a story from early Nova Scotia, was published in 2021 and my second book has the working title Traitors, Cannibals, Highlanders, and Vikings. It’s about the people who came to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island in the 1700s and early 1800s. It is due to be published in March 2023.
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K.R. Byggdin is the author of Wonder World (Enfield & Wizenty 2022), a ReLit Award finalist and winner of the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. They hold a BA with honours in English and Creative Writing from Dalhousie University, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph, and their short stories, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared in anthologies and journals across Canada, the UK, and New Zealand. Born and raised on the Prairies, they now call Kjipuktuk home.
Bethany Lake is a playwright, novelist, and freelance writer from Nova Scotia. As a playwright, she has had three of her plays produced in Halifax. Her play, No Animal, has been published in The Furious Gazelle, a literary magazine based in New York City.
She is a regular contributor to Rue Morgue magazine, where she has conducted interviews with high-profile actors and directors such as Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Mark Soper (The World According to Garp, Blood Rage) and Damien Leone (Terrifier, Terrifier 2). Bethany’s work has also appeared in The Big Takeover, PRISM international, and Write magazine.
Her first novel, In the Midst of Irrational Things (publisher TBD), began its development in the 2018 Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program.
Bethany received a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Studies from Dalhousie University before continuing her playwriting education at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, ON.
She is currently working on her second novel, Silo, as well as a book of nonfiction essays.
Joe Britto was born in the UK and now lives in Nova Scotia where he works as a writing and mindset coach.
Joe writes upmarket fiction about the complexity of the human condition, and explores themes such as self-deception, discrimination, and the beauty and tenderness that come from being human.
He has two books published: one novel: Worth, A Story of Love and Self-Esteem (New World Publishing, 2000); and one non-fiction business book, The Six Attributes of a Leadership Mindset (Crown House Publishing, 2019). He has also published articles on mindset for various magazines including Training Industry and HR Gazette.
Joe holds a BA in English with a minor in creative writing, and an MA in modern and contemporary literature. He has won the Jane Law Shaw Scholarship for demonstrated ability in the arts, and placed second in the Hisa-Marshall Literary Prize from St Mary’s University, Halifax.
He has presented work for the ILA and CIPD in the UK and given readings at Chapters/Indigo in Canada. A member of the Nova Scotia Writers’ Council, Joe is currently serving on the Board of the Afterwords Literary Festival. He is the founding member Writer’s Together and teaches creative writing for the Halifax Library.
Joe’s is currently shopping his newest novel, and is working on his second upmarket book club novel.
Writer, director and producer, Brenda MacLennan-Dunphy has had two novels published by Pottersfield Press as well- Never Speak of This Again (2018) and The Silence of the Vessel (2020), which was nominated for an Atlantic Book Award. Four of Brenda’s plays have been on the stage at Strathspey Place, a 500 soft seat theatre in Mabou, Cape Breton- John Allan Cameron’s Last Show (November 2021), John Archie and Nellie (2016, 2012) , The Weddin’ Dance (2013), and Displacement (2014). Her play The Reiteach was put at two small stages in 2020. She was a featured writer at the 2021 Cabot Trail Writers Festival and also won the HR Bill Percy Novel Prize in 2017 for Never Speak of This Again. Born and raised in Inverness County, the mother of four is a teacher by trade, but a gypsy by nature. She loves to find characters along the way in life. Brenda lives in Skye Glen, Inverness County, with her wonderful and patient husband, Ed.
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Michelle Wamboldt was born and raised in Truro, Nova Scotia. She is a graduate of Dalhousie University and the Humber School of Journalism in Toronto.
Her debut novel, Birth Road, won the 2024 Margaret & John Savage First Book Award. Michelle’s short fiction has appeared in The Dalhousie Review and Moose House Publication’s, Blink and You’ll Miss It, Vol II.
Michelle lives on the beautiful South Shore of Nova Scotia.
Denise Flint is a freelance journalist by day and romance writer by night (under the pen name Barbara Burke). Since her early days working for a rural weekly newspaper she has written hundreds of articles for newspapers and magazines across the country. A true dilettante she refuses to be tied down to one subject and has learned a little bit about a whole lot of things while admitting general ignorance about pretty much everything.
She’s lived in the heart of a big city, the middle of nowhere and, for a brief spell, the suburbs. She gave up her last home, a cedar shack overlooking the North Atlantic, for a 160 year old farm house on the north shore of Nova Scotia. She has lived in three countries and five provinces and will never miss an opportunity to jump on a plane or train. She also loves road trips and cats (although not together).
Morgan Murray (he/him) is a settler from the same backwoods central Alberta village as figure-skating legend Kurt Browning (Caroline, AB in Treaty 6 territory). He now lives in the backwoods of Cape Breton (Unama’ki) with his wife, cartoonist Kate Beaton, Mary the toddler, Agnes the dog, Reggie the cat, Peggy the ditch kitten, and Thelma, Louise, Lavern, Shirley and Heidi the chickens.
In between, he has been a farmer, a rancher, a roustabout, a secretary, a reporter, a designer, a Tweeter, a tour guide, a schemer, a variety show host, and a student in Caroline, Calgary, Paris, Prague, Montreal, Chicoutimi, and St. John’s.
He has a BA in Canadian Studies from the University of Calgary, a Certificate in Central and Eastern European Studies from the University of Economics, Prague, a MPhil in Humanities from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and a participation ribbon for beef calf showmanship (incomplete) from the Little Britches 4-H Club, Caroline, Alberta.
Born in England to a teamster’s son and a coal miner’s daughter, G. M. (Mark) Baker now lives in Nova Scotia with his wife, no dogs, no horses, and no chickens. He prefers driving to flying, desert vistas to pointy trees, and quiet towns to bustling cities. As a reader and as a writer, he does not believe in confining himself to one genre. He writes about kind abbesses and melancholy kings, about elf maidens and ship wreckers and shy falconers, about great beauties and their plain sisters, about sinners and saints and ordinary eccentrics. In his newsletter Stories All the Way Down, he discusses history, literature, the nature of story, and how not to market a novel.
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
