Nonfiction (adult)

Tim Covell

Tim lived in various areas of British Columbia and Ontario before moving to Nova Scotia. A part-time student for more than thirty years, and still taking courses, he has degrees in English Literature, Film Studies, and Canadian Studies. He researches film classification systems, and has published three academic papers, including an international study of how film classification agencies accommodate children’s participation rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Other publications include poetry, personal essays, short humour, biographies, and film reviews. He published his first romance novel, Ocean’s Lure, in 2021, and is working on more romance novels. He is a member of Romance Writers of America, Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada, The American Copy Editors Society, and the Open Heart Forgery poetry cooperative. His day job is technical writer for a software company. More at www.covell.ca

Tim Covell Read More »

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.

Jacqueline Dumas Read More »

Linda Turner

Bio: Thirty-year career as social worker and educator at St. Thomas, University of New England (NSW Aus), Algoma and Dalhousie Universities. PhD dissertation at Memorial University focused on Creativity. Co-author of one book, four book chapters and several academic articles.

Linda Turner Read More »

Suzanne Rent

Suzanne Rent has worked in the Halifax media since 2003 and has experience in newspapers, magazines, televsion, and radio. Her work has appeared in The Chronicle Herald, Halifax Magazine, East Coast Living, Halifax Examiner, Globe and Mail, Canadian Business, and many others.

She has experience mentoring students and adult learners in the writing and editing process. When she was the editor of Our Children Magazine, she created a student-correspondent program in which she mentored elementary-age students whose work was published in the magazine. In 2015, she was shortlisted for the Editors Canada Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence for program.

She taught a Journalism 101 program to adult learners at the Dartmouth Literacy Network and the Bedford-Sackville Literacy Network.

Suzanne is currently working on a 10-episode radio show called The Great Nova Scotia Songbook, which will be launched in November 2018. This series will chronicle the history of music in Nova Scotia, including the music of First Nations communities to today’s hip-hop artists. To date, she’s interviewed 45 musicians and industry talents for this project.

Suzanne publishes Boating Atlantic, an annual guide for the recreational boating in Atlantic Canada.

Suzanne has a special industry in Nova Scotia history, genealogy, music, community news, and the extraordinary stories of everyday people.

Suzanne Rent Read More »

Cooper Lee Bombardier

Cooper Lee Bombardier is a queer, trans writer and visual artist living in Halifax. He is the author of the memoir-in-essays Pass With Care, a finalist for the 2021 Firecracker Award in Nonfiction. His writing appears in The Kenyon Review, The Malahat Review, Ninth Letter, CutBank, Nailed Magazine, Longreads, Narratively, BOMB, and The Rumpus; and in 18 anthologies, including the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology, The Remedy–Essays on Queer Health Issues, and Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Speculative Fiction From Transgender Writers, which won a 2018 American Library Association Stonewall Book Award. The Huffington Post listed Cooper as one of “10 Transgender Artists Who Are Changing The Landscape Of Contemporary Art.” He teaches in the MFA in Creative Nonfiction program at University of King’s College.

FB: cooperfrickinleee Twitter: @CooperLeeB IG: cooper_lee_bombardier

Cooper Lee Bombardier Read More »

Dian Day

Dian Day is the author of the award-winning novels The Clock of Heaven (Inanna, 2008) and The Madrigal (Inanna, 2018). Her third book (still untitled) is a graphic novel for middle grade readers (with artist Amanda White) is forthcoming with Second Story Press in Spring 2026. Dian recently completed a doctoral degree in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University in work focused on the portrayal of poverty and food insecurity in children’s fiction.

Dian undertakes research, writing, and editing contracts alongside work on her fourth novel. She lives and writes in Piktuk/Pictou County.

Dian Day Read More »

Linda H.Y. Hegland

Linda H.Y. Hegland is an award-winning lyric essay, short story and poetry writer, and photographer who lives in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, Canada. Her writing and photos most often reflect the influence of place, and one’s relationship with it. She has published in several literary and art journals, and has had work nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She says this of her writing:

My writing practice is an inquiry into the the landscape of the body, geographical landscape, place, memory, narrative, and meaning. I intend that my writing will unearth truths and help me to taste, in retrospection, the essence of what it was to live that moment – that small story. I write to give voice to unspoken memories, to unspoken experience.

These memories, physical and emotional, the communal history, the memories marked on our bodies – they tell stories. Some stark, some catastrophic, some just detours, footnotes. Some are our runes.

I am deeply moved by the ways in which longing, and being lost, and the attempt to find a definition of one’s self inspire the art. My writing originates from a place of expressing authentic voice.

Linda H.Y. Hegland Read More »

Annick MacAskill

Annick MacAskill is a writer and translator based in Halifax. Her poems have appeared in literary journals and anthologies across Canada and abroad, including Best Canadian Poetry, The Stinging Fly, Canadian Notes & Queries, the Literary Review of Canada, Grain Magazine, Prism International, The Fiddlehead, Room Magazine, Plenitude, Arc Poetry Magazine, Lemon Hound, and Versal. Her first full-length poetry collection, No Meeting Without Body (Gaspereau Press, 2018), was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and shortlisted for the J. M. Abraham Poetry Award. Her second collection will be published by Gaspereau in the spring of 2020.

MacAskill’s poetry has also been longlisted for the CBC’s Canada Writes Poetry Prize, longlisted for The Fiddlehead‘s Ralph Gustafson Prize, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is a member of Room Magazine‘s editorial collective.

Annick MacAskill Read More »

Beth Ann Knowles

Originally from Dartmouth, Beth Ann completed a science degree at Dalhousie University. She works as an online ESL Teacher and coaches youth soccer in the summer. Beth Ann is passionate about the environment and enjoys being active. Early morning runs, bike rides, paddles, and yoga are her favourite things. She lives on the South Shore of Nova Scotia with her husband, two sons, and their dog, Gordie.

Beth Ann Knowles Read More »

Elizabeth Peirce

Elizabeth Peirce is a Halifax-based author, editor, teacher, and gardener. For Nimbus Publishing, she has authored and co-authored two historical fiction books about infamous cases of piracy in Nova Scotian history, Saladin and The Pirate Rebel, one guide to vegetable gardening in a tough climate (Grow Organic, winner of the 2011 APMA Best Atlantic Published Book award) and a preserving cook and guide book, You Can Too! Her book for children, The Big Flush, is dedicated to her young son and his horror of loudly-flushing public toilets. In 2019, she published Lost and Found: Recovering Your Spirit After a Concussion, a toolbox of strategies for healing from a difficult injury. When she’s not writing and editing, she enjoys cooking, canning, and encouraging people to tear up their lawns and grow some vegetables! Visit her website at https://elizabethpeirce.ca

Elizabeth will be offering virtual workshops based on her books through the WITS program in 2020-21, including:

(for P-2) How your biggest fears can make the best stories

(for grades 3-9) What is food security and where does our food come from?

(for grades 9-12) Writing to heal: surviving and thriving under challenging circumstances

Elizabeth Peirce Read More »